The Road to Tikal

We hit the ground running in Guatemala and were super excited to be there. We still had a 3 day drive to Tikal and some of the biggest ruins of the ancient Maya, but we had plenty of fun planned before that. First day proper we headed North along a trucker route so the road was good enough but full of road trains and cargo.

We broke the day up by stopping in at an old city with UNESCO heritage for its huge carved standing stones. Some of the best art to have been discovered in Mesoamerica, there were about 10 carved stones showing scenes from battles, gods and rulers, the largest being 10ft tall and still standing in their places in the plaza. The first of our Guatemalan Maya sites really got the mind going.

I was cooked. The heat of the low country so far was proving unbearable by the afternoon so we hoofed it on with the AC cranked, dodging craters in the road, to rest the night at a camp on the country's biggest lake, with a sundown kayak and cooling swim. The next day we parked Franky for some time off and took a small holiday ourselves, to the Caribbean!!

Realising that it makes it three times in three year to the Carib we felt pretty smug! It was a 2hr boat trip to get there, we passed a castle that was once stormed by pirates and out of the lake, down a big river surrounded by National Parks and through a jungle canyon to pop out into the mouth of the river and the pirate town of Livingston.

It was a wild little town full of rum and reggae, and the Garifuna peoples, settlers from shipwrecks, mutiny and hill tribes. We had a lush hostel with beautiful garden and cheap beers. The day we landed we were in the mood for getting amongst it so had a slap up lunch at Bugga Muma's and bar crawled our way to the beach, forgetting it was a change of government nationally but also locally, so the town should have been dry.

We also should have noticed when we skipped down the steps to the beach and found a full police interrogation in process in the bar, but the bartender waved us in and she offered to make a Cuba Libre or a coco loco so no one knew it was booze! Another beer at a back lane local bar, the big boss lady hooked us up good beers and turned the music up, surrounded by the other boss ladies in that neighbourhood. Last bar was a shanty beach bar with 'the boys'... reggae, beers and smokes for sundown and their traditional spiced rum fresh from the vat, por que no! We took the party vibe back to the hostel to find that backpackers don't party on Mondays these days, so played card games ourselves anyway, much to the disgust of the overly serious backpackers.

We spent most the next day hiking the beach to a beautiful, peaceful, sacred waterfall and sampled the Garifuna food but mostly chilled out. The hostel was real treat and the town had a nice

beach/port business to it. The next day we woke in the morning to tropical rains but it was time to head back up the river and back to Franky, the boat trip through the jungle, hung with low atmospheric clouds. The boat swung into port at the restaurant carpark Franky had been chilling at, all our laundry was fresh and ready to pick up, we felt refreshed and back on the road!

The weather was changeable all day and by the time we'd left town and topped up supplies the day was running out. We had a slight detour for camp that afternoon but it meant 8kms of rough road. The rain started just on queue, and by the time we'd got to the worst parts it was too late to turn around, so some advanced pothole dodging and slippery puddles later we pulled into a remote Maya ruin. We were 8kms into the jungle, and only a few farms locally, but there were three guardians of the place welcoming us in.

They smiled and showed us in, evidently not much tourism coming past here. The drizzle threatened but now our curiosity was taking over. They were all local Maya, watching and caring for this site as park rangers. The smallest of the men, clearly a ancient descendent, guided us into the old town, down the overgrown promenade to the main plaza. Pointing out key features and explaining the different trees, as the rain started again our friend opened a gate to the largest standing stone ever found and the 3 of us gathered around the sacrificial altar staring at the carvings.

The day was closing in but he insisted on one last place, the south hill. He drifted through the jungle ahead of us, barely lifting his feet but floating through the jungle and up the slope to a place of ancient rituals, you could feel the energy crashing around this place. He was a very special guy and his energy also intrigued us. After a wet evening I went back to join the rangers in their cabin, shared a drink, some small talk and a lot of staring at each other, trying to decipher the mysterious past. We were deep in Maya country now.

The morning after we shared coffee with the rangers and took a quiet walk around the old town once more before attempting the road. It had already stolen one of our beautiful hub caps and the rain overnight had not helped. The last hill had Frankie beaten for the first time and we had to reverse down to find another detour out. All of us now dirty, we re-entered society to a private tour of the museum and locally discovered artifacts. This place was not ceasing to blow our little minds! The rain didn't hold up for long and towards the end of another 3hr drive we gave up, pulling into a lakeside town at a conveniently placed roots and reggae bar. I'd had enough of driving, while Jelly had been rough for two days, bumpy roads and dodging pot holes hadn't helped one bit! The bar owner Max invited us in and welcomed us to stay on the drive, it was a perfect deal. And now, we had good as made it to Tikal and the Maya Biosphere!