Oh Maya!
I am still waiting to see some Mayan ruins by sunlight.
It has rained almost non-stop (that is, every time we step outside!) since we arrived at Tikal in Guatemala, and then through to San Ignacio in Belize. Perhaps Mexico can offer some blue skies for my photos? As I only have a cheap little camera, and having ruined the phone with an excess of water, I am very aware that it is not infallible. So, again I haven't taken many photos - trying to minimise the water risk to the camera, especially as I have many photos with a smudgy white spot over it from condensation in my lens that I couldn't clean/dry as every garment on me was also soaking wet!
In Tikal, Guatemala, we stayed in one of the lodges in the jungle itself. The walk (in torrential rain) was several hours long on muddy, slippery roads. Our guide (think Maradona in the 60s) knew the guards and managed to arrange for us to do a sunset walk. When we finally got through enough jungle to see the ruins, I was a bit disappointed.
Having now seen three sites, it seems the sparseness and the state that the ruins are in is typical. I suppose too that I have been spoilt with Angkor Wat, which is managed quite well. There just isn't the money to maintain or repair these heavily decayed ruins, and they are all extremely difficult to access - way into the jungle. And being in the jungle, the vegetation is the greatest threat, as seen by the number of trees growing in the middle of the pyramids, and the number not yet excavated that appear as grassy mounds of a rather pyramid-like shape.
Check our my arty photo of the main temple on the plaza in Tikal. I climbed some of the slippery stones as we weaved our way around the site, but decided not to go up to the top of one of the pyramids for sunset (this one had a wooden staircase) as I did not have a torch to see my way down (note to self - always travel with a decent torch!). Also, it was so overcast and rainy that it wasn't much of a sunset...
It was amazing, though, to see this silhouette at night with the night sky and twinkling stars above it. I wished I had a good camera (and the time) to take a photo of it. But the walk back through the jungle in the dark was close to terrifying, not having a torch (fortunately the leader hung back with me - yes I always walk slower than everyone else - and had a decent torch), and still trying to avoid all the puddles and mud and stay upright. There was a brief moment of panic when we got to a fork in the road and couldn't see the torches of the group in front to know which way to go... a bit of yelling got someone to come back so we could see which way to go!
Our next stop was San Ignacio in Belize. That night there was quite a nice sunset (see my blog gallery).
I elected the following day to take a day trip to Caracol, the largest Mayan site in the country, with a visit to a cave and watering hole for a swim. Alas, it was not to be. We drove for two hours across bumpy, muddy unsealed roads up into the mountains back near Guatemala.
At least the temperature was cooler, and after a while the rain eased off making the mountains and trees all misty. But a week of late rain (it's the end of the rainy season) meant that the bridges were flooded. We were about to be towed across one (the driver thought that the 4WD was a bit low and some assistance would help) when the cars that had been just ahead of us returned to cross back again.
It seemed the bridge ahead was even further washed out. So, no Caracol. :-( Instead we backtracked to San Ignacio and saw two sites close to town. The first, Xunantunich, involved a ferry boat crossing with the car, which was cute (it wasn't a wide river) and the site had some rather steep and slippery steps up to the unusual friezes in this blog's photo.
The second site, Cahal Pech, was just above the town, but it was quite intricate, and we walked through a labyrinth of sleeping rooms for the royalty that formed the back of the pyramid.
Naturally this was all done in the rain. My waterproof shoes are no longer waterproof. This day totally killed that. For a while I thought my rain jacket had stopped working too, but I just think it was perspiration on the inside with the humidity.
So, somewhat underwhelmed by Mayan ruins to date, especially after the Incan ones. But it could just be the miserableness of walking around in torrential rain that's dampened my spirits. Unfortunately, the next stop - a Caribbean island off the coast of Belize saw even more rain... so the next post will be a short one, I think.
Until then, Aveline. xxx
