Our last leg of adventure together was to Flores, and then Tikal, before splitting paths.
The shuttle was a bit uncomfortable, but we arrived without issue and crossed the land bridge to the island of Flores at sunset.
The hostel was called Los Amigos, and a few days later I'm still there, typing from a hammock. Great food and pretty relaxed, though a bit more crowded than the previous hostels I have stayed at.
View from the bar looking toward the hammock area in the distant left.
After a long day of travel, we naturally booked the sunrise tour for Tikal, and woke up at 2:40am to get ready and leave at 3am.
We arrived at the park still well before sunrise, perhaps just after 4 o'clock, and began hiking into the jungle with our guide.
Some forty-five minutes later, I looked up in the pitch black and realized we were walking past the base of one if the pyramids, visible only by a silhouette that was subtly darker than the sky. No one else seemed to notice, too tired and intent on not tripping or slipping where they stepped, but we stopped a few moments later and the guide revealed we were standing in what they called the "downtown" of the ancient city. We would be back later. Then he clapped, and about fifty yards away we heard a strange jungle bird call. He clapped again, and the bird followed suit immediately.
This part was super cool. Directly across the plaza from one another, like two reflecting mirrors, were an arrangement of polished stones that evidently recreated the quetzal bird call by the way they reflected percussive sounds. Not sure how they figured that one out. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about from later in the morning:
Back to hiking. The idea was to climb up the tallest pyramid and sit on the steps near the top looking out over the jungle, and at sunrise the sun would strike the other pyramids and we'd see most of Tikal. Not so, this time. But it was still incredible.
Our large contingent of tourists sat in silence facing outward over the jungle canopy, which was extremely dark save for an eerie fog that hung about the tree tops. It looked like the same jungle as the scene in Jurassic park, and then all of a sudden branches started moving and we heard a t-Rex roar, and then another answered, and a third, more distant one. Obviously, they weren't t-Rex's, but they Were the animal whose vocals were used as the Tyrannosaurus Rex call in Jurassic park... howler monkeys. For those ten minutes of wild jungle sound and movement, I felt as if I had been transported to a prehistoric setting completely removed from any distant influence or grasp of the modern world.
This exciting time was followed by an anticlimactic sunrise which may or may not have happened, for all we knew, except that we generally supposed it had (it was still much darker than it appears to be in this picture).
But you gotta go with it.
That's Jeff making the face.
One more funny photobomb by a random guy (shoulder spot):
Okay, getting away from the top of the pyramid...
Next we trekked to the "lost world" pyramids, or the oldest ones, named for their resemblance to a drawing in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel. On the way, we took a quick look back at where we'd been at sunrise:
When we got to the administrative pyramid at "lost world," we climbed it.
Quick selfie from the top:
Looking out there was a really cool tree with a spider monkey playing in it and awesome fuzzy moss covering the upper branches:
After descending from where we were in the photo above,
we continued forward and then left to come upon this pyramid for rituals:
Then back to the downtown area. On the way we saw a funnel web spider burrow, and tried to tease it out with some grass (tarantula with a reddish butt). We also heard the strange call of a grey fox, laying rest to the question "what does the fox say?" and then saw it sneak off.
Finally we came back to downtown.
The sun was really starting to come out.
After a brief speech we had free time to explore around and take pictures. Here's what I saw.
After walking around our group dispersed instead of meeting at the designated time (we went to the meeting point on time), so we wandered around trying to find them and finally ran into our tour guide, who was equally confused. Apparently it's the first time a group hadn't met up where they were supposed to. Lucky us, we were waiting for them to eat. Finally we got some food and headed back.
The rest of the night was a typical day in the life of a backpacker, and ended with some new friends at a rooftop bar called skybar watching the fair across the water and smoking a fresh Cuban cigar (Romeo y Julieta limited edition Cohiba). Blissful end to the day.
Oh one other thing about the flavor here. Every so often there is a large explosion in the streets nearby. Kids just love their fire crackers and obviously go for the loudest ones they can find. The first few times it really startled me because it's such a strong blast, but after a while you get desensitized to it, even if it's in the middle of the night.
Other stuff about Flores: right now they are having a week long celebration and fair, some of which is due to the election of their queen, some of which is just for fiesta and staying out in the streets celebrating. Happy hour starts around 2-4pm and lasts until 9 or 10pm most places here.
Anyway the next morning Jeff left for Belize to meet up with his best friend, and I stayed at the hostel to figure out my next plans! That was yesterday. I will probably stay in Flores tomorrow and take an overnight bus back to Antigua next.
Cheers :)
