Guatemalan Ghost Stories and Other Jungle Adventures

 

The first time we heard the howler monkeys, we were alone and parked on the edge of the campsite in Ixpanpajul National Park. (No, I don't know how to pronounce it, but if you want to hear, click here.) 

It was cloudy, dark and we were surrounded. If you want to hear what howlers sound like, check out the reel posted to our instagram . If the sound is eerily familiar, that's because the monkeys' calls were reportedly what they used in Jurassic park for the dilophosaurus attack.

Skywalking

We stayed a few days at the unpronounceable park, heading out on their skywalk trail just as the jungle rain started to pour down. We thought it would pass, but discovered that rain continues to fall in the jungle from the canopy for hours - even after the actual rain stops. Not great for sight seeing, or relaxing (that mud is slippery) but luxuriously lush and green and isolated.

View from the hammock at the top

One of several skywalks to cross in the canopy

Sun finally coming out!

More skywalks. They were very long - and VERY high

Here's where we saw our first howler. But it was raining and he had his back to us. No one wanted to come out in the rain, not even the monkeys.

Sunday, my nephew James arrived by overnight bus from Antigua and helped us clean out our camper fridge before we headed together to Flores, a small island of cobblestone streets, colourful houses, and tourists. LOTS of tourists. Like us, everyone was there to do "the hike". 

Ahhhh, the hike.

Flores

Not quite remembering our age, we'd signed up to hike over 40 kilometres into the jungle to see the famous ruins of El Mirador, and (brilliantly) also decided to spend the night at the Los Amigos hostel, a 20-something dorm-style hostel proffering vegan buddha bowls and beer pong. I wasn't so sure we'd make the night until I had a shower. It was the first hot shower we'd had since Antigua and for that reason -  as well as the friendly staff who stored my podcast equipment and made photocopies of our paperwork for free! -  I'd highly recommend the place. Even for those of us past making it onto the beer pong leader board.

Catedral de Flores

A view from a rooftop

James at the Los Amigos hostel

The night passed surprisingly well in our bunk beds, with only some snoring snaking through the curtains. Then came wake up. Early.

Day 1: Carmelita to Tintal

At around 5:30 am, we trudged in the dark to the waterfront to board the bus that would take us on the two-hour, bouncing ride over the rough, dirt road to Carmelita, a small village that operates the tours of El Mirador. 

Somehow, our "small, intimate" group had grown from eight or so, to roughly thirty. Which made it doubly difficult when we realized that Ivan was officially the oldest, and I the second. And it showed. 

James and Ivan, early am ride to Mirador

Watching the sun rise during a pee break

Ivan checking out the first of many trees

After a solid breakfast served upon our arrival, and (thank God) a cup of instant coffee, we set out at a rapid clip that I naively thought was to make up for lost time. Less than four hours later, after picking our way through deep, semi-dried mud tracks, I could already feel my heels getting sore. This wasn't boding well, and I started to fall behind, which gave me time to talk bad Spanish with the local guides. Good for me, but a long slow walk for Sophia.

You know how some people say you're only as old as you feel? Well, I learned you are actually only as old as you walk - especially when you are walking with European twenty-year-olds who have grown up rushing down cobbled streets in inappropriate footwear. Don't even get me started on European footwear (I can't even think of my Scada hiking boots without getting angry).

And we're off! That's Heather from Scotland on the right and James beside her

We hiked seventeen kilometres to a "glamping" site at Tintal that surprisingly had wifi and - even more surprisingly - came with a cane toad in the cold shower that sent a long-limbed German girl squealing out of the shower in only her underwear. But scarier encounters were to come...

We got about an hour's break, then climbed one of Tintal's temples to watch the sunset over the jungle. Lots of chatter as the light started to fall, then we were hushed by our guide, Hector, for 15 minutes of silence as the sun dipped below the canopy and the parrots and howlers settled for the night.

First night's stop: Tintal, one of the four largest sites in the area. We climbed on of the pyramids there to see the sunset

James at the top of the pyramid

Watching the sun go down

Day 2: Tintal to El Mirador

The next day (and all days except day 3), began in the same way: five-thirty wake-up to pack our bags. Six am to pack the mules and eat a hearty breakfasts of beans, tortillas and eggs. Six-thirty (or so) to start trecking. 

Day two was longer than day 1 at roughly 26 kilometres, but unfortunately the crew was just as fast. The trail was a bit easier, though, with much of our path following an old Mayan highway (sacbe). These incredible road systems could be 40 metres across in places, and may have been some of the world's first superhighways. 

Why so wide? Especially when the Mayans didn't use wheels, other than for children's toys, and instead transported heavy goods and equipment using rolling logs. While the roads were likely used to carry items for trade, they were also likely used for sacred processions and/or pilgrimages as well, and their astrological alignment (at least at El Mirador, which aligns with the Sun and Venus), lends some religious significance to their construction. All of which makes it all the more magical to be walking along them on our own hike. 

La Meurta

Fruit bats inside the old Mayan house for the elites

James on top of a structure known as part of "Las Muerta" outside Mirador 

Banyan or "walking" tree

Oscillated turkey (and frequent campsite guest)

Scorpion spider inside an old Mayan house

Air plant 

Still, before eating there was the nightly climb to the summit - this time of a closer, nearby pyramid, to watch another spectacular sunset. Those sunsets never got dull.

Pyramid sunset, day 2

Sunset (and silence!)

Everyone waiting for the big show

The second night was considered a "basic" camp. No flush toilet or showers, just long drops and bucket washes. We were deep in the jungle now, and water was scarce, so we were limited to a half a bowl each to clean the grime and sweat and smoke. 

Did I mention the smoke? All our cooks worked over an open fire, and so the smell of wood  burning filled the site. Beautiful wood, by the way, hard and red-hued. Wood that would make any woodworker salivate. 

Food was basic but very filling. There were tortillas, of course, cooked the Guatemalan way, formed by hand rather than a press, and made fresh on a comal for every meal. Also plates of pasta, HUGE plates of pasta to fuel for eight hours of hiking, and buckets of jamaica juice to keep us hydrated.

Day 2 and 3 privy

Camp cookstove

Day 3: El Mirador

By now my blisters had rubbed raw and popped, leaving my heels in excruciating pain. Fortunately, one of our fellow hikers was a nurse, and so we did what we could to bandage up the mess because the third day was the big day - a guided tour of El Mirador.

An artist's rendition of El Mirador in its heyday

Yeah, I know those socks are sexy. Resting my (very) sore feet at the Jaguar temple

A mask from the Jaguar temple

One of the scenes from the "Popol Vuh", which recounts Mayan creation story, picturing one of the hero twins bringing his father's head back from the land of the dead

One of the many carvings unearthed at the site

Group reenactment of Mayan ritual sacrifice

James making me laugh in the morning despite the pain

Our guide Ricky explaining how the Mayans organized their temples to align with the cardinal directions and specifically with Orion's belt

The last temple, La Dante, the largest in volume in the world, and our group readying to climb it for our ultimate sunset.

And here we are! From the top you can see all across the jungle and make out most of the high temples we'd visited that day.

View across to Mexico (I think)

Night 3 Ghost Stories

Highlights accomplished, after dinner we all gathered around the camp fire to listen to Ricky recount ghost stories related to El Mirador, which he called "the world's largest graveyard". Can't fact check that:) 

The Mayans did bury their dead beneath their houses, though, so there were literally thousands if not millions of bones beneath our feet. AS the flames flickered, he told us about legends, like the La Llorona, a naked, vengeful woman whose face is covered by her hair, and also a ghost story about a dead teenager hitching a ride home on the day of the dead, as well as a real jungle mystery about the recent disappearance of a worker (Darwin Geovanni Franco Chonay) from El Mirador, who ran into the jungle, disorientated one morning, and was never found again. 

Cooking on the fire

Camp showers

There is definitely something very eerie, haunting and yes, menacing, about El Mirador. Ivan and I even had our share of the unexplained that day. 

While walking towards El Dante at 4:30 pm, my cell phone alarm suddenly went off. I didn't remember setting it, and was on airplane mode, so figured it was just the screen being jostled within my pants' pocket. Then, just a few minutes later, my phone starts speaking, saying "salir, salir", which means "leave, leave", in Spanish. When I pulled my phone out, my Duo Lingo was open and one of its characters (fitness-buff Eddy, for those that use the app) was speaking to me. This despite me being in airplane mode and miles away from any possible cell coverage. Creepy, yes. Also oddly apt, as I learned later from Ricky, given that Duo was actually invented in Guatemala by the same genius who brought us all reCaptcha, which now has us identifying crosswalks and fire hydrants to prove we're human.

Lights out just as the rain starts to fall - that's our tent at the very back

Day 4 & 5: El Mirador - Carmelita

While the jungle was telling me to leave, I found I couldn't - at least not in those stupid European hiking boots. I could barely walk at all, to tell the truth. So the next day I was forced to do the "ride of shame", returning by horse and mule. 

I tried to look on the bright side. I got to experience both ways to travel El Mirador, by foot and by pack animal. And it was a great time, dodging branches while my horse or mule stumbled through mud and my Guatemalan guide sang musica romantica (while his batteries lasted), or talked through his plans in rapid Spanish.

Me on the horse/pony on Day 4. Day 5 was a mule.

Shelf mushrooms

The only problem? I have never ridden a horse in my adult life, and traveling for more than six hours on a horse followed by over four hours on a mule was a heck of a lot harder than I - or my legs - realized. When I finally disembarked, I couldn't walk for at least five minutes, and it took me over a week to recover from my bruised coccyx. 

But we made it! And so we celebrated with our fellow travelers back at Los Amigos for one night, luxuriating in our own accommodations and showers, then spent the day being lazy on Flores and sharking a waterfront meal on the island. 

As we were seated by our Cuban waiter (he is working his way up to the States eventually), we asked him why the light post was so far away, but the water so close. That's when he pointed out that what once was Flores' rim road is now underwater, and has been for the last five years. 

View from the patio - the thin green line is the edge of the former road

Ivan ready to eat and watch the world float up and by

Crazy to think that Flores, reportedly the second oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the Americas, and the last Mayan civilization to fall to the Spanish, is now "sinking", though I have yet to find any proof that the island is in fact being submerged owing to a lack of scientific studies. 

It's becoming an alarming pattern on my recent travels. From Lake Atitlan, where the water is also rising, to Africa, where expanding wetlands threaten the delicate ecosystems of Amboseli National Park. All three recognized or nominated as UNESCO world heritage sites. All under stress. All irreplaceable. 

And it's all happening while I eat a unbelievably sweet, steamed whole fish from the surrounding (and rising) Lake Petan waters, and wash it down with the best glass of Chilian wine I've had in a month. How odd it feels, to be there reminiscing about one lost civilization as our own sometimes feels so precariously close to becoming lost itself.

Flores - Tikal

Speaking of lost civilizations - we had to make one more stop before heading to the beach in Belize. The stop for lovers of all tombs, temples and towers: Tikal.

What can I tell you about this site? It's huge - 575 km2 - and surrounded by the Maya Biosphere Reserve. It takes a full day to walk through the many plazas, temples, complexes, ball courts - the only triplex of courts ever discovered - and jungle-strewn paths full of parrots, jungle turkeys, and monkeys. I decided to tackle this beast in my plastic slip-on sandals, my heels still being a scabby, scaly mess. Not my wisest decision, but I wouldn't have missed Tikal for anything.

The famous jaguar temple in the grand plaza, as seen from jaguar temple II

The complex of housing behind the grand plaza

One of the complexes - the one with the many ball courts

Big trees!

Coete

View from the largest temple - that's the grand plaza in the distance

Can't even remember the name of this one but it was impressive!

Probably the most exciting part was climbing the northern complex to enter an arched-roof cave which filled with eerie screeching whenever we entered. At first, we thought it was the wind, but it turned out to be two baby peregrine falcons who, still featherless and sightless, were trying to attack us and shoo us away from their nest. Vicious, but very cute at the same time.

While people once thought that around 2 million people lived here, new findings and discoveries has archeologists thinking that as many as 16 million people once lived in Tikal - a population larger than would have been in the Italian peninsular at the peak of the Roman Empire housed in an area a fifth of the side. It would have been a megalopolis, in an area with no natural water streams or source, who had to use a complex, zeolite system to trap and treat enough rain water to support a huge population and last the many months of dry season. 

There's a great symmetry in this story, as Guatemala is still innovating on the water front, bringing innovative  system called Ecofiltro that ensures safe drinking water in rural villages - and all the way out in the jungle. 

Our Ecofiltro drinking water systems deployed in the jungle

Off to the Reef

With a renewed sense of urgency to see what we can while we can, and a renewed feeling of hope knowing how modern Guatemalans continue to solve complex water problems, (and with my coccyx finally on the mend), it was time to brave the border roads of Guatemala to head to Belize. 

We'll catch up with you on the other side of the border. Take care and enjoy the snow while we still have it!

On the road again . . . From State of Emergency to Semuc Champeck

 

Well, we finally got out of Antigua, made it past Guatemala City (where there remains a state of emergency after recent police killings) and are on our way north, towards the famous El Mirador hike in the jungle,

But first, we had to experience a bit of the not-so-well-known sights around town. Having covered the top things to do as a tourist in Antigua, here's a quick look at the other great locations we discovered in town that just don't seem to have the same advertising budget.

Cerro del Tenedor

So there are a LOT of hills to clime in Antigua. You could climb a different one every day of the week and still have more hills to climb. But the one that blew our minds away was the Cerro de Tenedor (peak of the fork, as my best translation), which features art from some 1960s/70s to modern day Guatemalan artists. 

The site is now managed by a famous hotel chain, and the area has been transformed into one of the most beautiful natural and artistic vistas in the city, complete with a museum dedicated to the famous Guatemalan artist, Efrain Recinos, a top restaurant, hotel and event space. 

Art outside the museum

One of Recino's murals in a series called "communication"

A sculpture in the garden (there's another sculpture inside)

Monkey dogs

Recino's famous Volkswagon

The thing is, it's essentially free to pack a picnic and head to Cerro del Tenedor to enjoy all the art, gardens and museums. We paid for transport, but the hotel (which has another hotel in town) runs a free shuttle to and from town. We loved it so much we visited and picnicked there twice. Once with Olly, Amanda, Marla, Goldie and Orry, and once again with our friend Jay and Annie, whom we met a year ago at Blue Skies. 

Installation near the bathrooms

Wooden stylized Quetzal (I think)

Cerveceria Quatorze

I do love a great brewery, especially one in a jungle. We met a couple in Mexico who basically travel around and help set up breweries, and this is one they had recommended to us while we were back in Mexico. 

You take a shuttle from Antigua and ride on a very bouncy Chicken bus to get there. On the weekends, there is live music, drinks, views of the sunset and lava-spouting volcano. Even food trucks. 

We ran into a Guatemalan couple there who were celebrating their 11th wedding anniversary and had come out to see the singer, Di WAV, a famous Guatemalan-Swiss chanteuse who was playing that night. They were so happy to see her!

Stage at Cerveceria 14 with DiWAV

Fuego at sunset

Happy place

Visit with Jay and Annie

We also had a blast visiting with Jay and Annie, who had a lovely, secluded AirBnB near us in Santa Clara. 

We went to various restaurants, played Euchre, shared dinners, had a picnic at Cerro del Tenedor. The fun culminated with Ivan and Jay watching football at a local bar while Annie and I did a very Antiguan photo shoot, followed by my nephew James arriving Sunday night from Iqualuit - despite the national state of emergency in Guatemala and "generational" storm hitting North America shutting down a majority of flights . The boy was born lucky.

Ivan, Jay, Annie and I in their AirBnB

Vagamundo Camping

We were self-exiled in Antigua in part because of the state of emergency, but mainly because we aimed, for the first time ever, to meet our accountant's January 24 deadline for submitting our business taxes before leaving. We also wanted to watch the football playoffs with Jay. And - full confession - we loved, loved, loved our campsite, Vagamundo. 

We met the "locals", many long-term residents, who sleep in converted trailers, VWs, trucks, boats and even a helicopter. Plus a ton of travelers like ourselves who came in and out of the campground sharing information on the Pan-American Highway. All would gather around the fire pit at night, which was "guarded" by a giant  black wooden jaguar. Mark, a long-time resident, would keep painting the jaguar's eyes and claws . The staff would routinely remove the paint shortly afterwards. And so passed time in Vagamundo...

Vagamundo campfire, with converted buses behind that visitors can rent.

Lika, the queen dog of the campground.

Ivan's homemade vegan sausages - just had to put them out there.

Abuelo serving tamales and sausages at the nearby square

Antigua to Posada Montana del Quetzal

We finally managed to drag ourselves out of Antigua thought to head into the jungle. Full disclosure: leaving was a bit of a shit show. We left an hour later than planned, then got lost on our way towards our destination, and ended up staying at an isolated restaurant/cabin location off the highway called Posada Montana del Quetzal. 

It's crazy how here in Guatemala even a road stop hotel is stunningly beautiful. 

One of the paths at the hotel

A view of the pools and our bathrooms

There were cabanas, with fireplaces (how we envied those), a playground made of tire and wood, two pools - all surrounded by jungle, woods and trails. 

We ate dinner at the restaurant where we tried the local dish, Kaq'ik, which is basically a boiled turkey leg with a bowl of turkey broth, half a chayote squash and tamales. Surprisingly delicious, though I was smelling and tasting turkey all night.

We decided not to park by the road, in the safe, drained parking lot. Instead, we parked beyond the cabanas, a little too close to the cliff, despite warning on iOverlander that it might be tough to get out in the morning. How bad could it be, we thought?

A lovely, isolated spot

Then night came. And the rains fell. Hard. 

I could not sleep a wink, imagining the newly-tamped dirt underneath us liquifying, our van being swept into the jungle. Then our roof started leaking, and water splashed on my face just as I started to drift off. We rigged up a temporary solution to catch the rain, but both of us had various van subsidence nightmares and woke up cold, unrested, and ready to move on. But not before a good breakfast, the best of which, fortunately, was literally around the corner at our hotel restaurant.

But don't take my word for it. A constant stream of locals kept coming into the restaurant for the restaurant's breakfast.  The parking lot was packed, and I saw at least three Guatemalan ladies in their embroidered finery leap out from under the tarp-covered backend of a pickup truck to grab breakfast before work. Clearly, this is where you eat on the highway here.

Coban

The day was wet, but we made it to Coban relatively easily enough. We had read of the city's famous cardamon (the city's production is the largest in the world), and its coffee culture, and were excited to see the city everyone was raving about. 

But we'd set our Google Maps to take us to pick up groceries at their equivalent of Food Basics, so I guess our route passed by the scenic, tourist locations and instead traveled through your everyday-Guatemalan streets, which - like all everyday streets - is not so exciting in endless drizzle.

Our campsite, though, was unexpectedly wild. At the north end of the city, the National Parque de los Victorias is a wonderful nature reserve with jungle walks, lagoons (with crocodiles!), and gigantic trees full of local birds with the most melodious calls. Then again, some bird calls were so screeching-ly awful I thought they were monkeys. Regardless, it was exotic, despite being able to hear the rabid soccer fans cheering at the nearby stadium as we made our way through the bush. 

Campsite on the edge of the city in National Parque de las Victorias

Jungle walk

The crocodile warning

Ivan looking for quetzals

Hard to see but it's a crocodile!

The signage, shown below, was a bit lacking however, and we ended up getting quite lost (the story of our time in Guatemala so far). Luckily, an armed man directed us down a very suspicious short cut. We made it back with about 10 minutes to spare before sunset. We were walking pretty fast by then, I can tell you.

The site map. Yes, this is all there is to take you through the jungle and "crocodile habitat".

Leaf cutter ants! (Will post video to Instagram.)

 Semuc Champey

Which brings us to today. We slept late under the constant jungle drizzle in the park, but finally hit the road at 11 for what we thought would be a short, paved 2-hour drive to Semuc Champey. 

Only ... we ran into a dense fog along the way. This cut our our GPS, and we ended up driving WAAAAY out off the highway. Suddenly we're on these pot-holed dirt roads, no other vehicles in site, with locals staring at us wondering where the heck we'd come from. 

The fog descends and GPS gets cut out

However, we soon realized our error (before Google did) and turned around, only to run into yet another GPS error that had us winding through cobblestone streets following the other gringos-in-cars-following-google before being turned around by a cop, one vehicle at a time, and sent back to the highway towards the alternative route. Which, to be fair to the cop, was actually properly signposted and a way easier route. All to say, we got here late but safe and sound. 

We turned into the only campground in the area that our van could (barely) make it to, Camp Rana (no website, only a facebook post) and managed to squeeze the van into a mud-slicked parking lot above a riverfront campground and behind a tienda. We only barely made it in. Still waiting to see if we make it out.

Parking lot of Camp Rana

The walk to the viewpoint at Semuc Champey is muddy, slippery but well trod. Not for the faint of heat, but what a view! Turquoise pools, cascading down into a cloud-forest valley. 

At the top of the climb, with the pools below us,

The climb to the mirador (viewpoint)

The Semuc Champey pools

The walk, reportedly 30 minutes, took an hour in the poor conditions, but we were rewarded by a swim in the softest water I've ever swam in and a free manicure from the local fish.

Swimming in the pools and getting fish pedicures

Now we're in the camper van, praying for no more rain. But no one here is listening. The hope is that the rain eases early and we make it out of here with minimal squealing tires, so we can head towards Flores, where we're planning to hike the Mirador with James. 

Eating Chef Ivan's Pumpkin Lentil soup out of the drizzle

Stay safe, and warm, and we'll let you know when we make it out of here and up north!