After leaving San Pedro via Belize City I arrived at 4:30 PM in the city of El Remate, Guatemala where I dropped out of the bus heading towards Flores. The bus driver shook his head and told me I would have no connection from there at this time of the day and immediately called a friend who greeted me as soon as I got out of the bus.
The offer to give me a lift into the park of Tikal which was 35 Kilometers deeper into the rain forest for a whomping 60 US Dollar fee was denied at first. It just felt not right to pay so much in a land so poor. Instead I first steered towards one of the close-by restaurants to raise up my blood sugar level to an extent that would not make me gnash my teeth into anything crossing my path. Said and done there was some very good cooked chicken for as low as 1.50 EUR and I felt much safer negotiating the details of the onward travel.
Into the dark night
The guy waiting for his deal of the day still stood around the intersection where the road to Flores and Tikal split. With my bits of Spanish I tried to find out from the locals when the next public bus would arrive. But to no help. Everyone denied that there would be another bus at this time of the day. So I started haggling with the patient businessmen about the price I was willing to pay. A few rounds and some straight uppercuts later I managed to bring the cost for the trip down to 30 USD. Off we went with a foreign Jeep into the jungle.
The copilot of the driver explained the most interesting facts about the park while he drove towards one of the three hotels located inside the park area. We arrived to the Jungle Lodge after dark and as the premature dinner was just enough to prevent me from eating people on the street I had a proper one at the restaurant located inside the premises of my home to be.
A friendly couple from the Netherlands sat at the table next to me. We managed to exchange informations soon after we introduced ourselves. The sunrise tour of the Tikal temple area was what we were lusting after. Swiftly we decided to go together the next morning. Another plus point for our dutch friends was that they exchanged a larger amount of currency aka Quetzales and they were polite enough to lend some of it to me who failed to visit an ATM before coming to a cash only place.
Alarm went of at 3:00 AM in the morning. Thus it would not have been needed as a group of howling monkeys was following their path towards the deeper jungle right above the bungalow with their distinctive and relentless screams which would have woken dead people. A short walk to the entry of the park where the next adventure waited. In shortage of cash I tried to be clever and bought only an entrance ticket for the sunrise tour priced at 150 Quetzales. Nonetheless I needed an additional mandatory day pass for another 100 Quetzales. As of recently there had been many cases of bribery towards the guards of the park and those were unwilling to close an eye. Despite the early hour.
A misty morning
The guide was kind enough to testify in front of them with his own name that he would take the duty to bring the missing tickets later that day. The entry wristbands we were longing for were in close sight. It took a whole bunch of swears to his honor to finally convince them.
The climb to the top of Temple IV was exhausting and I hoped to discover the secrets of the ancient Mayan site. A headlamp brought from Germany turned out to be very practical. When I arrived at the top I waited quietly for the start of a new day. As it turned out the start was mysterious. Mysterious because I could hardly see anything due to the mist evaporating from the rain forest. When the Mayan ancestors were in charge of the area they wisely eradicated all trees in the area so they could enjoy the magic of the temples casting shadows on each and every morning.
The morning was nonetheless exciting as I visited the other sites of the park and walking through the dense jungle in the dawn of the day was a true delight in itself. That could have been it but now comes the long tail. The sales for the tickets had been moved from the park to an office of a bank close to El Remate due to the aforementioned briberies. So after enjoying a misty and early morning we left the park under the prying eyes of the guards to get the promised papers. We boarded a chicken bus and our local guide did not leave us out of sight a single second. His honor seemed to be seriously in danger.
In the outskirts of the day
The ride to El Remate took us only one hour and came at the price of 1.20 EUR. Public transportation wins always. Hands down. We bought some fresh cash at the ATM which was luckily working that day. Obviously a pleasure not to be taken for granted. Finally we paid our tickets into the park, the Dutch couple being so helpful and a very decent breakfast on the shores of the Petén-Itzá lake for us and our helpful guide who turned out not be a very nice but also knowledgeable person.
After returning to the park in the early afternoon I walked to the temples once more to benefit from the clear sky and make use of our pass whose acquisition turned out to be so difficult. The month of May and June were a recommendation of our guide for the sunrise tour as the rain forest is very dry during that time and the chance of seeing sky during sunrise is above 80%. Another good advice is to bring your smartphone. With the help of Google Maps navigation inside the maze of temples, structures, acropolis and palaces was easy enough.
