travel blog - jungle, jungle, jungle, TIKAL!

so off we went to tikal
on our bus provided by san juan travel
61km away from flores
we arrived in the dusty parking lot
early in the day
after we paid our 50Q park entrance fee
headed over to the jaguar inn
where our rooms weren´t ready yet
because it was too early
dropped our packs
and headed into the park
from the inn,
the main entrance to the park was about 1.5km
almost all of it walking under the jungle canopy
it was warm out
but the high canopy made it feel airy and cool
in a very comfortable way
the girls, erin and mikayla went off on their own
as sarah said to me,
we were prolly cramping their style
the three of us left
took our time wandering through the ruins
using one simple strategy
go where the massive groups of tourists are NOT going
and boy where there alot of massive groups of tourists
we pretty much wandered in the opposite direction of everyone else
this was accomplished
by following the exit signs in reverse
clever eh?
so tikal...
one word
IMPRESSIVE
the ruins are extensive
the ruins are HUGE
alot of it has been excavated now and quite a bit of it restored
alot of areas are still blocked off
or still remain buried and in various states of decay
but what HAS been unearthed is mind boggling
i guess there were something like 100,000 people
who lived here at the height of the empire
the temples stretch high above the jungle canopy
and the stairs are quite steep
most of the temples have wooden stairs
and the main steps have been blocked off
temple 1 is completely blocked off
apparently because a couple people fell to their deaths while climbing it
mundo perdido is perhaps the only one you can climb directly
(lost world)
and while the bottom part of it has been restored
the upper part is really really patchy
now the only problem with this is
i am really really really REALLY scared of heights
that vertigo thing
that feeling of being sucked over an open edge
no matter how close to the wall i am
really sucks
and if i thought climbing the wooden stairs of temple 2 was bad
perdido mundo was worse
i decided very quickly
upon looking at it
that i was not going to climb it
so i stayed at the bottom
and watched sarah and anita crawl up the massive steps
it took them a bit of time
and at the top
i saw them near the edge
and then sarah slowly disappeared
inch by inch
i later found out
it was because she was scared of heights too
after they descended
i watched a few more people ascend
and then erin and mikayla crossed paths with us
and were going to climb up this structure
i had counted roughly 87 steps
(had plenty of time sitting at the bottom there to do things like count stairs)
some of the steps almost 2 feet in height
and by the time people made it to the top
they were little itty bitty specs
i decided i would climb the damn thing too
now,
going up isn´t all that hard for me
especially when i do the patented kirby-spider-crawl
where i keep as much of my body in contact
with as much surface as i can
all of the time
sarah had made it about 3/4 of the way down by then
and was resting off to the side
i went up tier by tier
and i did the stupid thing...
yeah, i looked back down
all of a sudden the stairs felt very, very thin
and hollow too
and slippery
and angled totally in a bad way
so after i dealt with two near-freakout episodes
i found our ladies at the top
eating salsa verde doritos
with some new friends they´d met around the ruins
a dutch guy and a swiss guy
at the top of perdido mundo
there are no railings
so i couldn´t go near the edge
the view was perfectly spectacular standing from the center
and i took quite a few photos
never once going near the edge
as time drew near
to head back down
(ie. i was getting freaking hot in the sun up there)
i started to try to slither to the edge
you see,
the kirby spider crawl looks pretty normal going up steep stairs
but it looks damn funny on flat ground
i think i was the only one not laughing
going down was nerve-wracking
especially because the top 2/3rds of the pyramid
are in fairly poor condition
and it´s steep
and then there´s the vertigo thing
it is amazing how some people can just walk straight down the darn things
or at least
walk down in zig-zags
i can zig, but i can´t zag
(as in i can turn to my right
but i have a hell of time turning to the left
this, i found out many years ago when i started to learn
how to down hill ski
...and yeah, i´m serious
and not making fun of zoolander
this is serious sh*t here
life and death y´know)
and regardless of what zigs or zags may do
the ksc (kirbyspidercrawl) doesn´t allow for many angles
by the time i reached the bottom
i was soaked in sweat
and only part of it was because of the sun
a small part of it
there,
how´s that for honesty? =P
we made our way through other parts of the ruins
anita spotted two foxes at group G ruins early in the walk
and we saw spider monkeys here and there
the jungle surrounding most of the area
gave the walk a feeling of adventure
as sarah observed,
it´s really cool to walk through dense lush jungles
(on nice cleared paths mind you)
and then all of a sudden come upon an gigantic temple
we prolly made about 10km in the jungle that day
winding around
up and down
and then out to get our rooms and a bite to eat
we´d decided to catch the sunset on top of temple 4
and started making our way in at 4:30pm
we got there with plenty of time to spare
tho temple 4 is the farthest away from the entrance of the park
it´s also the tallest at something like 70something metres in height
though it has a nice set of wooden stairs going up the side of it
at the top
the sun was obscured by some clouds
but there were patches of clear sky as well
a bunch of people gathered to watch the sunset
and as it got closer
more and more people arrived
some of them at the last minute
huffing and puffing
i guess they´d ran through the whole jungle
and then up the pyramid
to make it in time
that´s about 3km on rough rocky jungle trails
impressive...
i´m glad we went up early
we had good seats
and tho the sunset was not very spectacular
the view was amazing
and it was peaceful just sitting up there
watching the light fade
watching other people watch the sun set
watching the guard with the shotgun walk around
-very near the edge which ironically gave ME vertigo
but didn´t seem to bother him one bit ... go figure =P
as the sun went down
we decided to head back down first
before the other 2 dozen or so people did
but as we rounded the other side of the temple top
the moon, a single day shy of full
had risen above the jungle canopy
i wanted to stay and watch
and sarah decided to stay with me
she had a head lamp
which made things feel safer
(for the trek back)
as we watched moon rise
i couldn´t wait for the sun´s light to fade
i could imagine the blue-ish glow of the moon
striking the tops of the other temples
the park officially closed at 6pm
the guard let us stay up there almost another 40 minutes
before he asked us to go down
and we were still kilometres away from the entrance
when we reached the bottom
he asked us to stay together and exit as a group
for our safety
he also unslung his shotgun
and i remembered reading in the guidebook
that tourists and been robbed and raped in the parks a couple of years ago
later i found out
that that kind of violent crime
had been more or less stamped out
and that his action
was in case we were attacked by a jaguar
that made me feel much better
seriously
i was hoping we could go through the grand plaza
rather than walk the exit road
because the exit road is winding and through jungle
and i wanted to see the moon lit ruins
as if fate wished it to be so
the guard led us through the grand plaza
we were the only ones there
maybe 8 or 10 of us in the dark
the odd headlamp on here and there
and one silent guard with a shotgun
perfect.
it was SO beautiful
amazing and magical
the temples were lit up by the moon´s light
and fireflies created a mirror of the stars above
in the grassy field between the temples
i wish i could have stayed there all night
and watched the moon move across the sky
but we had to keep moving
eventually,
we made it out
and it was a trek that was filled with a soulful beauty
as well as some really neat coincidences
not long out of the grand plaza
a voice called out asking
if the people from edmonton, alberta were still around
i responded
¨um, some of us are¨
it turns out,
there was a german girl
who had lived in edmonton, alberta on exchange for a year
by some strange coincidence
we knew alot of mutual people
she started by asking us where we lived
and found she lived right around the university
where we all live
very very cool
she started mentioning names of people she knew
who went to scona
even tho her exchange was with st. fx
and i knew a few of the swimmers she mentioned
even cooler
life is full of chance little meetings
very very cool
we finished the last part of the walk through the jungle
talking about such things
what a way to end the night

and with much anticipation for the next morning
i´d learned from hila at finca ixobel
that one could enter into the park early
if one paid a bribe... err fee to a special guide
who would get us past the armed guards
she paid 25Q
the starting price was $10USD
i´d spent the day doing some basic haggling
and eventually the guide-to-be
came back with the price we wanted
and no money up front
early the next morning
a number of us went out to see the sunrise off temple 4
we met 4 people who travelled from finca ixobel
as well as group of germans who didn´t have a guide
but managed to talk the gateguards down to 35Q each
i got everyone together in a big group
and we paid the same price
very nice,
the only lil part of the strategy that messed up
was that we had to pay the 50Q entrance fee again
when we might have been able to sneak in with the germans
due to some little logistical problems
and a message not being communicated at the right time
we didn´t get that part in for free
which is too bad
oh well,
not everything works out as planned
anyways,
the sunrise was non-existant
something i expected
but just watching the mist and clouds
dance in the dimness
revealing and hiding the temple tops
was beautiful
it was fairly quiet up there for the most part
even tho there were more people watching the sunrise
than the sunset
and we finished our day in tikal
crossing the northern and southern acropolis
visiting and climbing temple 5
which was nightmare steep
with no rail at the top
and yeah, i made it up to the top
tho i lay on my stomach for most of the time there
no pride, whatsoever
we even made the trek out to temple 6
which used to be the most dangerous
but it was nice and fairly isolated
walking through the grand plaza in the morning
was very cool
not many people there
and some great light for photos
later, ate some food at the commodore
checked out the small museum
and then caught a bus back to flores
where i´ve been blogging for about 5 or 6 hours
trying to get caught up
after our bus that was supposed to leave at 2pm
couldn´t go any more
because of a strike
or a ¨blockade/riot¨ on the road we wanted to take
so now we´re waiting for the night bus
which i need to go catch now
and wrap up this blog
can´t believe i finally caught this all up
not as many lil stories as i´d like
but that´s the gist of the travel so far
=)