Guatemalan Temple Run- the real online game

May 4, 2014 – Guatemalan Temple Run

Lucia- My favorite part of Tikal and the other ruins around there was climbing the temples. It was fun to climb up them. My favorite animals to see was the baby spider monkeys. Papa and I had howler monkeys throw sticks and fruit at us and tried to pee on us.

Dan- It has been a surreal trip through the Peten area of Guatemala. We have seen the impressive ruins of Tikal. They are majestic, even in the scale of the lush jungle that the ruins lie in. We visited more remote ruins (that our rental car allowed us to go to). They are Uaxactun, Yaxha, and Topoxte. These ruins were all located in the region of Tikal. They were not as grand as Tikal, yet each had their own distinct architectural style or uniqueness.

            Guatemala has done a great job of making these ruins into national parks. Alot of money and time has been put into the infrastructure of the parks. They are equivalent to national parks in the States. The trails are well marked with informative signs, clean facilities, and helpful park employees.

            I have loved seeing and hearing all the wild life in and around the ruins, especially at Tikal. I don’t remember seeing so many things the last time Kim and I were here. Birds we have seen or heard include: macaws, toucans, parrots, and falcons. Other animals have included: howler and spider monkeys, fox, coati (red raccoon), qouti.  We stayed at an expensive hotel right at the park entrance of Tikal to experience more of the wild life, and it was worth the price. It also made the sunrise hike into the park later. We left at 4am instead of 3am if we stayed in the nearest town to the ruins.

Coati

Marino- The ruins were great because you could climb up them and play on them. I liked Tikal the most because it was most the most excavated ones. I really liked our guide, Rony. He wants to be an archeologist. The car trip was hot and boring. I really didn’t like it.

Hot afternoons at the pool in Tikal

Kim - Driving a rental car around Guatemala has been quite the experience! I have been chief navigator with no GPS and Dan was the head driver. We had a few days of 11 hours in the car, which is incredible given that on any one day the most distance we covered was 190 miles! Dan and his passengers often felt like we were all playing Guatemalan Temple Run as he avoided tumulos (huge speed bumps), pot holes, animals (pigs, dogs, cows, horses, chickens, turkeys), people walking, slow vehicles, cars passing the opposite direction, motorcycles, road soccer games, and police check points. It made for top speeds of about 30-40mph and required nerves of steel, which was often difficult given the fighting kids in the back seat! I spent a fair amount of time in the back seat with Lucia to give the kids a break from one another. At one point we went on the same road 5 times in Guatemala City while we were trying to leave! Another time we took a 2 and a half hour detour when we headed East instead of West leaving the town of Lanquin in the mountains!

Things to avoid on the road!

No one told us about the river crossing on a barge!

 

So given all that as a backdrop, we had amazing times at the ruins we visited. Howler monkeys were right outside our bedroom in Tikal all night talking to each through their screeches and howls. We climbed temple 4 at Tikal in the pre-dawn darkness and sat in silence with a group of 30 other people while we listened and watched to the jungle come alive. Marino and I sat and sketched during sunset atop one of the temples in the main plaza and the next evening at sunset we watched a group of spider monkeys scamper and walk across the top of a palace ruin across from us. The next day we explored Uaxactun, a remote and mostly unexcavated ruin north of Tikal, where some local boys showed us a vent hole that had cold air coming out of it and we observed some archeologists restoring some carvings. The ruins outside of Lago Peten Itza were called Yaxha and Topoxte. It included a boat ride across a crocodile filled lake, tall temples with views of the surrounding jungle and lake, and hardly any other people.

The places we have stayed have really added to our experiences. At the lake near Tikal we stayed at a small family run hotel where Marino and Lucia got to play with the children of the owners and other children that were visiting as well. French, English, and Spanish were the languages spoken but not shared among the children! We were able to explore during the day, swim in the lake, swing from a tire swing, and hang out. 

The next place we stayed outside of Lanquin was set in the jungle. It was a hostel style place that also had private cabins and family style meals for dinner. We talked with many other travelers and it was incredible watching the kids have their own interactions as well. Marino taught origami to a handful of folks and Lucia told jokes and laughed a lot. One day Dan and I actually got to go on a hike to some hanging bridges while Marino and Lucia stayed behind a took a class about how to make chocolate from cocoa pod to finished product.

 Not only did we have lovely human interactions, we visited the gorgeous limestone pools of Semuc Champey two days in a row. We were able to swim in the cool pools, bump down limestone slides, and jump from up high. The pools are a turquoise blue green surrounded by steep jungle walls with a raging river that runs underneath them! A wonder of the world to be sure. These were not accessible to tourism the last time Dan and I traveled in Guatemala. 

Our wrong turn and huge detour occurred on the way back to Guatemala City and made our return to GC 7pm instead of the afternoon. Oh well. All is well that ends well and we are at our house at Lake Atitlan for five weeks. More soon on that…..