Hace calor!!!

I feel like I am back in Chicago with all the heat and humidity. I am on pretty much the last leg of my little tourist vacation. I am in Flores, literally a manmade island, south of Tikal. It is about 90F and high humidity. I am wearing the only clean things I had left (a swimsuit and a new tshirt) as my other stinky, dirty, nasty clothes are being washed by a wondeful washing machine. This is the first time I have used one since being here and it is not soon enough!!!

We left Coban early Tuesday morning. There were two of the airport shuttle vans full of internationals. It was kind of nice being in a shuttle that did not stop every time someone waved on the side of the road. Us gringos kind of have space issues that are hard to break and deal with. We are used to having much more space, both in terms of our houses, cars, travel (probably moreso because of the size of our country not to mention wealth) and the personal space we require. I regularly notice people back up, turn their heads, shift uneasily, etc. Very interesting how the body language can reveal our attitudes just as easily, if not more easily, as our word choices.

There were people from France, Guatemala, Italy, USA, Argentina. Four of the five of us from USA were Chicago Area and three of us go to school in Minnesota (two went to Hamlin). We ended up getting screwed by the travel operator in a really simple scam that make you feel stupid. They advertise on a 4 hour trip from Coban to Tikal, but they only take you to Flores, and that is the box checked on your ticket. From Flores to Tikal, another hour or so, costs about 4 or 5 bucks more. On top of that, the journey took like 5 or 6 hours, not 4. But that is what happens and when you try to talk to them, they look at you like they do not understand...but they do. Anyways, we got a pretty good rate on our travel so it was more the principle than anything else. There was this one spot where we had to ferry across a river and it was the most creative ferry. It looked like a barge with random metal welded on it with two outboard motors on one side. These two guys who were sitting in inner-tube like contraptions, motored the ferry in a wide arc out than shot back in. It was perfect, like a glove.

From Flores we shuttled up to El Remate, a tranquil lakeside village halfway between Flores and Tikal. We spent the night here in a bungalow with open aired rooms and mosquito nets. It was pretty rudimentary but very peaceful and beautiful. Killer bugs though. Too bad I still don´t work for Clarke Mosquito Control and sweat insecticides. Spent some time walking around the lake, eating simple meals, drinking beer and reading out on the dock watching the sunset. It was a very hard day.

Yesterday morning we packed up and left El Remate by shuttle up to Tikal. It was about a 35 minute drive. We dropped our bags off at the place we would be staying the night at, Jungle Inn, grabbed a simple breakfast and went into the Tikal Maya Ruins around 830. It really is in the heart of the jungle. The National Park is about 500 square miles and you just walk these paths and around the bend...bam!...here is this giant, old, stone structure. Freakin´sweet. All day was spent applying mosqutio spray, sweating, drinking water, hiking, saying "whoa, freakin´sweet", applying mosquito spray, sweating...etc, etc. I have some wonderful pictures of all these buildings of which I have no idea about their history, use, etc. I didn´t have enough money to buy a book and needed everything I had for some grub and a ride back to Flores where there was an ATM. I will do a future post with Tikal history and photos.

After the park, I took a shower, my first one in like a week. It was amazing, but I do not have a towel so I used my swimsuit and drip dried. Had a sandwich, drank some beers, finished LOTR part I over some Papas Fritas and listened to a killer storm come in. It was wild. You could hear the rain coming from miles away. It started out really soft but steady hums. It is hard to distinguish it from all the other screeches, rattles and rolls from the jungle. Soon though it was upon us just terrorizing us with its scream. It is kinda like the whitefuzz from TV when the volume is all the way up and you are not expecting it. Then it hits you and you are soaked. I spent the night in a hammock with a mosquito net. It was under a pavillion and a bit uncomfortable until I figured out how to sleep in a hammock. I have slept in them before but it has been years. It was one of those all-cloth, not rope, ones. You need to angle your body so that your feet and head are on opposite sides and your upper half of the body needs to be all the way up on one end of the hammock, as if you were reclining against a wall or a tree. It is an art and I feel that after 11 hours of sleeping in one, I am a master. I awoke at 430 this morning though to all the people who were trying to make it to Tikal for the sunrise...Overrated, it was still hazy and clouded this morning anyways. Started reading LOTR part II over breakfast, caught a shuttle to Flores, bought my bus ticket for tonight and am relaxing until the bus leaves. It will be nice to get back to San Lucas. Travelling sucks when your food options are limited. There really aren´t many places to buy store food that is sustainable and healthy besides the market, but that stuff all needs to be washed with bleach and that is not always available. Meals are cheap from comedores, which is where I mostly eat. 4-6$ bucks for a pretty decent meal and a beer or a water. Diet is really sufferring here, even more so than Italy. I eat a ton and it is always delicious, but lacks protein and is way to rich in carbs. Between all the activity, lack of my usually diet (not much dairy here), and the wonderful water quality (I bet I get sick again cause I just ate three fabulous tacos from one of the places gringos aren´t supposed to eat from: kinda like a food stall at the carnival), I have lost roughly 12 lbs.

On the plus side I bought a hamaca (Hammock) today from an artisan´s coop. The woman started out at 365Q but I ended up paying only 270Q. I might have been able to take her down lower but I don´t really like screwing the actually artisans as opposed to those bastards who try to trick you into buying "factory hand-made" crap. Jeanne this place would be heaven for you. There really is no concept of fixed price in many places. Sometimes it can get you if you are too tired to bargain and end up paying too much. Oh well. Well the internet here is the most expensive I have paid yet 10Q an hour so time to go to the beach and soak up the sun before happy hour starts. You know what the say, No descanso para el malo.