Tikal

When I woke up this morning I found it hard to believe that by the end of the day I would have crossed into Guatemala, spent several hours at Tikal, and ended the day on a night bus to Guatemala City. Logistically I knew it should work, but there wasn't much room for error. The beauty of having a loosely planned trip though is that stuff like that doesn't have to work. If it works then that's great, but if not then it just means I'll spend a day or two somewhere else.

After taking a water taxi from Caye Caulker to Belize City and buying a bus ticket to Tikal, I ducked into a low-key looking restaurant across from the pier named, “Maya Cafe”. The Maya Cafe turned out to be quite a mix of cultures and it was anything but Mayan. The owner of the place was a Chinese man named William Wang. I have no idea what this man is doing in Belize, but he speaks a mix of English and Spanish and does it all with a thick Chinese accent. Along with an American style breakfast, the menu featured egg-rolls and won-tons, among other Chinese dishes. I played it safe and had the ham and eggs. Eating at the place was just funny, I had a quick breakfast, used Mr. Wang's internet connection to e-mail home, and was intrigued by phrases that he yelled to his assistant back in the kitchen. “Hey amigo! Hot watta! Dos!”

The bus ride to Tikal was interesting enough. I was excited to see the contrast between the two countries as I crossed from Belize into Guatemala and I wasn't disappointed.

Elections in Belize are this week so the entire country is plastered with political posters, some more tasteful than others. There are two political parties that dominate the country, each of which is very opposed to the other. Whoever comes up with the political posters must have a thing for rhymes too. A few of the slogans included, “P.U.P Hire, U.D.P. Fire”, as well as “P.U.P. Thief, U.D.P. Belief”. Some signs were written in Creole and were pretty entertaining to read. One sign, which I assume refers to the hard lifestyle Belizians have had to endure due to money laundering by the current political majority, read, “Tings Haad, Tek Dem Money, Vote U.D.P.” Another, touting a specific candidate, read, “Wil wok fo de peepol.”

Guatemala has been a different flavor. The political signs were gone, but they were replaced by bumpy dirt roads and poverty that was impossible to miss (though it wasn't anything close to what I saw in India). The paved road from Belize quickly turned to a wide dirt road filled with potholes, yet it is still used by eighteen-wheelers that kick up massive clouds of dust. Several times we passed horses, pigs, and dogs wandering in the road. We also passed a few locals hauling goods on the backs of animals while trying to avoid the oncoming semi trucks and their clouds of dust.

Okay, now for the good stuff... Tikal was amazing. I only had three hours to explore the place before it closed for the day, but that turned out to be just enough time to see the most spectacular ruins. One thing that really surprised me about Tikal was that it's still in the middle of the jungle. After I bought my ticket I walked for a half-hour along a narrow path through giant trees and vines before I finally arrived at the first ruin, “Templo VI”. Although I was pretty anxious to get to the ruins, the walk was worthwhile. It really set the mood to wander alone through the jungle on my way to ancient Mayan temples. As I walked it was dead silent except for the calls of macaws, toucans, and spider monkeys hidden in the trees.


The stone ruins of the Templo VI towered above the trees and were a nice introduction for what was to come. After wandering past a separate group of ruins I came to the spectacular, trademark sight of Tikal, the Grand Plaza. Two temples rise above the trees on each end of the Grand Plaza and ruins line the sides in between. One of the temples, Templo I, is the most recognized of the ruins at Tikal. Templo I is almost completely intact and features a dangerously steep staircase that leads about one hundred feet up to the top of the structure. The terraced sides of the temple give it a distinctly Mayan feel.

After wandering around the Grand Plaza and trying to find all the greatest photo-ops, I made my way past Templo III to Templo IV, which is known for it's sweeping views of Tikal from the top. It just happened to be sunset, which was absolutely perfect and completely unplanned on my part. I sat down on one of the terraces of Templo IV and enjoyed watching the tops of Templo I, II, and III turn bright orange with the sunset. In every direction there was nothing but jungle all the way to the horizon. I can only imagine how incredible it would have been to have lived during the peak of that Mayan civilization.
So the whole day I wondered about the logistics of seeing everything and being in Guatemala City, but fortunately it all worked out as planned. I was lucky to find a chartered taxi leaving from Tikal to Santa Elena that had one seat left - a seat that I was happy to fill. At Santa Elena I was hoarded by (friendly) touts anxious to sell me a ticket on the next night bus to Guatemala City. So as I write this I'm sitting on a smelly bus that looks like it hasn't been cleaned or maintained for thirty years, and one on which I'm the only white man out of fifty passengers aboard, but it's going to my destination and that's all that matters. With any luck I'll see the famous Spanish colonial town of Antigua tomorrow and climb the nearby Volcan Pacaya at night to watch dramatic rivers of hot, flowing lava.