Winter Break III: Guatemala

December 26th: The 26^th turned out to be a very long day for a number of reasons. We hopped on a combi at 7am and headed to Frontera Corozal, the jump off point for Guatemala and 2 sets of ruins, set on the banks of the Usumacinta River, the border between Guatemala and Mexico. So a combi, as a refresher for those that don’t know is basically a van that acts as a bus. You can get on it for the whole distance or hop on and off as needed. This time, we were in for the long haul as we set out along the Careterra Frontera (border highway, shown in red) for a 5.5hr trip.

The scenery was amazing as we passed curvy mountain roads, rain forest, pretty fog, and small villages. However, because it runs the border, that also meant 6+ military checkpoints along the way. We finally arrived at the intersection of the highway and the road to Frontera Corozal, got a taxi to town, paid the $15 peso/person highway maintenance fee (more on this later), and arrived in the tiny town that is Frontera Corozal. Unfortunately, it was a lot smaller than we had initially thought and like the last gas station we had seen 6 hours before in Comitan, it appeared that the last atm or bank had been there as well. While we weren’t out of money, no one could assure us that there was an atm where we were headed in Guatemala, so we got on the next combi heading out of town and continued 3 hours north to Palenque, the nearest place with banks (and as we were later to find out, doctors).

December 27^th: Restocked with pesos and assured that there was an atm in Flores, Guatemala as well, we headed back down to Frontera Corozal early the next morning. From Frontera we took a boat down the river about 35 min and over to the Guatemalan town of Bethel.

I use the word town loosely here. There isn’t even a dock where the boats land and then it’s a scramble up a small, muddy hill (not sure how well that works in the rainy season) to 2 small stores and 4 people wanting to change your Mexican pesos for Guatemalan quetzals. We filled out immigration papers while we waited for the bus to come, and as we guessed, the one that showed up was a chicken bus. From the landing, it was a 10 min ride to the immigration office where we thoroughly confused the officials because our work visas, not our passports were the only stamped thing when we left Mexico, but finally got through.

Then it was 4 hours on our chicken bus, although no actual chickens got on we did have a dog or two.

We finally got to Flores at about 2:30, only to find that the last van to Tikal (the ruins we were going to see) left at 2. While we weren’t really planning on going to the ruins much that afternoon, Tikal has a rule that if you get to the entrance after 3, your ticket is good the next day, so we were planning on taking advantage of that and camping there as well. Oh well, on to plan B, which wasn’t such a bad option. Flores is a cute little town, actually an island in the middle of a lake, with almost a Caribbean feel to it with the buildings and colors. And because the island is so small pretty much every hotel has a good lake view and balcony.

December 28^th: One of the main draws of Tikal, the largest set of Mayan ruins in Guatemala, is the chance to see the sun rise will sitting atop one of the giant pyramids. Unfortunately that would mean leaving Flores at 4:30 since we weren’t able to camp. So instead we opted for the 6am van and arrived at the park (the ruins are also situated in a natural protected area) at 7:15. While I have now been to over 25 ruins in Mexico and sometimes they are starting to loose that same feeling of amazement that you get with the 1^st couple, Tikal was incredible. The pyramids at Tikal are the highest (and steepest) in Mesoamerica and while you can climb almost all of them, they are so steep that for safety reasons the park as opted for ladders up the side instead of allowing you to climb the stone stairs. I should apologize for using the word “ruin” here in reference to Tikal. Whereas in Mexico the word ruin is widely used (example most transport headed to an archeological site here in Mexico will have a sign saying RUINAS), evidently it is a little offensive to use it in Guatemala. Kurt asked a little boy how he liked the ruins and his father promptly replied that ruins refers to a dead culture and the Mayan culture in Guatemala is not dead, so they really are temples and pyramids….oops.

The other great thing about Tikal is that it is big. Some of the temples are a good 10 to 15 min walk from others, and through gorgeous rainforest, a nice change from the well manicured, grassy sites of other ruins. In addition, since it is a natural protected area, there is an abundance of flora and fauna and even some small trails that get you away from people and temples. On one of these trails we were lucky enough to see toucans, trojans, a paca (think over-grown guinea pig), spider and howler monkeys, and some other random stuff.

After a long day at Tikal, the back patio at our hotel was especially appealing.

Winter Break IV: Bonampak, Palenque, Yaxchilan

December 29^th: We got up at 5 this morning for the return trip to Mexico. It was a van to the border and a boat across, just like the last time. Although, coming from Mexico life vests were mandatory and those seemed to have disappeared on the Guatemalan side. Once back in Mexico, and in our favorite town of Frontera Corozal, we pitched our tent on the banks of the river and headed out of town to the Bonampak ruins. To get there, you take a combi from Frontera Corozal, hop off at the intersection where there is a little town called San Javier, then from there it is 5km to the entrance gates of the ruins, and from the entrance gate it is another 9km to the ruins themselves. Bonampak is within a natural protected area, but is tightly controlled by a local community. From the entrance gate to the ruins your only options are to take the community’s transport or to pay a guide to walk with you. Again, getting a little ruined out, Bonampak was nice, but not as impressive as some of the other sites I’ve been too. The defining feature of Bonampak is a series of well preserved, still colorful murals.

After Bonampak, we back tracked to Frontera Corozal where we discovered that there really was nothing to do in the town. While making some food at our tent, there was a crash from a near-by tree. Upon further investigation, we discovered that a baby howler monkey had fallen from the tree and in its rush to climb back up to its mother, picked the wrong tree and was now stuck at the top of a small sapling with no where else to climb. Eventually the mother was able to rescue the baby, but it was a good chance to see howlers much closer than usual.

Decermber 30st: The plan for the 30th was to go to a set of ruins called Yaxchilan, only reachable by boats that leave from Frontera Corozal. However, Kurt woke up with a stabbing pain in his side. After borrowing a phone to call the PC doctor (the only landline was locked in a drawer til 7am and being across the river from Guatemala, there was only Guatemalan cell phone coverage), it was decided that a trip to a hospital or doctor was necessary, and the sooner the better. Problem, like the atms, the nearest doctor is 3 hours away in Palenque. We found a taxi driver willing to take us (and he took us for an arm and a leg) and as we got in the cab he wanted to know if we had papers or if there were going to be issues at the checkpoints (there are 3 between Frontera and Palenque). Once we bought gas out of a plastic bottle and had it siphoned into the taxi, we were on our way to Palenque for the 2nd unscheduled trip. Luckily the driver realized the urgency of the situation with Kurt writhing in pain in the back seat and we made it speedily to a doctor. Diagnosis: kidney infection. After some pain pills and the start of several antibiotics, we were climbing pyramids at Palenque that afternoon.

So we basically swapped one set of ruins for another. We first set up camp at a place called El Panchan, an area close to the ruins that is crawling with backpackers. It’s kinda a cool place though that is set in the woods and has areas for cabins as well as camping or hammocks and a good Italian (of all things) restaurant, all in palapa style.

So then it was into Palenque, another impressive set of ruins, where we also found what might be the largest beetle I have ever seen.

Decermber 31^st: Having had a few mis-steps in Frontera Corozal, we still were missing the ruins at Yaxchilan. So early on the 31^st we made the trip back down to Frontera Corozal to find a boat to the ruins. The highway back down to Frontera runs through some Zapatista areas, which you can tell by the following example of some of the signs that appear along the highway….

Remember I mentioned the $15 peso highway maintenance fee that you have to pay to enter Frontera? Well it is a one time free and you have to hold on to your ticket and show it was you come in and leave the town. We probably used those tickets more than anyone seeing as we entered and exited on the 26^th, came back in the 27^th, exited and entered to get to Bonampak on the 29^th, and left for the hospital on the 30^th. We were in the combi trying to come in the last time when for whatever reason they decided to really check the ticket date. Well the guard was hysterical that they weren’t our tickets and that we had picked them up from someone in Palenque. I admit our travel pattern had been a bit strange, but with the border crossing to Guatemala, they should be used to people using them with a lapse in time. Anyway he refused to honor them and was going to try and make us get out of the combi and not pass when a tour bus (paying a lot more than the $30 pesos he was going to get out of us) pulled up and our combi drive just inched away and left (the free is only for tourists and we were on a combi with all locals). We figured he’d be looking for us on the way back out, but passed by undetected.

So then we had to find a boat. Normally, most people come down on organized tours so they don’t have to worry about filling a boat, however we were just 2, and our prospects were not looking good for finding other stragglers trying to go on their own. With a bit of bargaining though we were able to take the chicken bus version of a boat to the ruins for a good price. While everyone else left from the main dock, ours was parked down a steep embankment without stairs. Other boats had little palapa covers for shade and life vests, ours did not, but was at least painted in Michigan colors.

The normal boats......Can you guess which one is ours.....
Great un-palapa-obstructed view
About 40 min later we arrived at the ruins of Yaxchilan, also Mayan ruins. Yaxchilan has some amazing stone carving and murals as well.


After the ruins we returned by boat to Frontera, a town that was quickly wearing down on our patience, to wait for the combi back to Palenque. While waiting several very nice taxi drivers tried to convince us that they had canceled the rest of the combis for the afternoon, given that it was New Year’s Eve, and there was nothing going to Palenque until the 2^nd. While we knew things weren’t running on the 1^st, we’d been assured that they were running normally on the 31^st. And sure enough after trekking up to the combi terminal, they were running on normal schedule, albeit a little empty. We were pretty much the only people on the combi for most of the way. While meant the drive took the liberty of stopping for lunch, but was kind enough to speed up the process by finishing his beer on the road. The ride took over 3.5 hours and was capped off by a vomiting child towards the end, although giving credit to his mother, she basically suffocated him to keep it all in the plastic bag (which was promptly thrown out the window contributing to Mexico’s already huge litter problem).