June 22, 2009 The Place of the Voices

On Friday we got on a shuttle at about 4:00pm here in Panajachel and set out for Tikal National Forest. For anyone who hasn’t heard of Tikal or doesn’t know about its wonders: do yourself the favor of looking into the details! I’ll tell you this: it’s one of the largest sites of ruins in this hemisphere; it consists of hundreds of buildings, of which only a few dozen have been excavated. There’s six pyramids and one grand acropolis, which two pyramids look over and many other large structures have been excavated. This city is ancient (architecture dates to 4th Century B.C., says Wikipedia) and at one point in history, the population left or died and the entire city became one with the jungle, and that’s how they found it again when a team finally set out to excavate, only in the past five or so decades. It’s amazing.
We had to take a shuttle to Guatemala City to board an all-night bus for the twelve-hour ride to Flores, the city nearest to the ruins, because Tikal is deep in the jungles of Northern Guatemala. Flores is a city on an island in the middle of a big lake, about an hour from Tikal. The park itself is real jungle, full of tall trees, swinging vines, snakes, monkeys, birds, a crocodile (just one, apparently) and a jaguar (just one, apparently).
The bus ride was all right on the way there, because the bus was incredibly luxurious. It was a double-decker bus, and our seats were up top. The seats were soft leather and reclined, but the best part was this little rectangular cushion attached to the seat in front of you, that you pull down and slide your legs over and it’s like a recliner. It’s very comfortable! I slept all right on that bus, as far as sleeping on a bus goes. But they had the air conditioning on full blast the whole time, which was bad, and they played a horrible copy of a bad movie too loud. It was annoying, but I slept.
Then we spent all day exploring the jungle. We took a tour with a guide to learn more, and I’m glad we did. We passed by huge ceiba trees, the national tree of Guatemala, from which hang many birds nests. The first pyramid we climbed was kind of little, but the view was still nice up there.
Later on we climbed what they call “Temple V” (the pyramids were labeled Temples I-VI) the view from Temple V was the best. Unbelievable. I couldn’t help myself from exclaiming, “Dios mio!” We could see three other pyramids from here. And the horizon just goes on forever, pure jungle.
It felt so good, tromping through the jungle in the hot humidity, climbing pyramids, feeling the rough stone with my hands and sitting up where Mayan Kings once stood, drinking water and panting in the same place where human sacrifices were performed, where forgotten songs were sung, in a place where thousands of people once gathered in the most sacred fashion and united the way only these ancient peoples could. It was amazing. I want to climb pyramids all over the place! We climbed the only four pyramids you can. The others were roped off because of their deteriorated condition or unsafe conditions (one was only closed off last year because a tourist slipped in the rain and lost his life).
By the late afternoon we were all so tired and worn out from climbing (my mom came with us too– but Sal and I climbed more pyramids than she did!) we went back to the hotel (we were staying at the nice hotel right in the park). They had a pool but Sal and I had to buy some swimwear, all they had were shorts so I went in with my tank top on, but it felt good to soak in the water after using more muscles than I have in years. I mean it: my legs were sore! (They still are, honestly.)
After that we had a few mojitos at the hotel and got some food to bring back to our hotel room. We were so tired, I can’t even tell you. We watched an episode of “Battlestar Galactica” on Sal’s MacBook and fell asleep before dark.
The next morning was much more crowded within the park, it seemed to be full of teenagers (which terrified me), but we expected crowds this weekend since it’s the Summer Solstice – it’s just that Saturday was so quiet and fun we could hear all the birds and the howler monkeys screaming…. I was the first up and had to rouse the others so we could go see the Temple of the Inscription. For some reason this pyramid is different, it’s shorter, wider and much further away from all the others. I mean, once this was all a big city, so I’m sure it was close to some houses or something. But it was 20 minutes away from the main trail and the acropolis. Then we went back to the acropolis where Sal and I climbed a few more large buildings and took lots of pictures. We had to get back to the hotel to check-out, and our shuttle was picking us up at 4:30pm to go to Flores and wait for our 9:00pm bus to take us back home.
But our shuttle driver never showed – he took the money and ran, what a jerk. Luckily the hotel shuttle was leaving for Santa Elena (the town just outside of Flores). We went over to Flores and had dinner at a nice little restaurant called “GuacaMaya”, near the basketball courts. It was good, and I even had enough of a cell phone signal to call my Dad to wish him a Happy Father’s Day.
The bus on the ride home wasn’t so comfortable, no foot thingy, which grieved me. I spent the night sleeping at irregular intervals, drooling considerably, and listening to my old iPod play Sigur Ros and Explosions in the Sky so I wouldn’t have to listen to the driver’s pop music through his plastic box. And the shuttle ride from Guatemala City was in a kind of shitty van with a crazy driver who talked to himself and drove crazily. In Antigua, the shuttle to Panajachel left without us because of some clerical error and the crazy driver caught up to them for us, but we had to sit in the least desirable seats (except Sal, who sat shotgun). It was unpleasant, and by the time all returned to Panajachel, everyone was ready to sleep all day.
The best part of going anywhere, and I truly believe this, is coming home. It was really special, for me, coming home to this town. Recognizing, with great relief, the sight of Panajachel and the comfort of our little house here. Guatemala really is an amazing place, I love it.
(If anyone wants to go to Tikal, there’s also an airport in Flores, so you don’t have to take the overnight bus. Hotels in the park are kind of pricey (we paid about $180 for 3 people) but in Flores they’re cheap, and it’s about $25 a person to get into the park, per day – but they need the money to restore pyramids and such!)