Tikal/Maya Mountain Lodge- Day 6

Today began with the most spiritual of my experiences traveling thus far. Dawn in the jungle.

I met up with about 10 people and jumped into the back of a pickup at 4:45am. After a very bumpy ride, we arrived at Temple IV in the park - the tallest and most frequented by visitors. I can honestly say that I was the first person on top of Temple IV on Saturday, November 25th. Nice.

As we sat in the darkness, barely making out trees in the shroud of mist, group after group of people arrived - so much for the "very exclusive tour". And then as everyone settled in and the smallest bit of light started to seep through the jungle...the sounds began. Until these started, I hadn't noticed how deathly silent the jungle had been - a real rarity. Anyway, we began to hear them, one troop after another of Howler monkeys. If you've never heard these amazing primates, it's difficult to describe their haunting yell. Let's just say it's LOUD. And it got louder and louder as dawn arrived, and more and more troops joined in the chorus. And right as full light reached the jungle - they stopped. All of them. In unison. And after a few seconds of silence, the jungle roared with a cacophony of sound - birds, so many birds, insects, god knows what else, but it was beautiful, like a symphony that only nature could compose. I was deeply humbled, as I often was on my trip, and felt so small, so insignificant in the grand scheme of things - very comforting in its way.

After dawn, the group leaders split everybody into various groups (I'm pretty sure depending on how much they had paid for the tour) - and led folks off the temple and began the tour of Tikal. After about 15 minutes, I'd had enough of the crowd and tourists and ditched my group, setting off on my own. If you go to Tikal, be sure to spend some time on your own. There's a reason the Mayans built this complex and I found my experience to be deeply personal. After wandering a bit, I headed to Temple V where I had watched the moon the previous night. And to my surprise and joy, it was completely deserted. I promptly climbed to the top and enjoyed the view in daylight, by myself. If you ask me, Temple V is where it's at. It's out of the way so people don't swarm all over it, and it has a stunning view over the jungle. It's my favorite, not least of all because I got to have it to myself twice.

After some more exploring, my time at Tikal came to a close. I checked out of my hotel, found a minibus to take me back, and said my goodbyes to this magical place. Little did I know, another magical experience, quite different from Tikal, awaited me on my ride back to Belize.

All the minibuses from Tikal stay within Guatemala - so getting to the border proved a bit tricky. Essentially, the minibus took me to a crossroads (about halfway to Belize) - literally, Las Cruces - where right as we pulled up, another van headed toward the Belizean border pulled alongside. I quickly confirmed they were going to the border, and the cost and hopped in. These vans are called "collectivos" and essentially people just wait at the side of the road and the van picks them up in the direction they're going - then they let them know when they want to get off, and let's just say the number of seats does not determine the number of passengers. It seems they are charged various rates depending on how far they're going. I LOVE this idea. It just makes a lot of sense to me, and gives a very poor population a way to get around, as well as have a lower footprint on the environment (though I'm sure that's not the primary driver here).

Anyway, I was the only gringo on the collectivo, which was odd at first, but then I realized everybody is just kinda doing their own thing. And there's another thing I noticed (and not the first time in Guatemala either) - everyone was happy. Guatemala is a third world country. They're poor - and I mean really poor, not the way people say they're poor in the US. But even without all the material things - these people were joking with each other, laughing, chatting excitedly - alive. It was absolutely beautiful to see. At one point, we picked up a father and his two little boys, they were probably 7 and 9 or so. They were adorable. Completely dressed up, hair slicked down, and thrilled to be riding the van. They were giggling and chatting the whole way, one can't help but smile when there's so much happiness around. And then, as we were bumping along this dirt road, the driver turned on the radio. "Buffalo Soldier" was playing, and I kid you not, everyone in the van (including me) was humming or singing along. It may sound small, but it was one of the most beautiful experiences on my trip and will remain in my heart, and make me smile always. In that brief moment, it didn't matter that I came from the US, that I didn't speak spanish, that I was white - there was a beautiful connection there, a reminder that we're all human, we're all in this crazy thing we call life together.

Once I got across the border (which involved schlepping my bags for a couple kilometers), I hopped in a taxi and made my way to San Ignacio where I would meet up with my Slickrock Adventure Week group. I arrived at the Maya Mountain Lodge in the afternoon with a couple hours to spare before the group got there. It's a lovely place - cabins built in the midst of a beautifully tended jungle garden. It's simple, but wonderful, with lots of hammocks and a great dining hall with yummy food.

I just bummed around San Ignacio (a cute little town in western Belize) until the main guide for my group, Neri (pronounced like Mary) found me in a hammock, saying the group had arrived. I was a little nervous as I walked down the path to the dining room - these are the people I would spend the last week of my trip with!

And then I met them - Neri, a Guatemalan now living in Belize with a cracking sense of humor (you'll see that later) , Mario, also a Guatemalan now living in Belize, and an expert in Mayan civilization and jungle knowledge (I think Mario might actually be a shaman), Victor a gregarious American who runs all his vehicles on biodiesel and lives in Belize, Missouri and Alaska where he runs kayak expeditions in the summer (stay tuned, I'll probably be doing that this summer!) - and then the participants/customers/victims? - Stan and Yuliya, a sweet Russian couple who grew up in the Bay Area and now live in Reno, and Robert (my roommate), a guy from Atlanta.

Anyway, the first dinner was just kind of small talk and logistics - but tomorrow would be caving - stay tuned.