Languid and Lazy on the Petén Itza

The view of the island of Flores from my luxury cruise ship

After a long, hot day traipsing through the Mayan city of Tikal -- did I say "hot" -- well, not so much the heat as the -- you know what's coming -- the humidity -- I needed a languid, lazy day. So I walked around Flores, cruised around Lake Petén Itza, and then sat around the hotel as a major thunder storm blew in and knocked out the power (and therefore the air conditioning) (and, even worse, the internet) for several hours.

Flores is a very nice (and did I mention hot) city on an island in a lake in a rain forest.

 

In fact, the rain forest of Guatemala's El Petén state is the largest jungle in North America. I would've guessed Panama's impenetrable Darien Gap, but I would've guessed wrong.

Not far from my hotel was a small park. There was supposed to be a museum here, according to Google Maps, but none of the locals heard of it. I trust the locals over the Google geeks in Silicon Valley. But there was a cathedral of sorts.

The official name is Catedral Nuestra Señora de Los Remedios. It is on the highest point on the island of Flores and its two white domes dominate Flores's profile. You can see the two white domes in the photo at the top of the page.

Let's have a look-see:

It's simple. I'm expecting much much more historic architecture when I tour the churches of Antigua at my next stop. This is the altar:

Excellent views of the lake from up here:

You can see the white domes in this photo from the other side of the park:

And the Flores city park has stelae:

Is it real? Or is it memorex? Well, real or replica?

I'm guessing replicant, but they are a nice addition to the park regardless.

All this walking was making me tired. And the City of Flores was even hotter than Tikal (no shade trees would be my theory). So I needed a way to explore without walking in the hot sun.

All around the edges of the island were boats available for tours. I chose Luciano's boat.

Off we went. One hour for only 200 quetzales. A bargain.

The exchange rate is, very roughly 7:1. So 200 quetzales would be a little under $30. For an hour. Only me on the boat besides Luciano the boatsman. In the second year without tourists. Sin problemas. Para mi.

The first destination was Isla Santa Barbara, an island in the lake much much smaller than the island of Flores.

It has iguanas in the trees. They are hard to spot in a tiny photo, but since the iguanas of the Petén are freakin' huge, the one in the above tree was relatively easy to spot even for me. And I never recognize anybody.

This is an abandoned lake side hotel.

With no exterior walls facing the lake, just open air, it's easy to see why it was abandoned. I'm guessing it was abandoned mid-construction, but it didn't tell its secrets to me.

Of course we were not the only boat cruising around Lake Petén Itza.

Yes, the "Itza" is the same "Itza" as in "Chichen Itza, Mexico." "Itza" is a Mayan word meaning "sorceror of the water," or thereabouts, which makes much more sense for a lake than an inland peninsula.

There are little tourist villages all around lake. I'm guessing those are more for the Guatemalans than the foreigners, but that's a guess with absolutely no basis in fact.

Somebody ferrying a car across the lake. And you can see the white domes of the cathedral from the island. So much happening in that photo above.

And here's another lakeside tourist village.

This has been major tourism country, driven as much by fun on the lake as by nearby Tikal, and, hopefully, it soon will be again.

At this point, the hour for which I paid my quetzales was coming to a close, time to head back to the dock.

I did not know that there was a huge new Ramada right on the water. The thing must have more rooms than every other hotel on the island of Flores combined.

And we're back at the dock.

Adios, Luciano.

Time for a little more walking around before getting out of the hot afternoon sun.

I headed back to the hotel to rest up before dinner. I decided that I was going to try a different restaurant than the hotel restaurant (which was very good) (I just thought some variety would do me good).

And here are the obligatory letters marking everyplace you go nowadays.

But, right around 5:00 p.m., even with a sunny sky, a major storm blew in. The winds were so strong that it knocked out the power until around 10:00 a.m. The internet was still out even when I checked out of the hotel this morning.

Good-bye Isla de Flores Hotel. Good-bye Petén.

Traipsing Through Maya History at Tikal

Tikal's Grand Square. Basically, downtown Tikal.

Tikal was the largest and grandest of the Mayan cities of Mesoamerica. At its peak, it may have been home to as many as 200,000 people. It may have been, at its peak, possibly the second largest city in the world. (Beijing was probably always bigger.) And that's where my tourism-travel adventures take me today: Tikal.

Welcome to Tikal.

This is the Ceiba tree. Or maybe merely a Ceiba tree,

Again, Tikal is rather large.  Basically, I walked a city the size of Rochester, New York. Or Akron, Ohio. Or Little Rock, Arkansas. In an afternoon. No wonder my feet are sore.

I'm not going to comment too specifically on any one sight I saw. I don't recognize the various temples by their assigned numbers. And the grandeur of the place isn't any one specific point. It's the entirety of the place.

Tikal existed for a baktun. Yes, I am showing off my knowledge of Mayan lore.

A baktun is a 400-year cycle, a cycle of 20 katun on the Mayan long count calendar.

Tikan lasted for a baktun: A.D. 400 to A.D. 800. It limped on for a little after that, but it's prime (and time of all of the construction you see in these photos) was during that baktun.

Here's a fun fact. (Well, my idea of fun.) The Mayan counting system was based on "base 20," not "base 10" like every Western counting system. And the Mayans of the triple digit years A.D. were one of only two civilizations of the planet whose numbering system included a zero. The Mayans and India. That's it. Not even the super-sophisticated Romans and Greeks had a zero in their counting system. The Mayan did.

What I don't understand about Tikal is why is this not a major tourist attraction?

Everybody, including this guy, wants to go to Machu Picchu, for example.

But Tikal is a 1000 years older.

This is a restored face that decorated the now-restored temple on which you find this face.

Tikal is older than Machu Picchu. It is bigger than Machu Picchu. And it's a considerably shorter flight from the United States.

So why is Machu Picchu on everyone's so-called bucket list, while Tikal totters in anonymity?

I know: marketing. But sights like this should be a piece o' cake to market:

The people in the foreground give you an idea of the scale.

And keep in mind this was built well over a millennium ago, maybe even a millennium and a half.

This pyramid dates from the Calakmul occupation of Tikal.

Calakmul was a Mayan city-state in the southern Yucatan who was Tikal's arch-rival, or arch-nemesis. Think Athens and Sparta. Calakmul would be the Sparta in that analogy, in that it was more war-like.

So says the apologist for Tikal. Still, you would not go wrong analogizing the Mayan world of Mesoamerica to the Greek system of city-states, while the Aztecs of Mexico (who came along much later) could be analogized to the Roman Empire (which also came along after the decline of Greece), with its centralized control, and imposition of a single language.

What you see is a mix of original and "restored."

Much has been degraded in the intervening 1500 years. But, then again, think of how much "original" construction is still standing in Athens or Rome.

Monkey see:

And I did actually see a toucan. In the wild. It is visible at the top part of the photo below, near the center:

Wildlife sighting here were plentiful.

And the last new construction here (not counting restoration currently taking place) probably dates from the late 700's.

And I don't know why I am using the word "probably." The Mayans dated everything, right down to the specific day, using their sophisticated "long count" calendar. So if something says it was dated December 8, 791, that is an accurate date.

One quick word about the Mayan long count calendar supposedly predicting that the world would end on December 22, 2012. No. The Mayans never ever said that.

December 22, 2012, was the end of a calendar cycle. Key word: cycle. Unlike us Westerners who see time as linear, moving ever forward into the future, the Mayans saw time as circular. Like the movement of the earth through the solar system, for example.

Family selfie on one pyramid-temple:

So many of the pyramid-temples are so degraded that, to this day, they appear to be an odd-shaped mound of dirt.

Trust me, there's a small pyramid under there.

More pictures of people taking pictures:

And more me:

And here's a pregnant coati:

Her big belly does not mean she's from Milwaukee and has been living on a diet of beer and extra sharp cheddar. It means she's on the nest.

At this point, I climbed a pyramid. I told the guide I would climb one (and only one). He chose Temple IV.

And there was a different coati greeting us at the top.

Technically, it was not the top-top of the pyramid.

But to ascend any higher, you would have had to be a priest, a king, or a sacrifice victim. I certainly wasn't either of the two former and I had zero interest in being the latter.

So I just enjoyed the view looking east toward the sunrise.

But it was sunset, which was happening on the other side of the pyramid (where you could not walk to). But watching sunsets is of zero interest to me. You can't look at the sun where you are watching a sunset. So why watch something you can't look at?

But you can look at stelae. And I did.

This is a carving that was made into a huge slab of stone.

It was getting late at this point.

Luckily I had the special wristband allowing me to be in the park after closing time. I really did.

More stela and sacrifice altars.

Covered to protect them from the elements. And there are a lot of elements in the rain forest.

Luckily this was the (very brief) dry season in the rain forest.

This is my guide, Marlon Diaz, who I hired off viator.com, showing me the details on the carving.

One more pyramid before we go:

This is, I believe, the north zone of Tikal, the final area we visited today.

And that concludes Tikal. Ever visit some overhyped place that failed to live up to the hype? That place is not Tikal. Tikal is seriously, severely, under-hyped. And it would be amazing even if it were hyped. Which it isn't. It was definitely worth the trip into the Guatemalan rain forest to see.

And concluding Tikal Day was a supper at the hotel restaurant because my feet were way too tired to go any farther than I had to.

I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich. This being Guatemala, what did I find on my ham and cheese? Avocado! I am very certain that the elite and the commoners of Tikal ate plenty of avocado. This is Guatemala after all.