Recent History - Tikal

The Ceiba tree is the national tree of Guatemala. The Ceiba was revered by the Mayans as the tree of life. This tree’s towering height led the Maya to believe that its branches supported the heavens, while its deep roots were the means of communication between the world of the living and the Underworld. To this day, the modern Maya still hold ceremonies at the base of these trees. In the Grand Plaza of the ruins there is a firepit that showed signs of being used in recent history. We were told that because Tikal is a special Mayan site that thousands of modern-day Maya are expected to gather in Tikal in 2012 which is the end of the long count Mayan calendar. An article in Wikipedia indicates, "The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar forms the basis for a New Age belief, first forecast by José Argüelles, that a cataclysm will take place on or about December 21, 2012, a forecast that mainstream Mayanist scholars consider a misinterpretation."

The Mayans who built Tikal are not gone. Our guide, Oliver, was very proud of his ancestory, very proud of his Mayan profile. As he talked about the Maya, we were left wondering where he stood on the line between the Maya religion to Catholicism.

Just as interesting was his view of the Guerrilla insurgency that began in 1960. It was all about "power" he told us. But it was not an abstract to him. To him there was no difference between the Guerrillas and the Government's soldiers. They both came into villages, killed or kidnapped people then demanded money for their return. With a shrug of his shoulders, Oliver told us that now some of the Guerrilla leaders are in the government in Guatemala City.

When he was a small child the insurgency was so threatening in the jungles around Tikal that his family escaped to Mexico. When they returned six years later, they could not find any of his uncles. They had "disappeared." Now he says, things are good but his heart is sad because he did not learn the Maya dialect of the region as a child. Many people have returned to his village and there are 3,000 people there. The villagers are making a living off of tourism. He and his brother work and his father farms. Together the family is doing okay. He has two children but doesn't want more. He wants to see his children get an education. The State education system is only through the seventh grade and then if he wants them to have more education he will have to send them away to school. It will cost a lot of money. He learned English, and it was very good English, by working with tourist. First as a little boy selling drinks to the tourists but he learned it well enough to earn his official authorization as an English speaking guide.

Oliver isn't worried about the world coming to an end in 2012. He said that he had consulted some of the elders and they seem to think that it would only mean the beginning of another long count calendar. He equated December 21, 2012 to the Millenium. Oliver, the modern Maya, was a great guide. If you go to Tikal, be sure to ask for him.

The Rest of the Story - Tikal

When the van pulled into the drive to the Jungle Lodge just outside the ruins at Tikal, we could see small orangey-red bungalows snuggled under the jungle canopy. It looked just like I thought it would, a little primative but a comfortable place to enjoy all that the ruins and the jungle have to offer. But when we stepped into the Lodge to check in, I started to feel uneasy. Between the van and the building we had broken out in a sheen of sweat. You could feel the oppression of the heat and humidity and stepping into the lodge did not afford any relief.

The sight that greeted us was even more depressing. There were piles of luggage everywhere and on every couch there were people looking wilted and like they were drugged.....a ragged look of just being beaten down. Resigned to their fate. At the desk there was a long line that wasn't moving. After a few minutes of trying to figure out what was going on, we could see that one person was trying to check out but the desk was covered with small green sheets of paper. The accounting system at the Jungle Lodge was that you signed tickets for food and drink and that was added to your bill at check out. I do mean AT checkout. Little expanding folders held one thing or another that had to be all pulled back together at check out. Nothing was automated. But even more astonishing was that no one did a daily tally so that when check out time came all that had to be added was the most recent tabs.

At 2 PM a bus pulled up and the wilted people lined up and got on the bus and sat in the heat of midday on the bus as their luggage was loaded. That convinced us that we would hire a van when we were ready to leave. We wanted to avoid the fate of the "wilted."

Okay.....so there is a problem checking out but it was also a problem checking in. You needed a credit card and a passport and you had to write the same information on several forms even though all the same information had been given when the reservations were made. Check in was slow, slow too. The sign said that we couldn't get keys to our bungalow until 4 PM. So after we check in we went to the dining room to get some lunch. We were tired, hungry, thirsty and hot. The dining room looked very nice with white tablecloths and the menu looked good.

The waitress came to take our orders.
Me: A limonada, por favor.
Waitress: No limonada.
Me: Coke cola.
Waitress: No Coke Cola.
Me: Okay, I'll take a cerveza.
Ned: What is the soup of the day?
Waitress: We don't have a soup of the day.
Ned: Okay, the Tortilla soup.
Waitress: We don't have the tortilla soup only the bean soup.
Ned: Okay, I'll have bean soup.
Me: I'll have the chicken sandwich.
Waitress: We don't have the chicken sandwich.
Me: I'll have the club sandwich.
Waitress: We don't have the club sandwich.
Me: Which sandwiches do you have.
Waitress: We don't have sandwiches.
Ned: Tell us what you do have that is on the menu.

Well you can see how things are going.....downhill. Eventually we were able to find something on the menu to order. The bean soup was thin. The tomato sauce on a pasta was thin. I guess they were being "stretched" because we found out that they were expecting delivery of supplies that should have been there the day before. The kitchen was in disarray and the service was spotty but before we left the restaurant someone told us that supplies had arrived. What a relief. Now we'd be able to have a nice dinner.

Dinner didn't work out too well either. There were still things on the menu that they didn't have. And the drinks were small and expensive. The glass was about 5 inches tall and about 2.5 inches across....maybe they had a 1/2 jigger of rum or gin in with the mixer. The bartender was very slow and then the server would take so long to bring the drink that most of the ice had melted. We thought we would just have wine but they only had white wine by the glass. But the next day the bartender didn't show up and so there were no drinks. Silly us, we should have been happy with the drinks the night before.

My suggestion is that if you want to eat in Tikal, don't go to the restaurant at the Lodge. Instead head down the road to the Comedor Tikal.....where they do have sandwiches and all the rest of the items that are on their menu. Where the kitchen is organized, the food comes out in a timely fashion and the prices are reasonable.

The Jungle Lodge is lovely. No problem that the electricity is on and off. We expected that in the jungle with solar power and a generator. The rooms and baths were clean, the windows had screens and there were mosquito nets above the beds. The pool was refreshing. But the disorganization of the administration and kitchen was an aggravation to say the least, especially at the prices that were being charged.

We left the Jungle Lodge looking forward to a nice hotel in Flores, Hotel Isla de Flores. We checked in only to discover that the hotel had air-conditioning but on that day did not have any water. We wanted water! The woman behind the desk didn't seem to know if the water would be fixed or not. By this time we were beginning to act like ugly Americans. Joe and I left Ned to deal with the situation. He speaks the best Spanish and he is always nice where I just get angrier and angrier. He talked to the main office in Guatemala City and somehow a plumber showed up who said it would be fixed in no time. No time meant about an hour later but the important thing was, we had water. And we had a wonderful, relaxing dinner at La Luna. It looked like a nice ending to our trip.

But wait, there is more.

The next morning the van to take us to the airport was to be there at 7 AM. The woman at the desk from the day before, hadn't made the reservation for us as we had asked. We did manage to get to the airport in time to make the airplane......

But now you know the rest of the story about Tikal.

Mundo Maya - Tikal

My facination with the Mundo Maya....the Mayan World began 25 years ago when we first went to Cancun. There are a few low ruins in Cancun that have survived 2000 years of tropical storms and the invasion of contruction and tourist in the last 30 years. When we traveled across the penisula to Merida, we went through many small towns where the church was perched on a mound above the town. I soon found out that the church had been built during the Spanish conquests by clearing the crests of the Mayan pyramids and using the stone to build the church. That is one way to get rid of the old religion. We always stopped in each little village to go into the church. I felt such a spiritual force in these churches that I soon began photographing them and that was the beginning of my photography project of the 16th century churches in Mexico. But I always felt that I wasn't just photographing a 16th century church but instead a place of continuous spiritual devotion for more than 2000 years. It was a powerful feeling for me.

I've read about the Mayan civilizations but I'm always left confused about times and periods and with the history of who was up and who was down at any one point. But I was inspired to visit as many Mayan sites as I could by John L. Stephens books (Vol One and Vol Two) Incidents of Travel in Yucatan written about 1850 that described his journey through the Yucatan in search of the Mayan pyramids hidden by vegetation or by hispanic construction.

Since then we have been to Tulum and Coba in Quintana Roo. To Chichen Itza, Izamal, Uxmal, Labna and many other small ruins in the Yucatan. To Palenque in Tabasco. To Yaxchilan and Bonampak in Chiapas, To Lamanai in Belize, and now to where I have long wanted to go, Tikal in Guatemala.
Tikal is one of the largest Mayan sites and it lies in the lowland rainforest in Nothern Guatemala. You can read about the site here. This image was taken from the top of Temple IV above the top of the jungle canopy and looking back at the Grand Plaza. The image at the top of this entry is Temple I in the Grand Central Plaza.

We bought tickets (about $20 USA) after 4 PM that were good for entry into the ruins from 4 to 6 on that afternoon as well as all of the next day. After a quick glance at the map we decided to take what looked like the shortest route to the Grand Plaza. What we didn't know was that this route was the most difficult. While most of the trail was under the canopy of the rain forest, it was also under the "cover" of heat and humidity. When the jungle opened up to the Grand Plaza it was worth the effort. Now all you see is the stone but to sit under a tree and think about how it must have looked 2,000 years ago when the surfaces were stucco and painted in many colors of reds, blues, yellows is just almost beyond belief. To think that these structures that rise as high as 65 meters were constructed without the use of wheels or pulleys.....just human manpower is mindboggling.

Having learned our lesson about the heat in the jungle, the next morning we were at the entrance to the site at 6 AM where we hired our guide. The route he took us on to the Grand Plaza was a much easier walk and in the cool morning air, the birds were singing, the small ground animals were still moving through the jungle and the spider monkeys were above our heads. And also important is that the bus loads of tourists had not arrived. Hiring an authorized guide is worth every penny. We learned so much about the flora and fauna, about the ancient civilization as well as about the recent history of the area.

Tikal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I'm so fortunate to have seen it, but there is more to this story....tomorrow.