In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle...

An awesome 6 days just passed. A last minute decision to leave Mexico, bye bye swine flu, and a now we are enjoying Guatemala. One day here, in Flores, we managed to gather a group of 8 to trek into the jungle with us to El Mirador. The oldest known Mayan civilization, borders Mexico, up in the Petan region of Guat. Not only the oldest, but it also holds the title for highest temple in the world, Dante, at 70+meters. I wasn't quite sold on this 6 day jungle hike until I heard others regal their own adventure and then, I was on board and recruiting the group with gusto. Actually, it was very easy. Coffee in hand, sign posted, and we let the troops flock to us. Couldn't have worked out better.

So, the next morning we awoke and were loaded into the bus by 6am.

A quick stop for an oh so healthy breakfast of toasted, well, basically warmed, white bread and pineapple jam with a couple bites of watermelon. Little did I know at the time that the white bread and jam would reappear over and over again in the next 6 days. After our desayuno (breakfast) we drove 2 hours to the little town of Carmelita. Where the mules were loaded down with water, food, and all the gear we would need for the next 6 days. Packs included, we only had to carry water.

This did take about an hour. In which time, two small Guatemalan kids decided I should be there playmate. Their game included tapping me on the shoulder with a stick or throwing small rocks at my back. This merry game continued for the whole hour. They also would just look at me and giggle with hysterics. I think it was a compliment, maybe. Eventually, we were on our way; only after our guide's mother sang us a Mother's Day song, all the high notes included.

Day 1: 22km trekking through the jungle and we reached our first campsite, Tintal. Luckily, the hike was on predominantly flat ground. Yet, the heat and humidity of the jungle was excruciating. Within a couple of hours we were sweating at unhuman rates. Finally, we took a lunch break where the white bread and pineapple jam reappeared. I don't like either. Todd said my face looked putrified as I choked down the offered sustenance. Who knew when we would be fed again. Two jam sandwiches down and one with a Kraft single and we were off. I was amazingly full with a huge sugar high. We finally arrived at our destination. A quick assessment of the measly 8 jugs of water and we were already predicting a drought. We went to the top of one of the

temples to watch the sunset. The perspective caught me off guard. The skyline covered as far as the eye could see with trees all of relatively the same height. You could see how flat the natural landscape was. At that point, each 'hill' became a temple. The alteration of the landscape seen in clarity by the risen earth of Mirador that taunted us in the distance. It looked like an ant hill, was this really what we were hiking after.

Day 2: 35km to our destination El Mirador.

I have never been in a jungle before but I imagined a super dense area full of life and biodiversity. I wasn't disappointed by this jungle but it was more sparse then I would have imagined. Palms reaching to the sky with vines twisting the life out of ancient trees as everything tried to survive the last days of the dry season. Dried leaves crunching under our feet. The sky peaking out between the leaves of creaking trees. Day 2 seemed to be an easier hike. Maybe it was the rehydration salts (yuck) or maybe the anticipation of our destination but my legs continued one in front of the other as the countless hours continued to pass. Conversations between the group still consisting of the getting-to-know-you questions. With long spurts of the zone, nothing and everything racing through the mind. Finally, we reached a sign, 'Mirador'. False alarm, yet we did get to see excavated tombs.

Todd climbed to the top, scouring the skyline for signs of things to come. It would have helped if the little temple was above the skyline. Our scout saw nothing. Unlike the US, we were able to crawl into a tomb beneath the temple. The cool air felt great but the bat population kept me close to the exit. About 15 minutes later we reached out campsite; futbol field and basketball hoop included. I almost forgot, lunch was again a beautiful jam sandwich with a slice of cantaloupe, mmm!

We spent that night watching the sunset from El Tigre. Looking back at Tintal, a minor bruise on the landscape, barely visible without a monocular. Yet, all around hills dotted the landscape with steep protrusions. Temples, everywhere. It was incredible to see the power of man, altering the horizon, yet with nature reclaiming its ground. Everything again, covered in dense foliage and ancient trees. Nature will always win!

Day 3: No actual distance calculated, just climbing up the steep, steep, steep stairs of ancient temples. A great way to spend a day. Some temples were partially cleared, the essence of the structure visible, yet, it will always be hard for me to imagine huge civilizations actually living in these places.

Our guide, Eric, was a tad funny. They will never say they don't know anything so we heard some questionable facts; Mayans were almost 2m tall (over 6ft), yeah, right. He read every plaque with diligence, finger following the words as we petered off to shady seats as we waited for him to finish. It is impressive he could read, but it was tedious to say the least. We hiked Danta, the highest Mayan structure built and supposedly the highest temple in the world at 70ish meters. Monkeys danced in the trees as we admired the work of ancient peoples.

After our tour of the ruins, which I don't think I described with enough gusto but I just can't put it all into words. We had a nice hot meal waiting for us with no jam insight. It was beautiful, even if it was the third time we had eaten soup. Eric surprised us after lunch. Behind the ranger hut lied a stagnant pool of water.

It was the most beautiful brown/green pond I had ever seen. We rinsed in buckets of the beautiful water. Rinsing days of sweat and grime from our bodies. It was excellent. Then we played games and finally broke out of the getting to know you questions and bonded as a group, laughing for hours over nonsense. A wonderful, relaxing day.

Day 4: An early rising to the ferocious rumble of Howler Monkeys. The sound their little bodies produce is amazing; a deep howl, like the rising of ancient dinosaurs trying to reclaim their spot on earth. For those that don't wake to alarms, Howler Monkeys are the solution. A short day hike, only 4 hours or about 12km and we were at Nakbe. The delicious breakfast of warm milk and sugary corn flakes and no cafe, left me in a fog for the whole day. Luckily, upon arrival we had a wonderful lunch of none other then white bread and jam. This time we were privileged enough to get strawberry jam. Good bye pineapple. A quick nap and we were off again to tour Nakbe. It is older then Mirador so they used smaller rocks between the large stones versus just the large stones found elsewhere. They had reconstructed one of the temples. I was disgusted by what they had done. We all decided the archeological replication looked sloppy and sad. Luckily, it was only a set of stairs that had been attacked with massive amounts of concrete. That night we climbed our last temple with hopes of catching a sunset. Instead, we saw nothing but storm clouds on the horizon. We should have been forewarned for the rain to come but we all went to bed convinced that the rain would stay at bay. No luck. A quick 2am move under shelter and we were all sleeping pretty again until our 5am wake up call, rain still trickling from the sky. It felt great after days of nothing but hot, humid weather.

Day 5: A long one at 37 to 40km. A strong breakfast of rice and beans prepared us for the day. We took off, one step in front of the other, rain at a trickle, but mud thick on the boots. The jungle seemed to be coming alive with the rain. I don't think I would have ever agreed to the trek during the rainy season. Between the horrendous amount of bugs and mud up to your knees, no thank you. But we were able to experience a nice combo. After what seemed like forever, we made it to our last campsite, La Florida. It started to rain again shortly after we arrived.

In the rain, the mule manager, we weren't able to come up with a better title, climbed a huge tree (15-20m). He simply tied a rope around his waste, strapped on spurs, and up he went, machete strapped to his side. We thought he would only chop a couple of branches for the mules. No. Within 20 minutes the once beautifully lush tree was diminished to a few bare branches, no leafy foliage left. He walked with such ease, like a trapeze artist without a net, instead of a pole for balance, he wielded his machete with ease.

And without notice, he was on the ground in one fell swoop. The mules ate plenty throughout the night. We had discussed the repercussions of using mules, but there it was, right in front of us.

That night, we laughed around the table as one cohesive group. Who would have thought that such a hodge podge group would work so well together but as it turns out 2 Americans, 2 Quebecois, 1 Canadian, 2 hippy Flemish Belgiums, including 1 with 9yr old dreads and a Dutch would have so much fun together. Trading funny words and always making fun of the messed up French that the Quebecois spoke, it really was there own secret language.

Day 6: An early rising to Eric talking at full volume just a foot away from our tent. The man, well, man of 18 years who was actually in charge of two others, was ready to get home. We all woke excited and anxious. No cafe this morning, we had mochas. Eric had decided to make hot chocolate milk instead of coffee, hmmm. We meandered along the path, checked out a couple more ruins, and of course climbed in the ones we could, but each step was directed with dreams of cold beverages. Chants of cervezas filled the air. Finally, we cheersed (not quite sure that is a word, but after a little debate, I am sticking to it) with lukewarm cans of Gallo. We had made the trek, survived the heat, and experienced one of the neatest places I have ever seen.