Deeper into the Jungle – Tikal, Guatemala
I got to the border of Guatemala and crossed without issue. I was absolutely innundated with people offering to change my currency (from Belize dollars to Guatemalan Quetzales) or for rides to pretty much anywhere I wanted to go. I decided to follow the advice of John (the owner of the guest house in San Ignacio) to get to Tikal. I took a cab from the border into the town, where I was dropped off with some uniformed-type men. They put me on a minibus (a van stuffed with people, bags piled on the roof), which I took to what’s called El Crucero, where the road forks. The first half of the road was unpaved and in very poor condition – we couldn’t have gone faster than 20 miles an hour. I guess the rule of the road there is ‘drive wherever you can to avoid the big holes as much as possible’, which was much appreciated. The scenery was beautiful through the northern hills of Guatemala. After a little while, the road improved and we started cruising, so I took this opportunity to hang my boots out the window to start drying them. At El Crucero, the guy dropped me off – they were going south, and I was going north. So, there I was, at some crossroads in the middle of Guatemala, backpack strapped on, just standing there. I felt like the devil should appear any second, offering to buy my soul or something. So, as I was instructed, I just started walking to the next town, where I was told I could find a bus or some sort of transportation to get to Tikal. Some little kid on a bike came and talked to me, asking if I needed a hotel. Not long after, another minibus headed for Tikal came and picked me up, and so I was back on my way.
We picked up and dropped off a few cowboys and other locals on the way to Tikal. I guess northern Guatemala is cowboy country – they’ve got the hats and belts and everything. Anway, I made it to Tikal – a Mayan city deep in the middle of the jungle that I’ve really been waiting to get to. It’s one of those things that you can’t visit Guatemala without visiting Tikal. I got there, got a room, and started walking around. The ruins were pretty impressive, huge temples spread throughout the dense jungle. In the center was the main plaza area, and I took most of the afternoon to walk around on these structures – the main metropolis (I suppose a market area), a huge temple (just a very tall structure that you could climb up and get an amazing view over the jungle), and a palace. From the temple, I caught glimpse of some toucans with their huge, yellow and green beaks. I walked a little further and found some howler monkey climbing around in the trees. Tikal is famous for the number of monkeys in the trees, and they were just awesome. I watched a pair of them for probably 20 minutes, swinging from tree to tree…one every took a very impressive leap from one tree to another – I tried to grab my camera to catch him in the air, but he was too fast for me.
I saw some turkey-like birds in some tree, but, last I checked, turkeys don’t fly, so I don’t know what they were, but I was impressed with their size and, as such, their ability to fly. The best was this woodpecker (called a carpenter bird in spanish). I don’t know if anyone’s ever seen a real woodpecker, like other than Woody, but they are really hilarious. First I heard this knocking sound and I tried to find where it was coming from. I finally found it and watched this guy doing his thing, which is banging his head (beak) into the tree as hard as he possibly could. It looked like some kind of idiot, just ramming his head back and forth, like some kind of heavy-metal-headbanger-superfan. I don’t know what the hell he was doing, but more power to him if that’s some sort of survival tactic. (Actually, I just looked it up; here’s what wikipedia had to say: “This is both a means of communication to signal possession of territory to their rivals, and a method of echo-locating grubs under the bark of the tree.” Huh…)
Anyway, the most impressive of all that day was, believe it or not, the ants. I read somewhere that ants rule the jungle, and I’m starting to believe it. All over the place, I witnessed thousands and thousands of ants marching back and forth from their nest (or whatever it is) to trees. First, I noticed these long lines of little leaves moving along the ground. As I got closer, I could these leaves were being carried by ants…ant in one direction had leaves, and going opposite the flow, tons of ants returning to the tree to get more leaves. I started messing with a few of them, like grabbing their leaf and shaking them off…they found their way back to the line and started right back for the tree to pick up another leaf. In the small part of the jungle that I walked through, I must have seen millions of ants, dozens of these colonies, all marching with their leaves…it must be that time of season or something.
I went to bed early that night (something like just before 10), and got up at 5:30 in the morning to enter the park again, which opens at 6. I met up with an Italian girl as I left my room and we went together straight to Temple 4, which is the highest temple, from which you’re supposed to see the sunrise. Well, first of all, we got there too late, and second, there was no sunrise – too many clouds (did I mention it’s rainy season). I guess at sunrise is when the howler monkeys do their trademark howl which just echoes through the jungle…I didn’t get to witness that which was disappointing, but I did get to see the mist rising up from the jungle (it had been raining for about 12 hours straight during the night), and it was absolutely beautiful. When we got up there, there was only one older man up there, we chatted for a little while, and then he left, giving us the view all to ourselves. It was very tranquil up there, with only the noises of birds and whatever else was making those unfamiliar yet soothing sounds. The jungle canopy looked fluffy and soft, as if I could almost dive into it, though I am no monkey (but I still want one; I think we’d get along well).
We walked around Tikal a little more that morning (oh yeah, on the way out, I saw some really strange kind of rodent…pictures to come) and took the afternoon bus to Flores, a cute little town nearby. Within 15 minutes of walking around, I ran into Hiro again, who was hot on my trail. We walked around the town, got some dinner at a Japanese-style restaurant (in Guatemala? yes). Hiro was like, super excited for a little taste of home, and he taught me some Japanese customs, which was pretty cool. Later, we sat by the lake and watched some man try to spear frogs.
In Flores, I heard the first of the floods and mudslides in Guatemala, all throughout the south and west, exactly where I wanted to go. The roads south to Guatemala City were clear, as well as the next city over, called Antigua, which is another very popular backpacker destination, so the next morning, I hopped on the bus to Guatemala City.
Tags: Flores, Guatemala, Tikal, Tag Index
Tania