1-13-10 Tikal, Guatemala

Before pushing any paper at the Guatemalan border we had to get our bikes 'fumigated' by some guys with a garden hose.  He gave the bottom half of the bikes a quick spray, no more than two seconds each side.  I ran my finger over the clear liquid and smelled it, surprisingly water-like...  Whatever it was, we had to pay $5 for it.

The paperwork this time was pretty easy and pleasantly cheap.  The customs agent did, however, want to put my vehicle import sticker in the center of my windshield directly in my line of view though after a series of protests and unpleasantries he reluctantly put in on the bottom of the shield.

We decided to go straight through to Tikal, a huge set of Mayan ruins in conjunction with a national park.  Before entering we had to stop at a security checkpoint where they gave me a piece of paper with the time written on it.  I asked what it was for and was told it was to stop speeding.

"You can't go over 45 kph" The cop said sternly.

I asked him how far it was to the next checkpoint.

"33.2 kms"

He should have said that our average speed couldn't be over 45kph, a brief calculation later and Luis and I knew what time we should arrive at the next checkpoint to avoid a 'multa'.

Luis and I were side by side at the swinging gate which the guard opened slowly.  Luis' side was open first and he revved it out of the gate, hitting second gear before the my side was up high enough to duck under where I dumped the clutch and pulled a decent wheelie before giving chase to Luis until reaching 45 kph, of course.

Once out of view of the cops we set our pace around 90 kph, appropriate for the road which was in good shape and full of gentle curves.  We rode a while until Luis spotted a wetland where he went off looking for snakes while I attended wheelie practice.  No snakes were found, though he did snare three indigenous toddlers.  Just kidding.

We took a break and had some water and condensed milk (Luis loves condensed milk) then waited a few more minutes until the time was right before heading off to the next checkpoint and turned in our ticked without incident.

Once at Tikal we set up camp under a little thatch hut with a concrete floor.  I used my armored jacket and pants as a sleeping pad before setting up my bag and bug canopy.  (The next morning I awoke next to a curious 4" spider).

We quickly met Julietta, from Argentina, and all three of us headed off to the ruins.  These things are huge! Easily the best set of ruins I've seen down here.  They have very steep sides around 200' tall, some with steps leading up one side.  Most of the taller ruins were closed off after some unlucky gringas took the fast way down to the bottom in 2006.

There are some 1500 ruins here, of which about 500 are unearthed and in various stages of restoration.  It certainly gave me a strange feeling walking around these ruins, not seeing anybody else and imagining that it was a bustling hub of commerce not too long ago.

In some places the ruins have been excavated to show even older ruins as Tikal has been rebuilt upon itself numerous times.  This is true for most of the ruins in the area, especially with the tall temples.  Rather than start from scratch, a new ruler would simply build onto an existing temple, making it taller and wider before calling it his own.  This continued through many centuries of different rulers from different empires.  In Mexico, the most recent additions are of Catholic churches atop temples.  More than a little symbolism here.

Night came quickly in the park but not before we got some good pictures of the sunset.  On our walk back to the campsite out we met up with some other campers and found out that there was some exorbitant fee to enter the park for sunrise, even though we'd paid for a 24 hour ticket.  It was decided that we would all sneak into the park and reconvene atop Temple IV before sunrise the next morning as we'd heard this was a tradition amognst travelers like ourselves.

The next day we set out before 5am, well before first light.  I was ahead of Luis and Julietta by about 15 yards on the main road, though still 80 yards from the park entrance where we'd seen several guards the night before with pistol-gripped 12 gauges.  Julietta flicked on her light momentarily to see what lay in front of her and was quickly illuminated by a spotlight.  I was on the outter fringe of the light and slinked into the shadows of some thin jungle.

Julietta followed Luis, who was being his friendly and police-trusting self and went over to chat with the guard.  They were both detained until 6am until the park was officially opened.

I didn't know this at the time so I cut diagonally from the road to the main trail, bypassing the security shack, stumbling over roots and spitting out spider webs all while trying to be quiet.

I eventually hit the trail we had hiked the day before and waited 15 minutes for Luis and Julietta, more than twice as long as it should have taken them.  Upon realizing that they weren't coming I started jogging along the trail towards the temple, opening my eyes as wide as I could to see better though still stepped in quite a few puddles.  On occasion I could see absolutely noting due to the dense jungle blocking the moonlight so I'd take out my little red LED light and shield it in my hand so that I was only illuminating the ground a few feet in front of me before moving on.

It was a convoluted network of trails and I ended up taking the wrong path for a few minutes and stopped to turn around when from the tree above me came the most terrifying sound I've ever heard.  A howler monkey.  I really don't know how to describe the sound, it's kinda like a throaty growling dog mixed with a screaming demon. Yes, very pleasant.

The monkey above me set off dozens of other monkeys in the area, all belting out their little war cries at me.  I didn't move for a few minutes and just listened, knowing that I would never forget this.

I eventually got my bearings and made it back to the proper trail leading to Temple IV.   I kept jogging then saw two head lamps ahead of me.  I slowed down to a tip-toe and could hear them speaking English so resumed jogging again.  Their lights both flashed my way then simultaneously shut off and I could hear them running away.

 A few minutes later I made it to Temple IV where I saw the guys who'd run off earlier.

"Yeah, we thought you were a cop on a bike!"

There weren't many of us at the top, some Aussies and Germans, a fluvial geomorphologist from the States and his son, and some girls from Wyoming and Montana who I've run now run into 5 times since then throughout Guatemala.

The sunrise was better than I expected.  We were as high up as we could go on Tikal's tallest temple overlooking jungle as far as we could see with smaller temples poking through the canopy off in the distance.  There were falcons buzzing past us, toucans in nearby trees and we could see anteaters waddling about on the jungle floor beneath us.  Vale la pena...

Eventually Luis and Julietta were released and met us atop the temple.

"You get good pictures!?" was his first concern






We quickly