Day 1: Antigua - Quirigua - Puerto Barrios - Livingston. The nine of us met at 4 AM outside the travel agency in Antigua and rode with Manual in a comfortable private shuttle van to Quirigua National Park, with a breakfast stop in Rio Hondo along the way.
Quirigua National Park -- Rarely-visited Mayan ruins best known for intricately-carved stelae (stone monuments). Quirigua was a dependent city of nearby Copan during the Mayan classical period, with it's peak under the leader Cauac Sky (AD 725-84). Today, the park is a Unesco World Heritage site. In the archeological zone the grassy grand plaza is dotted with stelae up to 10.5M tall, and at the far end of the plaza is an Acropolis with temples and other structures covered in zoomorphic carvings. Compared to Tikal and Copan, Quirigua is fairly small -- but worth a stop if it is along your route. I wouldn't go out of your way to visit.
After a leisurely stroll around Quirigua, Manual drove us to the dock at Puerto Barrios for our boat shuttle across to Livingston. We checked into beachfront hotel Dona Alida with enough time to hire a boat up the shore for lunch and an afternoon at Playa Blanca for a rousing game of beach volleyball, cold beer, and lounging in the soft warm sand. My losing volleyball team later bought drinks for the winning team at Restaurante BugaMama -- where we believe Juan, Michelle and Graham picked up food poisoning from the seafood. Yeouch!
Livingston -- Only accessible by boat, Livingston is populated primarily by Garifuna people who are descendants of Africans brought to the New World as slaves and resettled after a 1795 revolt against the British. The town's isolation and unique heritage of Africans, Carib Indians, Mayans, and shipwrecked sailors brewed a distinct culture and language not found elsewhere. The town has a pirate-like feel to it and has a reputation for being somewhat rough. We didn't encounter any trouble (except food poisoning), but also stayed within the few blocks recommended by our tour company. Nonetheless, I was fascinated to experience a little bit of this very different Guatemalan town in contrast to the other places I'd seen.
Day 2: Livingston - Rio Dulce - Tikal National Park. We woke to a terrific storm that rattled the windows and tin roof and blew down some branches near the hotel. The water was too rough for the boat to pick us up at the hotel as planned, so we packed up our things for a VERY wet tour up the Rio Dulce ("Sweet River"). We asked our guide/driver to just get to the end as quickly as possible and bypassed a castle that was scheduled along the route. By the end our our 2-hour boat trip everyone was completely drenched from the rain and spray. The rain was so heavy for most of the trip that it was hard to see, but during the drier spots the river made me think of the hidden coves from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. In spite of the rain, the resilient group kept up good spirits with sailing songs and pirate jokes along the way. Yaaarrrghh!!
A few hours later we checked into the very nice Hotel Tikal Inn right at the gates of Tikal National Park. A swim in the pool, a hot shower, and then a nice dinner at the hotel finished the day well.
Day 3: Tikal - Flores. A few of us met at 6 AM for a dawn visit into the National Park, where we were greeted by Howler monkeys and macaws in the mist. It was nice to get in for a quick look around before most of the other tourists arrived, but could only see a fraction of the enormous park before returning for breakfast at the hotel and then to meet our official tour guide. At 9 AM we began a 4-hour guided tour of the park, returned to the hotel for lunch, then rejoined Manual for a ride to Flores at around 2 PM.
Tikal National Park -- Initially settled in 700 BC, Tikal slowly grew to become an important Mayan kingdom from 250 AD to 900 AD, and was finally abandoned in the 13th century after depleting all nearby natural resources. Rediscovered in 1848, Tikal has been slowly dug out of the jungle to reveal 550-sq-km with thousands of separate ruined structures still under archeological investigation. The main area of the park is 16-sq-km with 4000 structures. Tikal is popular with tourists because of the abundance and large size of structures, but also because it is one of the few Mayan sites deep in the jungle, giving visitors a unique glimpse of birds, monkeys and other animals not easily seen elsewhere.
In Flores we checked into Hotel Villa del Lago with plenty of time to explore the tiny island in the middle of the lake. A few of us found a waterfront restaurant with a cheap happy hour, went back to the hotel for long hot showers (such a luxury!) and a bit of TV news or internet surfing, then met up again for a leisurely group dinner.
Flores -- A tiny island in Lago de Peten Itza best known for great views and cheap cantinas. Flores is historically interesting as the last major functioning Maya ceremonial center, but all traces of the Maya were completely destroyed by the conquering Spanish in the late 17th century.Day 4: Flores - Guatemala City - Antigua. We met an early shuttle to the airport near Flores for a quick airplane trip to Guatemala City. After saying goodbye to Juan and Michelle, the rest of us hopped into Manual's shuttle van for a short ride to Antigua, arriving well before lunchtime to prepare for Christmas Eve.
Like other trips I've taken with diverse groups of GVI volunteers, I was pleased at how easy-going and flexible everyone was for this trip. Not everything went as expected, but it didn't seem really bother anyone. I'm very disappointed for the folks who got food poisoning -- but I believe overall that the trip was enjoyed by everyone. I certainly had a good time!
(Photos)
Resources:
* Aviatur Travel Agency: aviaturfer@yahoo.com.mx
* Quirigua National Park
* Tikal National Park
* Hotel Dona Alida, Livingston
* Hotel Tikal Inn, Tikal
* Hotel Villa de Lago, Flores
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