Welcome to John C. Mureiko's
Tikal, Guatemala Photo Adventures
|
Yes, Tikal is beautiful!
Tikal, Guatamala Tons of books
for your Viewing.
|
Click here for Guatemala Music
http://www.quetzalnet.com/marimba/
MARIMBA OF GUATEMALA IN RealPlayer FORMAT - They are proud of the variety of resources whereupon Guatemala counts, which they want to share with the entire world, and have time to protect, because this one is a country with great natural diversity, cultural and full of intense color .. The quetzalnet.com , is pleased in offering a musical tribute to Guatemala, its earth, to its people, in the inspiration of its composers. For the visitor, the program draws a profile of Sociocultural and Ecological values that facilitate a better knowledge to him of the Heart of the Mayan World.
|
In my wildest dreams I never thought I would have the chance to visit Tikal, Guatemala and be able to see the beauty of the Maya ruins and walk through the lush green jungle. Well, low and behold the day came. Two of my friends that I work with, Barry Shafer and Dave Buchinger went on this great adventure into the deep jungle of Tikal with me. Our trip began in Cancun, Mexico when we boarded a twin engine turbo-jet prop plane that seated 48 people. This plane was more then any of us expected. We had visions of an old beat-up plane that was going to take us into the jungle and drop us off on a dirt runway. To our astonishment, this plane was like new and it was glistening and even smelled good! Once we boarded the plane we had no problem finding a seat. All together there were only seven people on the plane ride to Petén, Guatemala and we were spread out in the plane to even the load. During the flight our Spanish speaking seniorita stewardess made our trip enjoyable with drinks and peanuts to munch on. She could speak a little English and I could speak a little Spanish so we had no problem communicating during the flight. This airline, which is called Mayan Mungo, did a super job and the flight was very comfortable. In what seemed like a short time we were landing at Petén, Guatemala and guess what? The airport didn't have a dirt runway after all! Once we disembarked the plane we were met by our guides and they showed us their airport that they were very proud of. There was a restaurant, store, bathrooms (baño) and even a internet terminal that we used to send some email back home.
Our tour guides name was Mario
and he lived in a town near Petén, Guatemala. He said his
town had 25,000 people in it and his town was number one. He liked
his town very much. Mario spoke very excellent English and he
said he learned English from the local university in Petén.
Mario gave us a tour of the town of Petén and showed us
a 17th century church, a town hall that use to be a jail, and
some of the wooden arts and crafts made from the local people
of the town. We noticed that there were a lot of wood products
in this town and we found out that Rose wood and Mahogany was
abundant in the dense jungles that were nearby.
Every one we talked to was very nice to us and they made us feel
very special and welcomed. After touring the town for what seemed
a short time we were taken to our hotel and it was called ...
"Maya Internacional". This hotel is only 15 minutes
from the airport of Santa Elena, in Petén. This hotel was
constructed with the local materials of the jungle. The dark red
hard shiny Rose wood was everywhere. It was very beautiful and
the craftsmanship was excellent.
Our hotel was encompassed by a lake and during the night we could
here the strange sounds of the frogs and what ever else was out
there making noises. I sat in a chair on the balcony of our room
and listened to the exotic but eerie noises for about an hour.
I was trying to get a look at what were making these noises but
it was to dark to see. After that we were off to the restaurante
and we were given a choice of either fish with eyes that still
appeared to be looking at us or beef for dinner and we chose the
fish. The fish was a large white bass, which was taken from the
large clear lake that surrounded us; it was prepared superbly
with steamy rice and juicy green beans. We had a choice of cold
beer or warm Pepsi to drink. I don't drink so I chose the warm
Pepsi and my friends took the ice-cold beer. Barry and Dave enjoyed
their ice-cold beers along with the fish dinner and I enjoyed
my warm soda along with my starry eyed white fish. I didn't want
to take the chance with the water. After having dinner and attempting
to chat with our waiter we returned to our small but cozy room
so we could go to sleep early. Our room had its own musty spell
to it.. it reminded me of my grandma's house when I was younger.
We had to wake up at 3 AM in the morning to get ready to leave at 4 AM so Barry, Dave and I flipped a coin for who would get the beds and who would get the couch. It didn't really matter who won; we all fell fast asleep with the ceiling fans blowing cooler air on us. We left at 4 AM sharp in the same white foreign van that brought us to the hotel. We traveled down the black asphalt paved road to a old dirt road that went way out into the jungle and we stopped to pick up some other people on the way to Tikal's National Park. On our drive to the park our guide was talking about the bright planet Venus which was in the sky. We were lucky; we were there at the right time and date to see this small planet in the clear sky above. We arrived to the park on time at 5 AM and begin our hike back into the narrow paths of the jungle following our guide with two flashlights. It was very dark and we had to watch out for the tree roots that lay on the ground because of the shallow amount of dirt covering the hard limestone ground. We were also told to be careful when walking up to trees that were fallen on the ground because poisonous snakes liked to hide in places like this.
After walking along these hazily illuminated paths
through the jungle for about 20 minutes we came upon a temple
that seemed to vanish into the low hanging clouds. It was our
devoir to climb to the top to watch for the early morning sunrise.
Once we climbed the 5 different ladders made of 2x4 lumber to
the top of the temple we found some limestone steps on top to
sit on to wait for the sun to rise from the depths of the jungle.
There were other people waiting there already and most of these
people were from Germany. They were speaking German all around
us and some of the Germans could also speak English. We found
the rest of the original group from the hotel on the top of the
temple too. Ilona was a nice and friendly lady that we had met
at the hotel and she was from Germany. See spoke very good English.
Hi Ilona!!! It was a pleasure meeting you! In the distance, we
could hear a group of howler monkeys shouting out their greetings
to the new day. Their thunderous, deep-throated, roars would lift
the hairs at the back of your neck if you didn't know who was
that was making all that noise. They sound awesome, especially
in that misty, foggy, jungle setting. We also saw many long beaked
Toucans and colorful Parrots flying freely around and they were
also loquacious. We waited up upon the top of this enchanted temple
until around 7 am in the morning and the sun still could not be
seen because of the cool damp fog and mysterious overcast skies.
We decided to continue with our adventure and left for other sites to see. I was amazed at the huge trees that I saw. The diameter of some of these trees was about 10 feet and then stretched effortlessly high into the sky. The trees with and the temples in the background was a sight to see. We saw some paths on the ground that were about 1 foot in width and asked our guide Mario what they were. He said that many large ants made these trails during the night as they carried their food from one location to another.I felt like I was transformed back in time when the dinosaurs still inhabited the earth. I felt as though I was one of the ants moving along the narrow trails. We walked to many other temples and climbed each one of them as the day wore on. While walking around Tikal we shot many pictures of what we seen and just couldn't believe the workmanship for something that was built so long ago. We came to an opening and it was the main courtyard where the ballcourt and many other temples are located. What a life it must of been for a Mayan to live in such a secluded part of the jungle. We were shown some figures of faces that were carved out of limestone in places you wouldn't find unless you had a guide to show where they are. We even walked down into a cave to a place where another limestone carving was and we saw some sleepy bats hanging from the ceiling. After the main tour was over we were taken to a picnic area where we were served breakfast and this gave us time to reflect on what we had saw in the past 6 hours of hiking.
More of John C. Mureiko's Mayan
Photo Adventures
Art and Maya related pages below
for your viewing pleasure.
