Today was a chill day to catch up on blog posts and precious hammock time. Sadly I’m feeling like I’m coming down with a cold – it’s 30’c! Surly this shouldn’t be allowed!

The place we are staying is really interesting. It’s down a narrow canal and in a swamp area. Sadly this does mean mosquitos but we have been seeing them everywhere anyway and at least here we get a net over the bed.

With a tough day behind us some comfort food was required – call out the emergency carbonara. Eat quick before the mosquitoes descend on you though.

Today we went to visit our fifth UNESCO. After taking a boat from our hostel to the centre of Rio Dulce we were lucky and grabbed a collectivo straight away heading in the right direction. We ended up taking several collectivos to Quirigua ruins after one bus driver told us he was heading the right way but instead we pointlessly ended up at the main bus station in Morales only to pass back by the same cross roads we had tried to change at about 45 minutes before.

It was a good 30min walk from the highway to the ruins and there were Tuk-Tuks offering to drive us but we decided to walk since it was a nice day. On the way we passed a Del Monte banana plantation. When the United Fruit Company established the plantation in 1910 it fortunately set aside the area containing the ruins. Later a further area was donated by the plantation to protect the archaeological area and its surrounding ecology. 

The bunches of bananas were all shrouded in special plastic bags. This apparently helps reduce blemishes on the skins and they can often be impregnated with insecticides to help protect the crop.

Quirigua was made a UNESCO in 1981 because of the stelae. The stelae were very impressive and towered over us. The front and back typically depicts the ruler, while the sides contain hieroglyphs detailing the impressive event for which the stela was carved. 

The stelae at Quirigua are so well preserved due to their construction from the local sandstone. Compared to materials used for stelae at other Mayan sites it is soft enough to carve (hence the dramatic reliefs), yet hardens and weathers far better than the limestone found in the Yucatan for example.

Stela E actually toppled over in 1917 after a particularly heavy rainstorm, amazingly it survived intact. The archaeologists of the day then attempted to lift it back in to position, but its 65 ton bulk broke the cables used and tragically the stela snapped in two! It has now been cunningly restored and reassembled, so perhaps stela F can reclaim its title as the largest monolith of the Mayan world?

Both stela E & F depict the ruler Cauac Sky who ruled Quirigua between 724-785AD. Quirigua was a vassal state to Copan and thus Cauac Sky was crowned by Copan’s ruler. However through his reign Cauac Sky broke away from Copan, declaring independence by capturing the ruler of Copan who had crowned him. There isn’t any evidence of outright war between the states though and it seems Quirigua gained control of trade routes and flourished for a while as a regional capitol. It did however remain small <2000 people, it is thought that Copan did not retaliate due to alliances Quirigua held with Calakmul in the north (who possessed a much stronger military force). Calakmul gained an advantage as weakening Copan will have in turn weakened its more direct rival Tikal.

One of the stelae showed the beginnings of equality as the king was shown not to be a god above the people. Instead the stelae are shorter so using scale to place the king at the level of the people.

The acropolis at the site was much less impressive than other Mayan sites we had been too. There wasn’t even a pyramid to climb but at least that saved my legs after the long walk there!

I thought the carvings on the zoomorphs were really intricate, particularly zoomorph P which shows the ruler Sky Xul sitting in the jaws of either a turtle or a crocodile-mountain monster and holding a scepter. Incredibly it is carved over its entire 20 square meter surface and weighs about 20 tons.

On the way back we passed a farm with cows which looked like they were from India. A short google later and we learned that they are in fact most likely Nelore cows which were bred from Indian Ongole cattle. Both breeds survive well in high temperatures with poor grazing or water and they were introduced to Central America from India to improve the hardiness of the local cattle. 

We went over the famous Rio Dulce bridge which is known as one of the largest bridges in Central America. The Rio Dulce harbour is used by yachts as a hurricane hole to shelter during hurricane season. While we saw a good number of stored/parked boats around the area there didn’t seem to be too much activity, as hurricane season hasn’t really started.

We were getting peckish by this point so we went to a comedor for lunch. This is where the locals hang out and you get a plate of the one or two things they are serving. On this occasion a chicken stew with rice and a pasta salad, along with a drink each for less than £2 each.

Sadly while waiting for our boat ride back to our accommodation Claire was forced to try a Pina-Colada Daquiry

It was an early start today to get across Guatemala to Rio Dulce. Technically it was doable by local collectivos but we grabbed the tourist shuttle bus just to be safe.

Steadily everyone who was leaving by shuttle bus from all the local hostels lefts until it was just us. This wasn’t worrying at all! We kept on asking if the bus was coming and told “soon, soon.” Finally at 9:30 after leaving the hostel at 6:45 our bus arrived and it was just us in the minivan. Nice! I got to spread out over a whole row of seats and re-watch Good Omens because it was so good it deserved a second viewing. Occasionally I looked up to take in the view as we left the mountains.

We arrived around 1pm at Rio Dulce because we asked for no stops on the way. Our accommodation for Rio Dulce was across the water and we had to ask a bar to ring them up for a boat to take us in. We had a pizza to share there and they let us leave our backpacks at the bar so we could explore the area.

We took a collectivo to the Castillo de San Felipe. The fort was constructed at the narrow point between the Rio Dulce and the Lago Izabal in order to defend the port of San Antonio de las Bodegas against English pirates from Belize. San Antonio was an important port to the Spanish as it was the main connection to supply Spanish forces in Guatemala. It was active for several centuries, and was captured and looted by pirates several times in its history. It was originally built in 1644 to replace a tower that was destroyed in 1604.

On the way back we clearly picked a busy time because we ended up on the busiest collectivo yet with 26 people somehow fitting in. Some were sitting on each other, others standing and some clinging on to the outside by the open sliding door. I was glad it was a short journey. Then we grabbed the boat to our hostel.

We had a huge egg burrito breakfast and it was incredibly filling, but we needed it because we were going to hike a mountain.

Well it turned into less of a hike and more of a steep path over slippery rocks and steps up a mountain. It was worth it for the view over the river at the el mirador (viewpoint).

Semuc Champey consists of a natural 300 m limestone bridge, under which passes the Cahabón River. Atop the bridge is a series of 18 stepped, turquoise pools, where you cans go swimming.

We spent a lot of time swimming in the pools and being eaten by the fish.

When the shadows from the mountains started covering the water we walked back to the hostel and enjoyed the hammock seats and listened to the music the hostel had playing over the speakers. Eerily the rain started exactly when Rod Stewart’s “have you ever seen the rain” started playing the chorus line. Clearly something weird was happening so I had a donner kebab wrap and then quickly to bed.

We took a minivan to Semuc Champey which was about 8-9 hours away. Slowly the scenery changed and it got more and more mountainous. This was the first time we had seen proper geography since we arrived in Mexico since the Yucatan peninsular is very flat and composed entirely of limestone.

I particularly enjoyed crossing the river on a raft powered by two small outboard motors. I was impressed they could land it which such accuracy given they were both on the right hand side of the raft.

Soon we came to many switchbacks going back and forth on the road winding around the mountains. Unfortunately I smelt petrol from another car and with all the switchbacks was sick. Luckily another passenger in the minivan offered a bag. I was very glad when we got into Coban and we had Maccy D’s fries and Lipton iced tea. As we got nearer to Lanquin the roads became more interesting as they turned to gravel/rubble rather than paved surfaces. It was one at a time if you met someone coming the other way, though the locals happily overtake everything with a cheerful beep beep.

Once we got to Lanquin our fun hadn’t stopped there and we got on a pick up truck with benches in the back. It started to drizzle so they put up the tarpaulin around us and it got so hot underneath it. Luckily it stopped raining pretty quickly and we got some amazing views of the mountains before we arrived at our hostel for the night.

The hostel served really nice food but I was still feeling a bit unwell and didn’t fully enjoy my falafel and humus. All the food served here was more of a Middle Eastern flavour which was different from our previous meals.

We got up early for our transport to Tikal at 4:30am. We had opted not to do the sunset tour which left at 3am because who wants to get up that early and Tikal is pretty misty in the morning so we weren’t likely to get clear photos.

The guide was great and explained what the site would have looked like in pre-Hispanic times. First we went up a small temple so we could get above the trees and take photos of the other much taller temples. When he clapped his hands in the centre of the plaza where the altar would have been it echoed around the clearing. We then walked past a temple which had not yet been excavated by the archologists which was the same size as the previous temple. It just looked like a mound covered in trees so I can see how the temples remained hidden for so long.

The guide was also very good at spotting wildlife and showed us a tarantula hole and got it to poke its head out. Sadly no one screamed. Our best guess is it was a Mexican Red Rump Tarantula.

We then went to the great plaza where there was two temples to the east and west, the Sun and Moon Temples respectively. Completing the plaza was the great Acropolis to to the north and Necropolis to the south. We couldn’t climb up the Sun Temple but could climb up the slightly smaller Moon Temple and it even had a wooden staircase with even stairs to help you get up. I was very appreciative of it as it made it to much easier to get up.

The guide pointed out a toucan and a rare green toucanet to us. Toucans apparently only live in primary forest which contains larger older trees with large enough hollows for their nests. Toucans don’t generally build their own nests, so rely on finding pre-existing holes in trees from damage or woodpeckers.

Temple 3 hasn’t been excavated, but was actually the last temple built on the site around 810AD. It is known as the Temple of the Jaguar Priest because of a figure within the temple.

Mundo Perdido or the Lost World complex is a group of buildings which remain intact and unaltered by later periods of construction at Tikal. The largest structure in the group is the Lost World Pyramid and you could get some great views from the plateau at the top.

We also spotted a spider monkey hanging out in a nearby tree. They are social animals that live in groups of 30+, but split up to forage during the day (hence we only saw the one). The common name of spider monkey comes from the disproportionately long limbs and tail.

Temple 4 is the tallest at Tikal and was used for many of the views filmed in Star Wars Episode IV. Dave and I were particularly geeky in discussing the films while we caught our breath at the top.

The tour ended in time for the 11am bus but we decided that just wasn’t enough time so we walked over to the north eastern complex. It was getting humid in the jungle but at least we were under the trees and we saw some mid-sized temples and a stela.

Since we had an hour to kill we paid to visit the museum as well. Sadly it was all in Spanish but I just about got the gist of it. The temples were discovered by Europeans in 1848 and archaeological expeditions began in the 1880’s, the site had never been forgotten by the local population. Tikal began to decline (along with other Mayan cities) around 810AD, with the last temple constructed then; by 950AD it is presumed the city was almost completely abandoned. Although no records exist to show it was attacked, it is likely warfare forced the population to cluster around the city which resulted in intensive farming and depletion of the agricultural land leading to population decline.

Before we moved on we spotted a humming bird who kindly sat still for a photo.

When we got back to Tikal the heavens opened and a huge thunderstorm rolled in. We waited for it to ease down so we could grab some food. So far we had only had the trail bars and crisps we had packed for Tikal and we were starting to get peckish. At least I got to use my rain mac I have lugged around with me everywhere!

As ever we had our morning fry jacks and then it was on the ferry to get to Belize City. I have to admit I was getting itchy feet to start doing something. You can apparently have too much rest and relaxation in a hammock! I just prayed our next accommodation had better WiFi, it was rather flaky for working on the videos but it was just good enough to download all the episodes of Good Omens – priorities.

Now we could have chosen a nice comfortable tourist shuttle to cross the border to Guatemala but instead we opted for the bouncy local buses. This was mainly because we didn’t know how much time you got with the shuttle to change money into Guatemalan Quetzals because our last border crossing we didn’t see anyone to grab some Belize dollars from. At least I got to watch Good Omens for the journey – it’s so good and based on my favourite book!

It was a pretty easy process crossing the border and we were back to (trying to) speak Spanish to everyone. We grabbed a minivan pretty quickly heading towards Flores but it waited a good 10 minutes for more people and there was this man trying to sing and failing badly. It was so painful to listen to him miss every note, despite my glares he continued to murder every song. I was glad when we set off.

Over the course of our journey through farmland and forests we ended up with at least 21 people. All the kids had to sit in laps. At least I was next to a window for some air! 

Finally we ended up in Flores and we walked for 30mins to try and find an atm which would accept a Mastercard. I was worried for a while as several atms just spat the card back out but we finally found one which worked and promptly got out the max amount we could. We had read that this was a possible issue in Guatemala so we would have to be careful to always have a float.

We booked up transport and a guide to Tikal for tomorrow and transport to Samuc Champey the next day. With everything organised for the next few days we had dinner made of burritos with tomato sauce on top – it was weird and not my most favourite meal. Then time for one last good omens episode and an early night as we had to be up early the next day.

Since it’s the start of a new month here’s a map of how far we have travelled so far.