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February 01, 2003
tikal ruins, guatemala
ended up staying at some place called remate which is halfway between tikal and the town of flores where i am now. shared a room with my new aussie friend ilana, the kid who worked the office at the hostel locked the gate at 9 oclock, we had to crawl under the gate to go out looking for a beer, then come right back when everything was closed. it was good, saved some money.
tikal is really damn deep in the jungle. we caught a minibus to the entrance and got charged a stiff 50 quetzals to get in, that´s about 7 bucks. she wanted to take a tour and i didn´t, so we split up. i wandered around on the paths for a while, till i found the main plaza. i sat looking at temple I for about 40 minutes, imagining the ancient mayans throwing slaves and captured prisoners down the stairs as sacrifices. apparently a few tourists have inadvertently done the same, which is the reason i wasn´t allowed to climb up. there were quite a few other tourists wandering around, which was something i can´t complain about cause i took to shadowing the tour groups and evedropping on the inside info i was too cheap to pay for.
there were monkeys about, i spent plenty of time staring up at them, in wonder, like i always do when i see monkeys. one of them threw something at me, it wasn´t a turd, looked like some kind of seed.
i climbed all of the pyramids, but my favorite was temple IV. check out this photo, and see if it reminds you of something.
give up?
if it reminds you of the return of the jedi, you´re correct, they shot some of the profile endor shots from the top of the very same temple. ilana isn´t a starwars junkie like me, i had to talk to several other tourists before i found someone to share my joy at this jewel of information with.
my favorite time was wandering down the less travelled trails, looking up at the monkeys and peering into the thick jungle, listening to the buzz of the insects and the cries of the birds. i saw a crested eagle, and some toucans. i also was tricked by several guatemalan boys who had the uncanny ability to screech like jungle birds, i found them chuckling at me as i gaped up at the canopy, looking for the bright feathers.
almost forgot to mention, i arrived on top of the great pyramid at the same time as this a guatemalan family. they were yapping to each other, and then they decided that their teenager daughters who were dressed quite provocatively for 15 year olds (it must have been hell to climb the pyramid in heeled boots, i guess we all suffer for fashion, eh?) should do the bottle dance for everyone. this involved putting a bottle of coke in the center of the flat topped pyramid, and they singing ¨mueve el culo, mueve el culo, par abajo, par abajo, par abajo, par arriba, par arriba...¨ (move that ass, move that ass, move it up, move it up, move it down...you get the picture) the young tartlets took turns bouncing themselves around, gyrating as they stood over the bottle.
they motioned for me to come join their circle but,
realizing that sooner or later they´d ask for an example of my gringo dancing styles, i politely declined, and headed down the stairs, the sounds of their father clapping his hands and them all laughing trailing off behind me. maybe 1200 years ago some of their ancestors performed a similar ceremonial version of the bottle dance, i kinda hope they did.
i have a new travel plan for my next trip. the temple IV at tikal is the second tallest precolumbian structure in the western hemisphere, the first is at some remote ruins known as el mirador, about 30 kilometers walking from the last stop on the road that goes farthest north in guatemala. the ruins are about 7 miles from the mexican border, and a bitch to get to. as i understand a round trip is 6 days 5 nights in and out, more if you plan to hang out there. the big problem is that water is scarce, imagine trucking water for yourself for a hot jungle climate for 6 days. heavy as hell. someday in the future if i can find an archeological expedition heading out there i´d volunteer, carry out some tools, do some digging, i think it would be rad. it´s good to have plans.
speaking of plans, heading to poptun tomorrow, gonna check out some caves, then on to rio dulce where i catch a boat to some garifuna village called livingston on the carribean, i´m about ready for some beach living again, figure i´ll pass my birthday either at the beach at omoa, honduras, or at the bay island of utila, where i plan to get my padi diving card. i´ve kinda rushed through guate, but it´s good cause i left some stuff to see when i come back through. ok enough blabbing, today is february first, forgot to say rabbit rabbit this morn. no worries.
Posted by bendan at February 1, 2003 04:38 PM
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