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El Remate, Guatemala
17° 0' N 89° 41' W
Jul 26, 2006 04:17
Distance 308km

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Tikal...et vildt byggeri + English

Text written in: Danish

Saa er vi her igen!

Soendag tog vi fra San Pedro for at komme videre og se Tikal (Maya Ruiner), som ligger i den nordlige del af Guatamala. Vi haabede vi kunne goere det pa én dag, og det viste sig heldigvis at vaere muligt. Saa vi tog fra San Pedro til Panahachel ved 10 tiden, og vi tilbragte vores eftermiddag med at kigge lidt paa butikker og spise, indtil vi skulle med en bus kl. 16 om eftermiddagen. Bussen kom for en dog som planlagt og vi blev koert til Guatamala city (hovedstaden). Her skulle vi paa en lidt stoerre bus, som over natten skulle koere os en by ved navn Flores, der ligger taet ved Tikal. Det viste sig at vaere en rigtig laekker bus. Saa vi steg paa, laenede saederne tilbage og faldt i soevn. Pludselig blev vi dog vaekket, da en af stewardesserne kom forbi os og sagde, at alle skulle ud af bussen fordi, der var en eller anden slags kontrol... vi var noget forvirrede og soevndrukne, og vi naaede lige pracis at gnide vores ojne og toerre det vaerste savl af mundvigen, inden der kom en meget ivrig mand og begyndte af befamle vores rygsaekke. Med et let forvirret udtryk i oejnene fik vi spurgt en af de andre passagerer, hvad der egentlig skete, og han forklarede, at det var en frugtkontrol!!! Vi troede at han tog gas paa os, men det vise sig at vaere rigtig, de stoppede bussen, vaekkede alle passagerer for at kontrollere at vi ikke havde syg frugt med! Saa kan vi da sige at vi har provet det... Vi faldt i sovn igen og sov en rum tid foer bussen igen stoppede og en lille mand steg ind i bussen og raabte "Flores"!. Endnu engang maate vi raadfoere os med en af de andre passagerer, der forklarede os, at hvis vi skulle til Flores, skulle vi stige af bussen og foelge med den lille mand. Vi gjorde som der blev sagt (vaagne var vi jo ikke). Vi steg ind i mandens minibus sammen med 5 andre, og han forklarede saa, at han skulle koere os resten af vejen til Flores, hvilket jo egentlig var fint nok. Ca. 30 sek. efter spurgte han saa venligt, om vi hellere bare ville til Tikal med det samme, for saa kunne han sagtens faa sin chaffoer til at koere os derop i stedet. Mia og jeg var egentlig paa vej til en lille by kaldet El Remate, der ligger paa vejen fra Flores til Tikal, saa vi sagde ja til at komme med til El Remate.  Bilen vendte om og vi fortsatte mod Tikal. Efter et par minutter fandt den lille mand saa en lille notesblok frem og begyndte at skrive nogle ret store tal ned. En af de snu (og vaagne) i minibussen spurgte, om den lille mand ville have, at vi skulle betale for at komme til Tikal i stedet for Flores, og det viste sig at vaere meningen. Den lille mand forlangte 100 guatamala penge (ca. 80 dKr.) for turen, hvilket var helt ude i hampen, saa alle i minibusen blev hurtigt enige om, at vi bare skulle til Flores alligevel og saa vendte den lille mands chauffoer minibussen, og vi kom til Flores. Herfra kom Mia og jeg saa til El Remate med en anden minibus, og det kostede os 30 guatamala penge... Vi fandt vores hostel og fik lidt mogenmad og slappede blot lidt af, inden vi begyndte at taenke paa, hvad der skulle ske i loebet af mandagen.

Mandag gik i meget korte traek med at hente penge i Santa Elena (en by der egentlig haenger sammen med Flores, men som ligger taettere paa El Remate end Flores...forvirret???) Vi tog en "Kollektivo" derind. En Kollektivo er egentlig en almindelig minibus med 10 saeder,  men paa maerkvaerdigvis er der plads til ca. 40 mennekser og det samme antal hus- og kaeledyr. En alternativ transportmetode, men absolut sjov at proeve (naar man ikke har alt sin baggae med). I Santa Elena virkede den foerste pengeautomat ikke, saa vi fandt en bank og stillede os i koe. Det tog ca. en time, foer vi kom op til skranken, og fik af vide vi ikke kunne haeve penge i banken, men skulle bruge en af de automater, der var stillet op til det formaal. Vi fik lidt lange naeser, men spurgte hvor vi saa kunne finde en anden automat der virkede. Vi fik en henvisning til den anden ende af byen, fulgte den og fandt automaten. Efter vi havde haevet penge, gik vi tilbage mod bustationen, hvor vi 4 timer tidligere var blevet sat af vores kollektivo. Vi ville saa arangere en bus fra Santa Elena til Palenque (i Mexico) til onsdag. Det fik vi paa plads og tog saa endnu en kollektivo tilbage til El Remate og slappede blot af resten af dagen.

Tirsdag (i dag) tog vi fra vores hostel kl. 0630 for at komme med en bus til Tikal (Maya Ruinerne). Vi ankom til parken ved 7 tiden, og vi begyndte vores gaatur rundt i parken. Det var en helt utrolig oplevelse at se hvad denne befolkningsgruppe, der levede omkring  700 aar foer aar 0, var i stand til at bygge. Egentlig er de store templer de byggede gravstene for deres hoevdinger, og befolkningen boede saa i traehytter rundt om alle disse store templer. De havde selv vaeret i stand til at soerge for vandforsyneing til alle ( ca. 100.000,00 mennekser da de var paa deres hoejeste) og andre helt fabelagtge ting. Det var rigtig spaende at se. Samtidig fik vi ogsaa set at masse flotte fugle, spider monkeys (edderkoppe aber) der laa og slappede af i traerne, en spaette og en masse froer og andet kravl. Det var en rigtig god dag i natioanlparken, den tur kan virkelig anbefales, hvis nogen skulle komme forbi Guatamala. Vi var hjemme i El Remate igen kl 1430 og tog saa hurtig som muligt en bus ind til Santa Elena for at finde et sted at sove. Saa nu er vi blot ved at goere os klar til turen mod Palenque i morgen. Bussen koere kl 05 saa endnu engang skal vi tidligt op!

ENGLISH VERSION:  Tikal - The mayans must have been really smart!!!

We left San Pedro by Lake Atitlan Sunday morning and in the hope that it would be possible to get all the way from Panajachel to Flores (City close to Tikal) in one day. For once we were lucky about a bus! There was an overnight bus leaving at 4 pm, so we had most of the day to look around Panajachel and get some lunch, before going on the bus.  At 4pm we got on a shuttle to Guatemala City, where the "real" bus was leaving from. It was a big nice bus with lots of leg-space, which is pretty important for poor Lasse with the long legs. The bus ride went fine and we actually slept pretty well after leaning the seats all the way back! Suddenly in the middle of the night we got pulled over, and the bus driver yelled that everyone had to get out of the bus. We thought it was some kind of security control and just really hoped they didn't have to search our big packs! It turned out to be a security control --- for FRUIT!! That was a little weird. We found out later on though, that we were entering Peten, which is Guatemalas biggest area of the fruit they export, so they make sure that noone brings fruit with different bacterias into the area... I guess it makes sense - just not at 2 in the morning!

We fell back to sleep until the bus stopped again at 5.30 and the driver yelled "Flores". That was our stop, so we had to get off - again a litte confused, since we thought the bus was taking us all the way! We got on a shuttle and a guy asked us if we wanted to just go to Flores or if anyone would rather just go straight to Tikal. Flores is the city most people live in when visiting Tikal - You can't stay inside the ruins in Tikal, and since most people only stay one or two nights in Flores till they've seen Tikal, it was a nice offer to be able to go straight out there. We were not going to stay in Flores, but in El Remate, which is a small almost not-existing town halfway from Flores to Tikal. So to us the offer sounded really nice too, since we would just have to get on a bus anyways to get out to El Remate. Everyone were really tired and just making a little fun, I said to the guy next to me "I wonder how much he wants". It really was a joke, because I thought it was just part of our bustrip. The guy next to me took it pretty serious though and asked the driver how much it was to go to Tikal. So it turnes out that he was trying to trick us into paying way more that usual to go to Tikal. So we passed the offer and they took us to Flores as planned. I can't believe how they just try to get your money in any possible way. We got on another bus (paying a third of what the first guy wanted) and got out to El Remate at 6.30 Monday morning. The hostel we were recommend by some friends looked okay. Nothing special, but we were only staying there one night anyways. The rest of the morning we just relaxed after not too much sleep and tried to find out what to do the rest of the day. We arranged to go see Tikal the next day, and then we had to go back to Flores to get money, because they didn't have a bank or ATM in El Remate, and we didn't have any more cash. We went with the "collectivo", which is a shuttle with seats for 10 people. In some though, they manage to fit 40 people in the shuttle including pets, andwhatever you can think of belonging to these 40 people. Not the usual sort of transportation, but fun to try as long as you don't have to bring your big packs. When we got there, the ATM we went to didn't work, so we went to a bank nearby and got in line. An hour later it was our turn, to just be told that they don't cash for foreigners, so we had to use an ATM (!) So we had to walk to the next ATM, which was pretty long away - especially in the heat! Jesus - Amazing how hard it is to get money!! Pretty tired we got back on a collectivo to go back t El Remate, where we relaxed the rest of the day!

 Today (Tuesday) we went out to Tikal at 6.30 in the morning to see the sunrise. Tikal is in the middle of a big rain forest, so it actually takes about 25 min from you enter the park till you actually get to Tikal. We got there a little passed 7 and started our walk around the rainforest to find the great ruins. The ruins are spread out over an areal of 16 square kilometers (app 10 sq miles?), so you just walk on small paths from one ruin to another. It was the most amazing experience, seeing what these people was capable of building more than 2000 years ago! The tallest of the ruins was 59m tall (180ft), and when you climbed it, you had the greatest view over the rainforest, seeing 3 other ruins peak up between the trees. The temples are really just to honor the great leaders when they died. The Maya people lived in small thatched cottages around the temples. The think the population was around 100,000 when it was at the highest!

Besides all the awesome ruins, we got to see tons of cool animals! It has just been a really cool day. Tikal is COOL!!!

 Right after getting back, we got on a bus to Flores, to be able to leave tomorrow morning for Mexico.We are pretty tired now and just need to SLEEP. Love,Lasse and Mia