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San Pedro, Guatemala, 4 April 2003
Tikal, Palenque, Merida, Uxmal and Loltun
Odv2004-09-15 12:15:50
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This is the first part of our Maya tour through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. It covers Tikal, Palenque and Merida.
On March 10th, we left Antigua at 04:30, to be on time at the airport of Guatemala city for our 06:00 flight to Flores. For 49 USD we flew over the roads which otherwise might have been blocked by teachers in their second month of a nationwide strike, that attempted to paralyze the entire country.
Those of you who know me well, can image how difficult it was for me to be up in time to be picked up by our airport shuttle so early in the morning...
Once in Flores we checked in at our Hotel. In the afternoon we went to explore the cave of Uctan-something. Since the owner of the cave and the electricity company had a disagreement about the electricity bill sometime last November, the electricity had been cut off!
Armed with our travel flashlight we were allowed to enter the cave, unescorted. We were told to look at the map at the entrance of the cave to get an idea where to go. I took a picture of the map, with my digital camera, so that we could check it once inside the cave. This turned out to have been a good idea, since roughly 25% of the visitors don't make it out alone, but have to wait for the guard to come and rescue them...
Inside the cave we also used the light of the camera's LCD screen as a second "flashlight", just to see where to walk... The real darkness, the flashlight, the vague map on the LCD screen, everything added to the mystique of the cave. A much more exiting way to experience a cave.
On the morning of the 12th, we took the shuttle to Tikal, for our first visit to a Mayan ruin. Tikal is set in the middle of the largest rainforest in Central America with 6 temples (or pyramids) towering over the rainforest. Climbing up them, besides being a intense exercise, allows you to see a never ending extent of rainforest, uninterrupted by any human
...
See photographs from:
Mexico Gallery
,
Honduras Gallery
,
Guatemala Gallery
,
Belize Gallery
