Guatemala II – Welcome to the Jungle

We came to Petén, the northern most department of Guatemala, sharing borders with Mexico and Belize, to explore the Jungle and some of the more important Mayan ruins.

Templo del Jaguar

Tikal was in its heyday around 200 to 900 AD, the city was one of the largest in Mesoamerica and dominated much of the Mayan region. Due to a supposed combination of aggressive farming techniques (log a forest, burn, plant crops, harvest and repeat – not so sustainable with only a shallow layer of topsoil), overpopulation and maybe a meteorological drought Tikal was eventually abandoned and left for the forest to reclaim.

These days, apart from being an important historical site, it was made famous by George Lucas in the Star Wars episode IV movie.

One for the Star Wars fans..

Tikal is one of the most touristy Mayan sites around, however, for good reason. You walk through dense jungle paths spotting wildlife like venado (a type of deer), coatimundi and spider monkeys, and then come upon clearings with pyramids and temples that tower above the jungle.

Coatimundi

The Maya temples and pyramids are said to have been constructed using always steps in multiples of 13, because they believed in 13 levels of heaven. They also believed in 9 levels of the inframundo (underworld) which were connected with heaven by the sacred Ceiba Tree which is now Guatemala’s national tree.

The Ceiba tree is the only in the world whose 4 main roots mark the 4 cardinal points.

Quite the developed mathematicians, the Mayans used a vigesimal numeral system which uses 20 (count all fingers & toes) as a base instead of 10 as in the decimal system we use. This combined with the number 13 also links back to the Mayan calendar that we mentioned in the last post…interesting but very confusing!

Xavi checking the multiples of 13..

Temple V, steep stairs closed for climbing after a few fatal accidents.

After Tikal and some excellent reports from fellow travellers (thanks Mike & Ana!), we signed up to a 60km trek in the jungle over 5 days to see a much less visited site, El Mirador, just 6kms from the Mexican border. It predates Tikal, with occupation recorded between 900BC and 150AD and is the site of the tallest pyramid in Mayan history. We started off with a 4hr chicken bus ride from Flores to Carmelita, the village closest to the ruins. It was the first of many fun chicken bus journeys on this trip, complete with cramped seats made for Mayan sized legs, lots of stops, a bumpy, potholed dirt road and beautiful scenery!

Our first chicken bus!

Carmelita is a small village, in the national park, that subsists mainly thanks to the tourism & logging contracts. There is a co-operative of guides, cooks, arrieros (mule handlers) who lead treks out to see the ruin sites and ensure the tourism $ is shared across the families of the cooperative and community. The government have plans to build a train out to El Mirador, which is of great concern to the co-op members. The last time the government tried to push the plans, the locals threatened to burn the jungle down – a scary thought!

The trek was a great way to get a bit off the well beaten tourist trail and see a site in a state more similar to how it was when re-discovered in the 20^th century. Walking through the jungle, we saw howler and spider monkeys, toucans, pisotes, coches (wild pigs), wild turkeys, moths & butterflies, snakes, a scorpion and lots of small mounds which were Mayan burial tombs retaken by the jungle.

Spider Monkey – they peed or threw things at us from above when we got too close.

Sadly all the tombs have trenches dug into them by local tomb raiders who stole the jade, obsidian and other articles of value.

We also learnt loads about about the local flora which included Chicle trees (whose sap is boiled to make the base of chewing gum), Oak trees, Copal tree (its sap is burnt for incense in religious ceremonies) and Ramon trees whose nutricious seeds are used in smoothies and made into cookies, ice-cream etc and its leaves which were the mules favourite food. We also ate Sapodilla fruit found along the way and prepared a tea from the allspice plant (apparently good for the upset stomach!).

José, our guide and the love tree that strangles and takes over existing trees.

Each night we got used to quick pond water bucket showers, and climbing pyramids to get views the jungle and sunsets. In the mornings, Howler monkeys took the place of kookaburras as alarm clocks, with a scary cry/cough starting around 4am that sounded a bit like something from Jurassic Park!!

This is how a Mayan pyramid looks like before it’s uncovered

A recent exploratory dig at El Tintal, showing evidence of la calzada Maya, the ancient Mayan causeway that connected cities.

The American archaeologist Richard Hansen, leads the excavation project at the El Mirador site, but due to the logistical difficulties of the area, they are only working at the site during the wet season, July-Sept, when there is enough water for the 300+ workers.

The archaeologists base camp in the middle of the jungle is pretty well prepared

Only approximately 25% of El Mirador has been uncovered so it required a fair amount of imagination, however it was really cool to see the dig in progress. In another 10 years or so it will probably be the next Tikal or Machu Picchu (specially if the train goes ahead!).

Interesting parts of the ruins are mid-excavation, with black tarps or full-on roof structures to cover depending on the time of discovery & importance.

 

The legend says that the Maya hero twins rescued their grandfather’s head from the inframundo

Panel in the “Garras de Jaguar”

Temple in El Tigre complex

Highlights were La Muerta, a multi-layered temple used as tomb, el Tigre complex for monkey and toucan spotting and La Danta, the tallest Pyramid ever constructed by the Mayans at 72m high.

La Muerta from above

We entered La Muerta with headlight to find tight tunnels and lots of bats!

Mayans were reaaally short

The crew on top of La Danta!! Mel Gibson filmed parts of his movie Apocalyto here in 2005/6. He’s now a main sponsor of the ruins to try and make up for making apparent stuff ups in his representations of the Maya people.

Next up, there’s plenty more action to come from Guatemala as we start heading south.