Tikal, Yaxha and Flores

Tuesday 22nd January 2008, Tikal, Guatelamala
We reached this site, isolated in the Jungle, late last night after a long day on the coach, stopping off on our way from Honduras back into Guatemala to visit the important Mayan city of Quirigua. This is in a grassy setting beside an area of dense forest where we could hear howler monkeys and see humming birds. It is surrounded by extensive banana plantations owned by the United Fruit Company. A light, bright yellow aircraft flew regularly back and forth above the tree canopy, spraying the banana plantation that surrounds the site.

Structure 1B-1, the Acropolis, Quirigua

Great Plaza with Stelae, Quirigua

Banana plantation, Quirigua

Banana spraying over the Acropolis, Quirigua

Quirigua is a small site but important as in 738 its ruler Cauac Sky defeated our friend 18-Rabbit from the more powerful city of Copan, beheading him in the acropolis at Quirigua. The acropolis is in the now familiar style with buildings on three sides of an open area, including a ball-court. The fourth side had been washed away by the river. Before we reached the acropolis we crossed the extensive Great Plaza with its many stelae erected at five-year intervals by Cauac Sky. These were in low relief and not in the round like the stelae in Copan, but included the tallest in the Maya lands, stela E a monolithic block ten metres high. All were carved with lengthy inscriptions detailing his exploits. A special feature of the site is the so-called zoomorphs, massive rocks that had been dragged from miles away and carved in site with elaborate depictions of mythical creatures and hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Stela E, dated 771AD. Showing the ruler K'ak' Tiliw, Quirigua

Hieroglyphic text on side of stela, Quirigua

Stela K, dated 805AD, Quirigua

Zoomorph, Quirigua

Mayan textiles for sale at the site entrance, Quirigua

We continued along the Motagua valley which became wider, with ranches where cattle grazed. Around lunch time we crossed the Rio Dulce where we stopped in the town to change our US dollars and Honduran Lempira back into Quetzals before making our way down to the river bank where we had planned to stopped for lunch. The restaurant had a palm-roofed terrace built out over the water. It was cool and beautiful and scored full marks as an attractive location. However, the service was slow and most orders were wrong. The staff where bored and indifferent and obviously found it impossible to cope with eighteen people ordering lunch at the same time. They completely forgot several of the orders and where quite unable to work out the bills correctly, eventually leaving it to us to do so. This strange indifference is so unlike western attitudes and is perhaps a reflection of the limited education available in third world countries. We have encountered a very similar attitude in other less developed places.

From our lunch table, Rio Dulce

Returning to our coach we walked through the town straggling along the main road where huge container lorries, imported from the US, rumble along inches from the street stalls. All the buildings were single storey with businesses and banks behind, many air-conditioned and modern. In front were the street stalls and shacks where daily life takes place. It was noisy and lively with food being cooked on the street. It looked interesting and exciting with tortillas being hand made and griddled, fish being fried, and piles of raw meat in the hot sun waiting to be bought. It all looked far more interesting than the restaurant where we had wasted so much time and patience. However, the hygiene did not look too reliable and we would probably not have risked eating there had we been on our own. The entire town reminded us of Ben Totta and Aluthgama in Sri Lanka where the world of the local community existed side by side but never really touching, with that of the tourists. There were even women sitting outside their shacks with their sewing machines making garments for sale.

Main street, Rio Dulce

As we continued our coach journey we were warned to eat up any fruit we may have with us as it was liable to be confiscated! Soon afterwards we met a road block and were ushered to the side of the road where fruit police ordered us all down from the coach. They then ransacked the inside searching for hidden pineapples, plums, papaya or pomegranates! As we waited, fearful that one amongst us may have inadvertently left a couple of lychees on their seat, a car was stopped and surrounded by three uniformed police. One, gun in hand, gingerly lifted the lid of the boot ready to open fire on any secret cargo of raspberries!

Forbidden fruit, Guatemala

Licking the last of our illicit fruit juice from our fingers and leaving nothing behind but a couple of empty banana skins we were eventually allowed back on board. It was not even at a border crossing being well inside Guatemala. It would seem there are fears of spreading some sort of fruit fungus or fly from one area to another so transportation of all fruit is closely controlled. Somehow though, it struck us as rather heavy handed. We had seen lorry loads of pineapples further back along the road and the street market in Rio Dulce had been bursting with a wonderful array of fruit and vegetables. Surely they must need to be transported around the country for sale.

We had left Copan at 7am. By the time we eventually reached the jungle lodge at Tikal, here in the national park, it was after 7pm. We were warned that the generator would shut down at 9pm. We were allocated small lodges in the grounds. They are thatched with palm leaves and have mosquito netting at the windows. The site looks most attractive with a beautiful pool surrounded by a lawn with palm trees, hibiscus shrubs, flowers and trees that we have never seen in Europe. However, within minutes we realised that joined up thinking is not in the mindset of the ordinary people of this area of Central America.

The entire group were lead along rough tracks through the jungle by torchlight, lugging our cases, to deposit certain of our number at their lodges. Then they led the rest of us right back, past the main reception, to our rooms just a few metres away on the other side! When we were eventually allocated our room the loo roll was beautifully pleated but there was no hot water or sink plug and the toilet wouldn't flush. At supper we were informed that the cost of our meals was already included. Once we had eaten they told us they had made a mistake and meals were extra - though to their credit they did not charge us for their error. This crazy situation has continued today. At breakfast this morning it did not occur to anyone to ensure the milk or butter were on the table before the coffee and toast arrived and this afternoon when Ian asked for a couple of beers costing 32 quetzels the waiter found it incomprehensible that Ian should proffer a 50 quetzel note plus two quetzel coins! Ian was obliged to explain in Spanish that it was intended to help and he needed a 20 quetzel note as change! There have been numerous other similar incidents that are at the same time irritating and funny – such as when we asked what the nice fish was that we were eating for lunch and were told that it was fried fish!

However, the reason we are at Tikal is to see one of the most amazing sites of Mayan culture, set deep in the heart of the jungle where there are over 200 species of snakes, howler and spider monkeys, ant eaters, leaf-cutter ants, jaguars, crocodiles and coatimundis, several of which we have been fortunate enough to see on our rambles through the jungle and around the site today. There are of course also tarantula spiders and mosquitoes but they are keeping a low profile so far and anyway, after Trinidad we are now well hard.

Coatimundi, Tikal

Crocodile pond, Tikal

Our Mayan guide today has been excellent with a perfect command of English. She has been able to explain so much about the flora and fauna of this site as well as bringing to life the daily activities and rituals of the Mayan people here. There is such magic in arriving early, on foot, at a site, seeing the spider monkeys high in the branches and the oscillating turkeys in the undergrowth, then discovering a huge, mysterious green mound amidst the jungle trees that is the yet to be excavated base of a pyramid or inscribed stela.

Oscillating turkeys, Tikal

Fallen stela broken by tree trunk, Tikal

Yet to be excavated temple, Tikal

Tikal is a magnificent site. As we advanced along the shady pathways, temples on top of pyramids emerged through clearings in the jungle canopy. In some cases these were simply tree-covered mounds awaiting excavation and reconstruction, but in the Grand Plaza extensive restoration had been undertaken. Two temples, numbered Temple One and Temple Two by the archaeologists faced each other from the east and west sides of the plaza, crowned by elaborate roof-combs which formerly had massive stuccoed and painted masks, while at the north side loomed the Northern Acropolis in front of which were a row of stelae with round altars before them. The guide explained the relationship between the high priests and the people. The priests used the astronomical and other knowledge they had built up to coordinate the planting and harvesting activities of the people who in turn would keep them in their elite position. Matters changed in the fourth century when the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan took over Tikal, married into the ruling family and introduced its more bellicose ideas. Every five years the Venus wars were fought, ritual conflicts to obtain captives to sacrifice to the gods. For a while Tikal was successful, but in 562 the ruler of Tikal was captured and sacrificed by the rival city of Calakmul. For more than a century there was little building and Tikal suffered a series of defeats by Calakmul. Only in 695 did the ruler of Tikal eventually defeat Calakmul and initiate the flurry of building that led to the awe-inspiring complex of buildings we see today. Temple One was completed in 695, Temple Two in 702, Temple Three in about 810 and Temple Four in about 750. All these are massive structures but were mostly built over earlier buildings as the culmination of a millennium of construction work. In the façade of the North Acropolis it is possible to see fragments of stairways, large decorative masks and doorways from earlier phases of the construction which the Mayan architects later built over. Set away from the ceremonial centre, Temple Four rears to a height of 70 metres above the forest canopy and from its top the other temples and tree-covered mounds rise above the gently undulating forests of the Peten.

Temple 2 from North Acropolis, Tikal

Temple 1 from north acropolis, Tikal

Mask on earlier level of North Acropolis, Tikal

Pyramid in the jungle, Tikal

From the top of one pyramid Ian looks out across the jungle canopy to others, Tikal

One of the twin pyramids in Complex Q, built by Yax Nuun Ayiin II (also known as Chitam) in AD771, with stelae and altars in front, Tikal

After lunch the rest of the group went off for a tractor ride to see the site of Uaxactun. Ian returned to Tikal to explore further as the morning visit had touched on a mere 4% of the overall site, while Jill took the opportunity of lying on her back in the deserted swimming pool watching the oropendula birds waving their beautiful yellow tail feathers as they hopped around in the fronds of the palm tree above her.

A cool place to pass the afternoon, Tikal

Ian had the site virtually to himself in the afternoon and walked along deserted paths to the jungle in search of a complex called Mundo Perdido – the Lost World. This is the oldest unchanged part of the site with a pyramid and other buildings dating back to the late pre-classic period – about the end of the second century AD. It probably formed the ceremonial centre of Tikal before the Great plaza was constructed. Coming on this site and the neighbouring Plaza of the Seven Temples in complete solitude, one had something of the experience of Stephens and Catherwood, when they discovered so many of these cities and recorded them for the first time back in the 1840s.

Temple 3 from the Central Acropolis, Tikal

Side view of Temple 3 from Mundo Perdido, Tikal

Mundo Perdido complex, Tikal

Mundo Perdido complex, Tikal

Ball court with Temple 1 behind, Mundo Perdido, Tikal

Friday 25th January 2008, Flores, Guatelamala
Flores is a tiny island on Lake Peten Itza, linked to the mainland since 2000 by a causeway partly financed by the Gallo brewery whose emblem prominently adorns the entrance archway. It is a pretty and popular location with tourists and the atmosphere in the streets of Flores is very different from that of the town of Santa Elena where the local Guatemalan people live and work. On the island more English than Spanish is spoken and the shops are filled with brightly coloured tourist souvenirs – dolls, woven belts and purses, tee-shirts, hammocks and reproduction Mayan artefacts.

We left Tikal yesterday morning stopping to explore the isolated, steaming forest site of Yaxha, located at the end of an eleven kilometre long bumpy dirt track, around 11am. With our tame archaeologist Coral as our guide we made our way along the deserted damp wooded paths, stepping over countless trails of leaf-cutter ants while overhead, in the green canopy, black spider monkeys chewed leaves and dropped the occasional fruit down onto us. Epiphytes, including tiny yellow Oncidium orchids clung to branches, while in the undergrowth we saw enormous black beetles and even a giant locust. It was at this site that an episode of the TV series Survivor was filmed, bringing much needed money and publicity to help with the excavation work and presentation of the site. Wooden stairways erected for the camera crews now remained for the benefit of visitors and there were new interpretation panels.

Stela 11, Yaxha

North Acropolis, Yaxha

Ball court, Yaxha

Spider monkey, Yaxha

Giant locust? Yaxha

Yaxha is not as well known as the major sites but is in fact the third most extensive set of excavated ruins in the classic Maya area. It is also the only site whose name survives from that period. It was long under the influence of Tikal and is the only known site apart from Tikal to have a twin-pyramid complex around its main plaza. The small ballcourt is also reminiscent of Tikal. Excavations on the main plaza revealed three superimposed layers of staircases and a large stucco mask that had adorned the façade of one of the earlier pyramids. There are several stelae, some with the goggle-like mask of the rain god. Stelae and altars had been toppled and ritually broken, perhaps to prevent them from being desecrated when the city fell in the ninth century. A long causeway leads from the lake across the site and was used to drag stones on rollers from nearby quarries. Once disused, the quarries became reservoirs or waste pits. Near the entrance is a four-sided pyramid aligned to the four cardinal points and used as an astronomical observatory. We climbed Temple 216 for a wonderful view of nearby Laguna Yaxha and the tops of other pyramids which rose at a distance above the forest canopy.

Archaeologist Coral, guide Louise and fellow traveller Richard on top of a pyramid at Yaxha

Temple 1, Yaxha

Temple 3, Yaxha

After a picnic lunch, shared with a rapidly growing crowd of enthusiastic ants, we re-boarded our coach. We continued our route through a landscape of green fields and small villages of thatched or corrugated iron shacks almost hidden from view amidst coconut and banana trees that offered shade to the rough dusty ground between the adobe buildings. Each village had a roadside communal shack selling cold drinks where villagers gathered during the heat of the day. Sometimes there was even a satellite dish and some kind of electric generator. Sometimes too we saw the heads of covered concrete wells. Amidst the dust lay the thin, scraggy dogs to which we have now become accustomed and there were usually pigs and chickens wandering at liberty around the village. Frequently we saw a village school set apart from the main settlement where children were taught in open sided buildings, and there was always a church, slightly better maintained than the rest of the buildings. We saw several little cemeteries in nearby fields. They were always brightly painted in pinks and blues and filled with artificial flowers. They looked most incongruous.

It was around 5pm that we reached Flores. The sun was low in the sky as darkness falls rather quickly around 6pm. It was still unbearably hot in our room however, which overlooks the lake and faces west. It was a joy to discover the air conditioning! After refreshing showers we felt ready to do the tourist bit and wander the streets of Flores exploring the souvenir shops and watching the sunset over the lake.

We have been left to our own devices since arriving here while the rest of the group have gone off on boat trips around the lake or a helicopter ride to visit the recently discovered, remote Mayan site of El Mirador. Both were rather expensive extras we felt happy to forgo in favour of exploring something of the local colour.

Last night we ate at a quiet lakeside bar watching the fishermen setting out in their boats for an evening on the water. This morning we got up at sunrise, around 6am, and skipped breakfast to make the most of the cool of the day. We walked back across the causeway to the mainland and the busy, dusty streets of the single storey town of Santa Elena. Here the streets were crowded with buses, delivery vehicles, vans, motor bikes, bicycles, lorries and hundreds of tiny tuk-tuks. A spaghetti of electricity cables hung from the facades of the buildings and across the broken, pitted streets. We expected to be pestered by beggars and stall holders but were pleasantly surprised and wandered freely through the endless labyrinth of stalls and shacks, stepping around people, animals, mobile kitchens, clothes sellers, hardware stalls and knife and machete vendors. We watched several women working as a team, pouring maize corn into a hand grinder from where it fell as flour into a container of water where it was being mixed to a dough before passing to the next woman who flapped it into tortillas. The next woman dropped these onto the hot stones while another fed the fire with wood. They were then being sold directly on the street. There were countless opportunities for photos but we felt it would have been intrusive and rude so contented ourselves with watching.

Women and children walked around with bowls of vegetables and fruit on their heads. Live chickens, their legs bound together, lay in the gutter for sale and dogs ran between the stalls. Although people don't actually live in the centre of the town, this is where daily life takes place. Women wash clothes at taps on the street right next to where meat is being hacked up amidst a cloud of flies and hung on hooks for sale. Nearby are bowls piled with fish from the lake where someone waves off the flies from time to time with a banana frond. There are food stalls selling cooked meats, chips, burritos and rice while the dirty dishes are washed in bowls, directly on the street. Around 8am we found a slightly cleaner-looking street stall for a couple of black coffees that actually had a table with chairs in the doorway. Unfortunately the coffee came filled with sugar and was quite undrinkable but it offered us a chance to watch daily life inconspicuously as we sat with our mugs in our hands. Nearby were a couple of shoe-shine boys doing brisk business. Customers wearing boots and straw hats sat looking macho while their boots were polished like black glass. Within seconds of leaving they were covered grey with the pervading street dust.

Tuktuks and shoppers in Santa Elena, Flores

Street scene, Santa Elena, Flores

Santa Elena with lake beyond, Flores

Tuktuks and electricity cables, Santa Elena, Flores

Meanwhile a preacher man was shouting endlessly about the glory of the Lord Jesus to a small crowd of bystanders, children and dogs. Whenever he ran out of steam he'd fill in with several Alleluias and burst into a hymn, which everyone obviously enjoyed and joined in. At another stall a woman was singing out her message of redemption next door to a man selling live turkeys, jeans, tee-shirts and buckets! There appeared to be dozens of different Christian sects, each with their own message. In a shack we found a morning service taking place. In a former life it appeared to have been an internet place as it still had Google and Yahoo painted on the wall beside the altar!

It has struck us that there is no graffiti here! After Europe it is wonderfully refreshing. What is sad though, is the number of young men wearing or carrying guns. Every pharmacy or drug store has its own armed guards as do the banks and even some general shops! Educational standards are low but even if you are unable to read or write there is always employment to be found if you know how to wave a gun. It is strange, given the reputation of Central America as a volatile, dangerous, drug smuggling region, just how safe we have felt wandering around by ourselves and what friendly, peaceful natures people appear to have.

The morning remained overcast so we abandoned our intention of taking a tuk-tuk back to the island to avoid the heat, in favour of walking. During the entire morning we had seen none of the many tourists who flock the streets of Flores. They have missed so very much! However, we were not brave enough to join the local people in eating on the street and opted for a charming little café just back onto the island where we ordered a couple of burritos and coffee for a late breakfast. It was huge and delicious – scrambled egg, red kidney beans and cream cheese wrapped in a soft cornbread pancake and topped with cream. When we tried to tell our cook how lovely it was she was charming, explaining in Spanish the words we needed – delicious and tasty.

Flores seen from the causeway to Santa Elena

As the sun became hotter we climbed up to the Cathedral on the highest point of the island. It is only a tiny island, a tiny cathedral and a tiny hill so it didn't take long. Nearby we found a mirador with good views down and across the lake to the shore of the mainland. (The lake is 16 km long by 5 wide.) Flores is the site of the Maya city of Tayasal. Safe on its island it withstood the Spaniards until as late as 1697 when it was finally captured, driving many of the Itza into the jungles where they hid for many years. There is little evidence of the Maya city. In the square in front of the Cathedral there are several fragments of stelae and inscribed stones but no indication as to whether they are replicas or where they may have come from.

Cathedral, Flores

Side road near the cathedral, Flores

View of the mainland from the mirador, Flores

Taking home the shopping, Flores

We rounded off our morning with a walk beside the lake where we found a café with a shaded garden filled with guava and coconut trees with a hammock slung between a couple of them. Ian promptly installed himself and we ordered a couple of chilled mineral waters. It was now very muggy and exhausting so we were happy to relax and watch as somebody skimmed up the trunk of a coconut tree to kick off the entire harvest of heavy fruit which crashed to the ground nearby. He then jumped on the lower leaves of the tree, bringing down dangerous dead fronds. When Ian went into the café to pay he discovered they were offering customers free maps of the island or free condoms! We left with a free map!

Fishing scene, Flores

Snoozing in the shade, Flores

Coconut shy, Flores

Back at the hotel we found our fellow travellers returning from their boat trip. They seem to have had an enjoyable morning visiting several other islands around the lake including one with a small ethnographic museum and one with a zoo of indigenous animals including a Jaguar and several species of birds including parrots and toucans.

View of the lake from our balcony, Flores

This evening we are joining the rest of the group for supper in a nearby restaurant to celebrate someone's birthday. Tomorrow we will be leaving here at 6am to travel without our luggage by boat to a remote lodge where we will spend the night, rejoining our coach and luggage the next day before moving on into Mexico.

Birthday celebration with our travelling companions, Flores