Belize - Day Two

If you missed Day One of our trip you can read it here. This post is pretty lengthy because Day Two was really two trips in one - the trip to Guatemala and the trip to Tikal. To me, the two had equal cultural impact. After a somewhat relaxing and mostly recreational first day, Alex picked a trip to Guatemala to Tikal National Park to view the Mayan temples for our second adventure. The trip was set to depart the lodge at 5:30 a.m. to make the 100 mile trip to Tikal National Park, located about 62 miles northwest of the Guatemala/Belize border. Tikal is one of the richest archaeological sites in the world (or at least in the Americas) containing spectacular, and sometimes creepy, sites of the Mayan civilization. It covers about 222 square miles of jungle and was primarily excavated and studied in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania. The site was inhabited by over 60,000 Mayans from the 6th century BC until roughly the 9th century AD. (You can read more about this fascinating location here.) I had some doubts about Alex’s ability to be up at 5:30 a.m. for any reason, but after I whispered his name at 5:15 he was up and dressed and ready to roll within ten minutes. He was equally excited, I think, to see the sites and to get those coveted stamps on his passport! We started our journey at daybreak in air-conditioned comfort and stopped in the town of San Ignacio to pick up our guide, Radicol, for the day. Radicol was a native of Guatemala but has lived in Belize for the last 15 of his 40 or so years. Radicol was in Guatemala at the time of their last civil war and shared some of the history of that time with us as we rattled and bounced along the highway towards Guatemala. Let’s just say it was not a pretty time, or a kind time, but kind of pretty horrific. There was one particularly gruesome story about how one day the rebels came into his village, rounded everyone up, smashed the children’s heads against the village well, threw them into it, shot their parents and threw them on top of their children. Radicol was conscripted into the army by this point so he was around to tell the story. Yeah. We rolled along the country side and took several photos from the van (so the quality is a bit shaky). Alex was pretty quiet and it was hard to say if he was sleepy or soaking in the difference between these two countries and his own, high-tech, hard-wired posh by comparison world. At the border we got out of the van and walked up to the counter, paid about $25 each US, got the passport stamps and walked to the other side. That was it. A man with a pistol stuck through the waist band of his pants lifted a rope gate and the van rolled across the border. The difference between the two countries was most immediately noticeable in that the Belize side had a decent paved highway and we were now traveling over pot holes covered with a little dirt. We noticed the multitude of pigs, horses, chickens and very skinny cows roaming around the streets and yards of homes. The horses were wild and belonged to no one, but looked far better fed than the cattle. We saw women and young girls going door to door with baskets and jugs of things to sell - the day’s supply of fresh water and bread. I quizzed Radicol relentlessly about school systems, economy, history, culture, daily life and so on because I wanted to know about that stuff. I don’t like being one of those tourists who goes to another country and then bitc hes the whole time that it’s not like home. His answers were fascinating and if you want more details let me know. We stopped for breakfast at a lovely open air café just outside the gates to Tikal. We were served the best fresh pineapple juice we ever had. Alex said he would gladly give up Red Bull if he could replace it with that! We arrived at Tikal by late morning. When we got out of the van the humidity hit us like a tidal wave. Then the mosquitoes sent out the message there was fresh blood in town and descended upon us in a feeding frenzy. Several layers of chemically laden bug spray alleviated that problem but there was nothing to do about the humidity other than literally sweat it out. I think that the weather is probably what chased off those 60,000 inhabitants several centuries ago. After a slow meander down the main path in to the park we turned a corner and literally were stopped in our tracks by the site of the first temple. It was breath taking, and Alex just stood there marveling at it. Radicol proceeded to explain the who, what and where of the whole site but I must say we didn’t give him our full attention. We wanted to wander and explore on our own and that’s precisely what we did. The main temple area was fascinating and really, really creepy at the same time. The Mayans were not nice people by today’s standards and the areas where they performed their bloody, ritual human sacrifices were numerous. It was who they were and what they believed in. Say what you will about all that, but they were also an incredibly sophisticated and advanced civilization. The structure of their temples and buildings attests to that given they are still mostly intact a thousand years later. There is a growing school of research into their level of understanding of human anatomy and physiology not only to increase their god-pleasing level of human sacrifice but also in the treatment of illness and disease. We only got to spend a few hours in the park and that was barely enough to give us a taste of it. But we still had a three hour trip back to the lodge and didn’t want to be late for the chips and salsa. Recognize this from Star Wars? It's under renovation. After stopping for a late lunch and a deliciously ice-cold Gallo Guatemalan beer we made most of the trip back in relative silence. I pondered why I was so blessed with being born where I was, and who I am, and with what I have. I was thankful that I never had to witness my child’s head being smashed, or that I don’t have to make the trip to the river to do laundry, that my pantry always has food in it, I have electricity and air conditioning and the best medical care in the galaxy. I was grateful that I could go on trips like this when many of the people I saw and took photos of have never left, and maybe never will leave, their villages. Do I feel guilty because I am a US citizen and have so much? Absolutely not. But I can tell you one thing for certain. Even with gas closing in on five dollars a gallon (it’s ten dollars a gallon there), the stock market sinking like an over-turned raft, the so-called housing crisis, and all the other economic woes we are encountering - by comparison Americans are NOT suffering. I could have waxed philosophical for a longer time but a cool glass of rum punch, a cold shower and the choice of tomorrow’s adventure was waiting for us. A katamundi says hello