Bajo y mas Baja go to Tikal

Mayan Camper

I was back in Guatemala, Flores to be exact.  Flores is an island town, clean, quaint and quiet.  Flores is the jumping off point to Tikal, some of the largest ruins in all the Mayan world.  The plan was to meet up with Nicole in Flores and hit Tikal the next day.  The problem, Nicole arrived two days late, shocker!!  It was not the worst thing that happened to me, it actually gave me some much needed me time.  I enjoyed the island and the serenity that it granted me.  A swim in the lake, followed by some hammock time with my book was just what I needed.

Sunrise....right!!

True Mayan activity

Nicole arrived, a few hours earlier than I expected and scared the shit out of me during one of my hammock/book/sleep sessions.  After almost having a heart attack, it was time to plan on our take over of Tikal.  This was done over a margarita on the lake and sunset.  The plan was to camp at the site the next night and enter the ruins for sunrise and than we would had the place to ourselves.  First we had to figure out how to get there without being sucked into a tour, our savour - Pablo a local tour operator with an honest streak.  Pablo told us that we could take the last tour shuttle at 11 AM, too early for us.  Our other option, public transport at 1 PM arriving at 3 PM.  Perfect, we could arrange our transport at the bus station.  Next, necessities for camping.  There were comidors there at a relatively cheap price, so food was taken care of.  Now all we needed was water, snack food and three bottles of wine, normal camping fare.  We counted our money, working out the amount we would need for the public tansport, camping, dinner/breakfast and park fee.  We packed the things we did not need and left them at the hostel.  We grabbed a tok-tok and off we went to the terminal, got there in time for the combi and we were off, things were looking good!!

Climbing one of the temples

Amazed by the ruins of Tikal

The combi ride was great, a thirty minute stop in this crazy market/bus terminal eating mangoes and enjoying the madness around us.  The driver was amazingly friendly, as are most Guatemalans.  We arrived at the park on time, but they were not willing to admit us until 5 PM for fear of us entering the park before that.  I assured the guard that there was no way that we would have set the tent up, opened a bottle of wine and eaten in an hour and a half.  I payed our fee and in we went, straight to the campsite.  As we walked in, the camp guard hit us up for his share of our funds.  We set up camp, pryed a bottle of wine open with no cork screw and set off for food.  We ate, and the comidor took his share of our pot.  We then began to investigate our entry to the park in the morning.  Turns out our rather expensive day pass did not include the sunrise entry to the park.  In addition to the sunrise fee, we were told that we needed to be on a guided tour.  We protested this, and told them that if they took their share of our funds, we would no longer have any funds.  After going back and forth with this man, we convinced him that the two of us on a guided tour of Tikal would be a complete disaster.  So, all we had to pay was the extra sunrise entry fee and additional fee to follow a guide to Temple 4 for the sunrise....I am pretty sure we got gringo´d.  Here we were, sun had set, two bottles of wine left and just enough money to get us back to Flores and the heaps of cash we had stored there....IDIOTS!!

Alien telephone booth

Oh well, make the best of things, which was not hard for the two of us.  We went back to the tent, and it turned out we were the people there, campsite to ourselves!!  We luckily set the tent up in the grass, not on the concrete slab that they offered.  While I had set up the tent, Nicole widdled her way through the cork of the first bottle.  In doing so, she had spilled a bit of wine on the concrete slab.  When we returned, a million ants had invaded the slab at the discovery of the wine.  They were everywhere, but not in the tent or near it!!  (Do ants get drunk? A question that needs to be asked at this point.)  We moved to the adjacent slab, played some tunes and onto the second bottle of wine.  It was an amazing evening, warm jungle air and fire flies.  We decided to chase fire flies and catch them.  Thinking that they were hiding in the grass, we searched them out.  Turns out they were spiders eyes that were shining at us, not fire flies.  There were spiders in every inch of the grass...welcome to the jungle!!  At this point, the third bottle of wine now open, any remnants of the sun were gone.  Above us was an amazing view of the milky way!  I have never seen anything like a star filled night sky in the jungle.  We witnessed every star in the sky and all the glory they had to offer us.  Of course Orion stood out the most, particularly when a shooting star flew right across the tip of his sword!!  I finally found Scorpio and the bottle was dry.  Time for bed and an early rise at 4 AM.

Four came early and she hurt, but we rose and went to find our way into the park with huge smiles on our faces.  I think we were the only smiling people that morning.  An Argentinian couple was unhappy because we did not leave right at 4 AM...really we were in Guatemala, get over it.  Two other obnoxious Americans showed up and were lost.  They could speak zero Spanish and judging by the loud obnoxious accents they were from Jersey.  Finally after a grueling 10 minutes filled with idiots babbling about unimportant things we were off.  One problem, well it did not bother us, the guide was still drunk from the night before.

Central plaza

Dock time in Flores

We made it to the temple, found a quite spot away from the others and waited for the sunrise.  The jungle was completely clouded over, so no sunrise.  But, what we heard was the most amazing howler monkey symphony one could ever hear.  For at least an hour howler monkeys were howling at each other across the jungle, some as close as a few hundred feet, others miles away.  This symphony made the extra cost worth it.  Once they had died down, about the time that the sun was supposed to rise, we headed out, while the tour groups waited on top of the temple.  We had all of Tikal to ourselves for the next few hours.  We explored, took pictures and listened to the sounds of the jungle.  Tikal is a huge Mayan complex nestled in the Guatemalan jungle.  There are huge pyramids scattered all over the site, with smaller ruins around them.  Dawn was upon us, and it gave the ruins a mystical feel.  Being alone there added to the feeling of the ancient Mayans.  Finally, we found people gathering around the site, so we made our exit.  We packed up, took our last 59 Q to the combi driver and headed back to Flores.

Nicole in a classic Latin American pose

Local schools have incredibly colorful festival

Nicole and the English

In Flores we had breakfast and began plotting our next stop.  We spoke with several people about going to a remote national park, but found the Nicole's timeline was not going to allow for this.  Plan B, head to Antigua the same day on the night bus and hang with friends until she was to head back to California.  We went and spoke with our friend Pablo, and all was set for a night time departure.  Only one problem, as we were relaxing on the dock, the English walked by.  The English are there delightful English ladies that I met in Caye Caulker...Anna, Helen and Sophie.  Turns out they are staying at Los Amigos and invited us for a drink before we got on the bus.  Of course, we obliged and headed over there after a delicious street food meal.  Well, one drink turned into two, etc.  Bus tickets were changed for the next night and we stayed....three more days!!  We were happy with this decision, as we really enjoyed Flores laid back and happy atmosphere.  We also enjoyed the company of the English and many others that we met, some of which I had already met in other places.

We finally made it to Antigua and stayed at Luke's house.  We only had one day before Nicole was to fly home.  We decided to take the afternoon tour of Pacaya, an active volcano.  The hike was great, and the views incredible.  The landscape was straight from Mars, no vegetation, just volcanic ash and rock.  We watched the sunset and headed back down.  When we arrived back in Antigua, our friend Simone had arrived.  We picked her up from her hostel and headed back to Luke's.  We cleaned up and headed out for Nicole's last night of her travels.  Food was eaten, bars were visited and the morning came.  We bid Nicole farewell and Simone and myself headed back to Xela for some much needed trekking.

Bajo y Mas Baja on Pacaya