Party in the Jungle

The next morning, I hitched a ride through the jungle up to the Tikal ruins. I had no idea what to expect as I hadn't seen any pictures. I assumed it would be a large, open field with tons of tourists and scattered archeological ruins. In reality, it was a series of enormous Mayan temples spread out through a maze of dense Guatemalan jungle. You have to hike through the forest - dodging psychotic howler monkeys and scavenging coatimundis - to even get to the first set of temples.

To give some insight into my perspective, I have been reading a book called 1491 -- it's a snapshot of Indigenous American societies just before the arrival of Columbus. Basically, and contrary to what most American children are taught growing up, the Americas were highly populated with technologically advanced societies before the Europeans arrived and killed off 95% of all natives by introducing smallpox and other European diseases. The Incan empire, for example, was one of the largest and most sophisticated human civilization of its time (before we killed them off...) How many huge empires have ever been able to produce enough food for the entire population to be well fed? The Incas did. Anyway, the book talks a lot about the Mayans. They were very advanced in comparison to Europe at the time. For example, they developed the number zero far before Europeans ever learned about it through trade with India. What I find most fascinating about the Mayans, however, is that they're still around! Fifty percent of Guatemala is indigenous Mayan - they still speak Mayan languages, eat cuisine that has been prepared the same way for thousands of years, and maintain traditions that have been practiced since the time of the very pyramids I was going to see.

With this in mind as I explored the ancient temples, I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of what I was seeing. Forget Egypt - these things are incredible! Unfortunately, English doesn't have the right words to describe what the ruins were like, so you'll just have to look at my pictures.

Afterward, I got a ride into the town of Flores - a beautiful village on an island in the middle of a jungle lake. The atmosphere was so relaxed and the energy so bright that I would have been completely content staying for a few weeks, but I only stayed for a night and caught another shared van the next morning to a place called Semuc Champey - smack dab in the center of the country.

Joining me for the ride were some fantastic people, which was a relief because we drove for seven hours, and it was nothing I would call comfortable. I met three Brits from northern England - a young guy and his sister who were visiting their other sister who had been living in Guatemala studying Spanish for a few months. The youngest sister loved Guatemala so much that she had just called her company back in England and told them she wasn't coming back. There was a couple from Austria who had been traveling throughout the region for about four months and didn't have plans to stop any time soon. Another couple - a Czech guy and his German girlfriend - were surfing their way from Mexico to South America -- livin the good life. A Polish guy and his German girlfriend also joined us for the ride. After a while we changed vans, and I ended up meeting a very inspirational 71 year-old English/Israeli widower who had spent his single life traveling the world, volunteering and doing humanitarian work between sessions of helping mentally ill children in the UK. He had just finished a program in Antigua teaching poor indigenous children, and he came away from the experience beaming with enthusiasm and energy. The guy also wouldn't stop talking - I heard more Israeli war stories and dry British jokes than I'll ever be able to remember.

The lot of us ended up staying at the same hostel in the middle of the woods, hours from civilization. I could go on and on about the beauty of the mountain switchbacks we bounced through to get to this spot, but I'll never do it justice. All I'll say is that I had no idea how stunningly beautiful Guatemala was. I never expected to climb 5,000 feet from the Caribbean into the highland jungle where we stayed.

We were in the middle of Mayan country, and everyone around us was indigenous. Their Spanish was pretty good though, so communication wasn't a problem. I ended up rooming in a dorm-style loft with the British kids in the open attic of a shed. It was actually very cool. That night we all gathered in the dining hall of the hostel, and shared a dinner of chow mein and pickles with all the rest of the foreigners within a 100 mile radius. The next day was British Matt's birthday, so we did a little celebrating before midnight, and ended up having a great time getting to know all the groups of travelers that had happened to converge upon the same unlikely place at the same unlikely time. At some point, they kicked us out so they could turn off the generator and go to sleep, so we stumbled across the street to the river's dock. We lit some candles and sat beneath the vastness of the milky way discussing everything from the nature of God to the looming Mayan apocalypse in 2012. Mario, a Guatemalan and his Brazilian wife who live in Miami, told us story after story of life in his country. It was a spectacular night.

Now on to something I will take time to describe --- the trek to Semuc Champey. The next day, we stumbled out of bed to discover a crystal clear blue sky and a warm morning sun. We ate breakfast and headed across the street to the river to try out the rope swing. The girls were hesitant, but Matt reminded them that they had no choice - it was his birthday. We met up with the rest of the hippie gang and hiked down the hilly dirt road and over a rickety suspension bridge toward the entrance of the park. The weather was perfect, the company was great, the air was crisp and fragrant, and I couldn't think of anywhere else I'd rather be. None of us had any idea of what to expect from Semuc Champey, but my cousin Oren had recommended it to me as a must-see, so I took his advice blindly - I'm so glad I did.

We were trailed by local kids trying to sell homemade chocolate to the gringos. We bought a few bars - some flavored with cinnamon, some with cardamom, and some with the carbony flavor of burning... Once we got into the park we took a trail that climbed straight up the side of a mountain for about 1.2km to a viewpoint that overlooked the entire valley below. Absolutely breathtaking! Cradled between two jagged peaks flowed an alpine river that was crossed by a natural limestone bridge, created by millennia of mineral deposits. Water trickled out of crevaces in the hillside, which flowed over the limestone, resulting in a series of bright turquoise pools of cool spring water. After our long, sweaty hike up the slippery mud trail, we couldn't wait to get down to the pools to cool off. Absolutely amazing - one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

Eventually we hiked along the river back to our hostel, and we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the pier and jumping off the rope swing. That night, we went to the only other restaurant in the entire village to celebrate Matt's birthday. Everyone we had met over the past two days joined us for dinner and drinks. After a few beers, the rum made an appearance, and the party got more and more lively. The Brazilians at the end of the table were the real party animals, and João, the father of Mario's wife, came over to tell Matt that he had made an arrangement with the two Mayan girls working in the kitchen. "Don't be so British, Matty! Come on and relax! You can pick the girl you want tonight!! They are so pretty!" We didn't stop laughing for about ten minutes. Eventually, Mario hooked up his iPod and started playing some dance music. He and his wife made space on the restaurant floor and pulled everyone else out to dance. Randomly, the young guy behind the bar climbed up on a chair and replaced the light with a strobe light - we partied and danced till the wee hours of the morning. Never would I EVER have expected to find myself in the middle of a Guatemalan jungle, hundreds of miles from civilization, surrounded by Mayans who can barely speak Spanish, joined by free spirited travelers from England, Brazil, Czech, Germany, Guatemala, Colombia, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands, the US, and Poland, dancing to samba, techno, and Bon Jovi, and having the time of my life.