Tikal
Massive Pre-Columbian City
Thursday afternoon, we walked into El Remate, a pleasant little village on the Eastern edge of Lake Petén Itza, Guatemala. We arranged for a room at the Sun Breeze Motel, where we ended up staying three nights. We opted for a ground floor room which promised to be cooler, over the upstairs which offered a better view. I thought since the place had an air conditioner, maybe the view room would be better, but after a long power outage, we were glad to be downstairs. The air conditioner worked very well – maybe too well – and the proprietor, Humberto, was especially helpful. This room cost us about $40 U.S. per night.
Andrew and I walked a couple of miles along the lake shore’s nature preserve while Audrey had a nap. Once we returned, we selected Casa de Don David for supper. We had the place to ourselves, which initially made me a bit nervous. But the meal was delicious. We ate it as the sun set across the length of the lake. It was a beautiful setting, and a nice conclusion to our travel day.
El Remate is on the way to Tikal, the first visit on our Mayan ruins expedition. It is about 30 km from El Remate to the ruins. Colectivos (microbuses) pass every half hour en route to the archaeological park, so catching one was easy, and cost us just Q30 each (about $4). This vehicle was something like a 15 passenger van with a rear facing bench set up behind the driver’s seat. Humberto told us that the first bus passed at about 6:30, so we got up in time to catch that one. This was about the time when employees were heading to work at the various enterprises at the park as well. People got on and off at different points as we rolled through the foggy jungle. The kids told me later that at one point there were 26 people in the van. It was tight, for sure. The windows were open, though, and the ride wasn’t that long.
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Tikal is Guatemala’s best known Mayan site. Thousands of tourists visit every year. While there were several large groups there in the late morning, it was never the mad house that is Chichen Itza. The traffic in the early morning was light, and after lunch, the place was practically deserted. We walked the park without a guide. The trail took us right to the main plaza first, which perhaps should have been the grand finale. Two of the park’s seven large temples sit at either end of a pair of acropolis-type complexes. These are fully excavated and tower intimidatingly over pedestrians below. The bases of these pyramids are narrower than those at other Mayan sites, making them appear even taller than their 50-ish meters. I had some idea of how massive Mayan pyramids could be after having visited several other major sites, but Audrey and Andrew were blown away by the size and complexity of the buildings and the overall scope of this city, which had to have been home to tens if not hundreds of thousands of people.
Although there is still a lot to unearth at Tikal, the major structures have been mostly uncovered and restored for people to see. They are spread out over a pretty large area, reachable by dirt trails with some steps here and there. We missed a couple of the structures on extreme ends of the excavated area and still hiked over nine miles in the park. Many of the pyramids were climbable. Audrey climbed one. Andrew and I climbed most of them. Audrey was a good sport and relaxed at ground level while we hiked and explored.
We hiked around some of the center and far end of the park, then decided to head back to the gate for a bit to grab some lunch. There is a restaurant just outside the entrance, and they let you out with your armband so they can tell you already paid when you return. Andrew and Audrey grabbed a couple of souvenirs while we were there before we headed back in. Tikal has quite a few stelae with partially intact art and inscriptions on them. We spent more time looking at those in the afternoon. There is one massive 20-ish foot mask that was uncovered intact since it was below a later level of construction. We ended up on a long empty stretch of trail through the jungle at one point. We did see a lot of wildlife. There were howler and spider monkeys. We also saw several types of birds including occelated turkeys and keel billed toucans, which are extremely colorful. There were coatimundi running around everywhere as well.
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We eventually used up all of our energy before reaching a couple of the park’s extremities. By the time we had done this, we were pushing toward the time we had been told the last colectivo departed for El Remate. This may have been the last time our morning driver passed…. At any rate, to be safe we hustled back and got to the drop off point at about ten to five. The vendors had mostly closed up and left. Several employees shared our bus ride back, which was a bit less crowded, but still very busy. The locals were laughing and joking. It was an interesting glimpse into the lives of those in the industry serving we tourists.
Before we went home to crash for the night, we headed for Don Taco, a roadside dine-in or take-out taco stand. It cost about $4 for all of us to eat, and the food was pretty good. I was hungry. The kids were impressed with the glass reusable Coke bottles. These cost only Q5, less than the plastic bottles. We called it an early night. Audrey opined that these reusable glass bottles ought to be more widely used in the U.S.
Through the day I had been sporadically coordinating with a company called TikalGo for a helicopter tour of El Mirador the following day. It was forecast to rain on Monday, and I still had hopes of going to worship Sunday. So if we were going to take the helicopter to El Mirador, Saturday seemed like the day. I finally nailed down the details and payment, and we were set with our Saturday plans. It was a long, productive, and rewarding day.
