Frankly I had done zero Mayan studying before coming here and had not spent a lot of time thinking about them. I will certainly be thinking about them from now. Fascinating stuff, that Mayan history. I wish they didn’t have to guess so much at what you are seeing, but I suppose it’s too much to ask of a lush jungle to give up all its secrets. The desert is one thing, with its dry, preserving air, this is quite another.
Tuesday was Caracol Day. Caracol used to be hours and hours from San Ignacio, but they paved the road in the last few years and now it’s only a couple hours. The general public/tourists still haven’t got the memo that it’s closer, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We stepped out of our big clunky van into a jungle paradise. Howler monkeys were whooping it up all around, little toucans were flying from tree to tree and everything was a verdant green. And it was hot. Very hot.
Caracol’s Caana is still the highest manmade building in Belize. Its 141 feet tall, and you can climb all the way to the top and survey your kingdom. You can also creep around to the back and watch howler monkeys eating the leaves of the fig trees. The place has quite a few pyramids you can climb and we got incredibly hot and sweaty in that still air. Leaf cutter ants marched across the ground on their organized highways. Caretakers ran weed eaters. Since it’s close to the Guatemala border there was also quite a soldier presence.
We ended with a picnic of sausages and torts under a shelter as thunder rumbled in the distance. I really wanted a downpour, but no joy on that. Can’t have everything. I also keep hoping to see a snake, but that too isn’t working out.
The other major site we visited was Tikal in Guatemala. That one is much more commercialized and they don’t let you climb on the actual structures. You have to use the provided wooden stairways. We hired a guide for that one so that was pretty interesting. I’m not sure what he thought of us, as we were a fairly droopy sick crowd at that point. Zach was so sick he didn’t actually join us for the tour, but stayed at the hotel till noon and took a seriously overpriced taxi to meet up with us and head back to Belize. We were also hungry, thirsty and in general not a flamboyant group. Our guide tried to claim that Mayans never did human sacrifice, but he is the only source that says that. I feel like they did. He thinks the Spanish did all the killing when they came and then claimed the Mayans had killed each other. Who knows. Regardless, Mayans still worship at these sites today and there are quite a few alters scattered here and there for their ritualistic burnings. I was sitting alone with the guide visiting about some of their religious beliefs and he all at once said he was gonna tell me something that he didn’t like to tell many people cause he didn’t want to be laughed at. Not long ago he was sitting in Tikal when the local Mayans started a ceremony. They lit a fire on the alter, started dancing around it. The day was breathless and hot, not a hint of breeze swayed the trees. Suddenly, in front of his very eyes the fire went whooshing up into the air, then came slamming back down and went out, poof, just like that. He had watched in disbelief as they stopped dancing, the ceremony clearly over. Of course he couldn’t keep still since it had been such a spectacular site, so he asked them what on earth had just happened. “Our sacrifice was accepted by the gods” was their answer. He looked at me to check my response and then chuckled. “ Look at my arms, he said, they are covered with goosebumps.” They were. Mine might have been too.
From there he led us to a small courtyard with two smaller pyramids in them. We were all led to a certain spot in the dead center and then he told us about the Quetzal bird of Guatemala, how its long green feathers were revered and worn by the Mayan bigwigs, and he played us a recording of its call, a low, plaintive “kwoh, kwoh.” Then he turned towards the Western pyramid and began to rhythmically clap his hands. Instead of the noise stopping there and dying, the sound of the Quetzal bird came bouncing back off the pyramid. It was strange and impressive. I will say we were all rather shocked at the sound. How that works I don’t know, but I know it did. We all tried it and it always worked. Strange acoustics for sure.
Probably the coolest thing about Tikal is that it is still very much buried in the jungle. You have to follow many winding paths to get from courtyard to courtyard, never really seeing the full picture unless you’re on the top of a tall pyramid. Then it’s breathtaking. Jungle, as far as the eye can see in every direction. It’s hard to imagine that the Mayans drove themselves out by overusing the land and changing the climate with their slash and burn clearing methods. Not a hint of that now!
Guatemala
As a little side trip to the Belize trip, we had decided to spend 2 partial days in Guatemala with a night in Flores. It would have been a neat idea if it hadn’t coincided with our stomach bug. As it was, we didn’t appreciate it like we could have, but I did appreciate the medication from the pharmacy!
We walked across the Belize/Guatemala border, which was one of the easiest border crossings we’ve done. A shuttle met us on the other side and we crashed our way down awful roads to Flores. Flores is a tiny touristy island on Lago Peten Etza. The streets are so tiny and crowded with colorful houses you can’t get a big vehicle down them. Tuk tuks squirted around and water taxis were at the waters edge waiting to take you wherever you chose. Our hotel was old but adequate. Weirdly it had AC but no blankets. Just thin sheets. A bit inconvenient for those running fevers, but we survived.
Really it was very quaint. With the passage of time I am liking Flores more and more. Some of the healthier among us strolled across the bridge to the main market in the less touristy district while the rest relaxed closer to home. Rob’s, Heath and I felt good enough to take a water taxi over to Jorges Rope Swing, a privately owned swimming spot where you can swing out over the lake on their, you guessed it, rope swing, relax in hammocks or throw yourself off of rickety high dives. There were about 7 other people there, all of them in their mid twenties. And here again I was faced with something that has always freaked me out. Sailing over the water on a rope swing. I know. Wimp. But so it is. Regardless, after explaining my great trepidation to the supportive crowd, we proceeded to have a grand time and I was cheered off the wall and into the water time and again. Gotta love a support group that involves Irish, Australian, German, UK and Asian people. The only blip in the fun was when Heath discovered his phone in his pocket after his first jump. It was a very angry phone and refuses to properly cooperate to this day.
To be honest, the food in Guatemala wasn’t that great, but I believe we were not proper judges. Regardless, we survived and all made it out unscathed. In fact I was almost better by the time we left and it looked hopeful for the rest. Even the van. We had left it at the border in “Secure” parking, but really wondered at our decision. It seemed smart until we drove into the secure lot and took a gander at the other cars there. Never have you seen a more motley group of derelict vehicles. Most had a minimum of one flat tire, some had dangling bumpers and all were covered in various inches of dust. One or two looked like they were still breathing on their own, but the rest were clearly on life support or had passed on. Either the lot was so secure we’d never actually get our van out, or this was a convenient place to drop your car if you planned to leave forever. We hoped it was the latter. Our fears were unfounded, and though we had to wait about 30 minutes till the dude in charge could take our payment and open the locked gate (think heat lethargy), we were happy to find everything as we left it.
We were oh so grateful to be back to our beautiful house and its beautiful air conditioning. We all felt sweaty and filthy and half sick and so ready for showers and a bed. But, life had other plans, and just after the second shower we heard the dreaded noise of a water pump sucking air. No. Way. Out of water. Totally and completely. A stuck valve had made it so the tank hadn’t filled for days and there was nothing we could do. The house was on a hill so the pressure was practically non existent if anyone else was using water in the area, and they were.
Let me just say I was extremely grateful for the large rainwater tank we discovered behind the house and the warm bucket bath it provided. I truly appreciated Belize’s heat that evening. And the lovely outdoor shower where you could have an almost romantic bucket bath. Of course it was a bit of a pain to have to haul all our flushing water in from outside, but we had an unlimited supply of rainwater, a nice air conditioned house and hope that the plumber could come in the morning.
PS. It takes 2.5 gallons of water to flush a toilet. Add diarrhea into that equation, and you will realize how much exercise we got that night, trotting to and fro from the rain tank to the pot. Pretty funny looking back.
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