A STEP BACK IN TIME

Monday was National Heroes and Benefactors Day in Belize, so we took advantage of another 3-day weekend to head west to Tikal National Park in Guatemala.  Tikal is one of the most well preserved and restored Mayan ruins and is the biggest tourist attraction in Guatemala.  We left Belmopan on Saturday morning and after a stop for lunch in San Ignacio near the Belize-Guatemala border, we were checked into our hotel inside the park by mid-day.  Some fun facts we discovered during our drive to Tikal:

1. The roads in Belize are bad.  The roads in Guatemala range from marginally better – wider, center-lined, newly paved – to exponentially worse – not paved at all, or paved but with randomly located pot holes that are wide and deep enough to completely take out your suspension.  Fortunately, Andrew expertly navigated these hidden dangers, and the Pathfinder lived to see another day.

2. Diplomatic license plates completely change the border crossing experience.  Andrew bought a Moon travel guide to Belize at Powell’s Books in Portland before heading to DC so that we could research places to go and things to do.  Tikal was included in the guide, along with a section on what to expect if you’re crossing into Guatemala by car.  The guide talked about making sure to carry your car ownership documents, paying a couple of dollars to have your tires fumigated at the border (for what, I do not know), paying a toll as well as an exit fee, and ensuring you receive a “proper exit stamp” for both yourself and your car.  The bad news... we did not read that section until AFTER we were already in Guatemala.  The good news... we did not have to do any of that.  (Except the fumigating part.  We did drive through a car wash-looking contraption that sprayed our car with a mystery liquid.  But we didn’t pay anything for that “service.”)  Being blissfully ignorant of what the border crossing process was supposed to be, we just rolled up to the stop sign at the border, they looked at our plates, and we got waved on through.  No paperwork.  No fees.  No passport stamps.  Were we really ever in Guatemala?  There is no record of us there…

3. ATMs are hit or miss – but mostly miss.  Our trusty Moon guide told us that the entrance fee to Tikal needed to be paid in the local currency – quetzales – so once we crossed the border, we were on a mission to change some money.  This mission also resulted in me having to (try to) speak more Spanish than I’ve had to speak since I’ve been here.  After asking a couple folks where we could change money and getting some fairly dodgy responses (like, go to that little store over there and there’s usually a few guys who can make change.  Ummm… no thanks), we found an ATM… that was out of order.  We continued on to the little town just outside Tikal where we found another ATM… that was also out of order.  Fortunately, the little store right next door to that broken down ATM DID change money, so we were in business. 

Our hotel for the weekend was rustic, but fantastic.  Fantastic in that it was in the park, walking distance to the entrance, and it was in the jungle (so many birds and critters to keep me entertained for hours!) and even had a pool (to keep Andrew entertained for hours!)  And rustic in that it only had generator-produced electricity for a few hours in the morning and then again in the evening.  You had to time your electrical needs right, or you were out of luck for the next 12 hours.

Our rustic jungle bungalow.  The lights are on, so this must have been taken during the brief evening window of electricity.

But pretty fantastic, right?

A trail through the jungle leading to the ruins.

Some of the critters that we encountered - an agouti (kind of a rat meets rabbit)...

...and an ocellated turkey - so colorful!

Our first morning, we got up super early for a guided hike that left at 4AM to take in the sunrise in Tikal.  We hiked in with flashlights, and it was an unforgettable experience to see the enormous Mayan temples appear out of the darkness (although too misty to actually see the sunrise).  Going into the park that early also allowed us to avoid some of the tourists that come in on buses for day trips… but we never felt like the park was that crowded anyway.  

Some of the ruins we saw through the mist of our morning hike.

Some of the ruins have not been restored (other than clearing the vegetation)...

...while others have been restored and reconstructed.

We got back to the hotel around 8:30, had breakfast, napped by the pool, and then strolled through the visitor’s center and a couple little museums until it was time to go back into the park on another guided sunset tour.  We took a different route and saw some different ruins on our return hike, but even the ruins that we had seen that morning took on a different appearance in the afternoon light.  

So impressive to see these ruins in the midst of all this jungle.

The tops of the temples also peak out of the tree tops.

Andrew sitting on the throne (of an ancient Mayan king).

The Plaza of the Seven Temples.

We got back to the hotel around 7, took a long-awaited and much-deserved hot shower (since the power was back on!), ate dinner… and then slept like logs after a long day of hiking.

We woke up to a rainy morning on Monday… and felt fortunate that we avoided the rains during our hikes the previous day.  We checked out and hit the road after breakfast.  We headed to Flores – a cute town built on a little island in Lake Petén Itzá about an hour outside of Tikal.  We walked around, did a bit of window shopping and picked up a couple souvenirs, and stopped for a licuado (kind of a Latin American smoothie and one of my favorite treats) at a little restaurant on the lake.  We also found a huge supermarket and stocked up on cheap groceries before heading back to Belmopan.  Bonus!

It was a fantastic weekend, and everything about it seemed like a step back in time – from the ancient Mayan ruins, to the unpaved roads, to the non-functional ATMs, to the sporadic electricity, to the slower pace of life in the rural towns we passed through.  Everything about the weekend made us slow down – not that we were trying to go fast.  It’s a whole different way of life down here… at least, on the weekends.