Back                                                                                                            May 2009 Guatemala Trip

                                                                                                                                                  by Greg Vandiver

This adventure was to visit various Maya ruin sites in the Peten Region of Guatemala. This was the first time I had not planned the trip out thoroughly, before arriving there. With that said, I pretty much just went there and simply went to visit some Maya ruin sites, which I could fit in for the time I was there. I had quite a few days off from work and luckily found some cheap flights, as well as lodging there. The roundtrip airfare from Atlanta to Guatemala City on Delta Airlines, roundtrip airfare from Guatemala City to Flores on Taca Airlines, and six nights lodging at Hotel Mirador del Lago in Flores was only $628 total. With everything being so cheap I felt I needed to go there, since I really had nothing better to do anyway. I would also like to add, out of the past thirty-five trips I have made to Latin American countries in the past six years, this trip would definitely rank in my "Top 5".

Day 1 - I made the necessary flights to arrive to Mundo Maya International Airport in Flores, where a friend of mine was waiting for me, as I figured he would be. My good friend Lente was there at the airport exit and drove me to check in at Hotel Mirador del Lago in Flores, which cost only $12/night for a single room with a balcony overlooking the lake, cable tv, a shower with hot water, and a fan. It gets a little cool at night being right on the lake, so there really is no need for having a/c in a room. After dropping my bags off there, I made my way to Cafe Yaxha for having dinner. The food is always very good there, as well as cheap. I always have the fear of coming down with food poisoning and such when eating in different restaurants during my journeys, but not at this particular restaurant. The owner of the establishment (Dieter Richter) is a good friend of mine and I know the food there is very safe to eat. A person can literally eat anything on the menu there, without worrying about getting food poisoning. There are five sisters who work there and do all of the cooking and such. I took some books there for giving to them, so they could hopefully learn to speak some English. The Gonzalez sisters are named: Adali, Alida, Angela, Izabel, and Maritza.  

Day 2 - I started out the morning early doing some fishing from the bank at Lake Peten-Itza, directly behind the hotel where I was staying at. I always pack a telescopic miniature spinning rod/reel when I visit Guatemala, with hope of catching some of the local fresh water fish there. I had tried on three previous trips there, but had not had any luck. On this day though, I finally caught my first "Blanco" on a white rooster tail lure. Even though the fish was not that big, it was a nice surprise for me to have finally caught something in Guatemala. The locals walking by were all looking at me like I was nuts or something, for using the small rod and reel combo. They normally just wrap a lot of fishing string around a board or pipe, of course with a lure or hook on the end of it and do what is called "hand-line" fishing. 

At 9 a.m. I was met by Lente in front of my hotel. He was to take me by 4-wheel drive truck to a very nice, yet secluded and mostly unexcavated Maya ruin site, which I had never visited before. After taking a back road from the town of Melchor de Mencos through cattle ranches and bajos, we finally arrived to the entrance of the Maya ruins of Naranjo. I must say, the site was larger than I had expected it to be. This is the kind of site which most tourists would not care very much for visiting, mostly due to the lack of "eye catching" structures there and due to the site being so inaccessible. The history of the ancient city of Naranjo is remarkable and is greatly appreciated by Maya enthusiasts such as I. From what I was told about the site, it actually has as many structures as the well visited site of Tikal, which is nearby. 

Once we left the site and got back to the main highway, Lente and I decided to eat a late lunch at a restaurant I had eaten at before on a previous trip to the area. Restaurant El Portal de Yaxha has very good food and I enjoyed some chicken fajitas, as well as a bottle of Sprite. After returning back to Flores, I had decided to go by Cafe Yaxha for a few drinks. The restaurant was not very busy due to the time being the slow season for tourists and such, so I decided to sit with three of the sisters who work there for Dieter and help them with writing their numbers from 1 to 1,000. They were writing them out in English, so I made corrections for them when necessary. We had a lot of fun and I am sure they appreciated my help. 

Day 3 - I woke up early and had no idea what I would do for the day. So, I went fishing again and actually caught another Blanco. I gave the fish to a local man who was walking by, who asked me if he could have it. He was very interested in the bait I had caught the fish on, so I gave him another one similar to the one I was using, which I had in my little tackle box. At 10 a.m., I decided to go to Tikal again. I had previously visited the site three times on other trips to the area, but a person cannot go there too many times, in my opinion anyway. The lady at Hotel Mirador del Lago called San Juan Travel Agency nearby, and a driver was there to pick me up at my hotel for taking me to the site. The roundtrip transportation was only around $7.50. Once we arrived to the site of Tikal, I had to pay the entrance fee of $150 (Quetzales) to visit the site. It looked like it was going to rain at any moment, so I did not plan to stay there very long. I wanted to see something there which I had not seen yet, so upon entering the site there, I went directly to Temple 6. 

The temple was fairly nice, but not near as nice as Temples 1-5. I then went from Temple 6 to the Grand Plaza, which is absolutely stunning if anybody has never seen it before. I tried to take some photos of a montezuma oropendola in a amapolla tree, but could not get a clear shot with my camera. I did however get some great photos of the famous Temple 1. In my opinion, the funerary temple (Temple 1) of the great king "Jasaw Chan K'awiil" is the most beautiful temple in the entire Maya World. I could look at it for quite some time, without ever getting bored. It started thundering, so I decided to leave the site, for fear of being caught in a rain storm. As I was walking out of the site, I did see and take some photos of a few spider monkeys. Also, there were two ring-tailed coatimundi which crossed the path in front of me. I got some pretty good pictures of them too! 

I caught the 2 p.m. San Juan Travel Agency minivan, which would take me back to Flores. After only getting a few miles down the road, the bottom fell out of the clouds. It was coming what I call a "frog floater", so I had made a good decision on leaving when I did. Once back to Flores, I decided to go by Cafe Yaxha for meeting up with Dieter Richter and Raul Noriega for dinner. I had brought two books along with me on the trip, as well as three audio cd's for giving to Raul, so he could also learn English. I buy all the books I give to the locals there, at Books-A-Million or Barnes and Noble in the U.S.. After dinner Dieter decided he wanted to play a board game, which was German. The name of the game was Mensch Arger Dich Nicht. Come to find out, it was the German version of the American board game "Sorry". It was fun to play, yet aggravating as usual. I came in last place in the first game, but first place in the second game. Is that messed up or what?! 

Day 4 - Today was Mother's Day and I was in for a treat. The Gonzalez sisters who work at Cafe Yaxha had invited me to eat lunch with them at their home, in the nearby town of San Benito. I caught a tuk-tuk for taking me there for $10 Q . Once I arrived to their home, lots of small children met me in the front yard. They all wanted to give me a hug and invited me inside their home. I went around to the back side of their home where the sisters were cooking our meal over a open fire, and which was under a small shed. They were even grinding dent corn, which they had soaked in lime for making home-made corn tortillas. Not only was I absolutely amazed by all the food they were preparing for all of us there, but I could not believe all the animals they had in their yard either. They had ducks, chickens, turkeys, dogs, and cats. I tried on two different occasions to simply count how many ducks they had, but finally gave up hope on coming up with a number which would even be close to the actual number there.

The dish everyone was served was grilled chicken, rice, boiled vegetables, and of course the home-made corn tortillas. They also had many gallons of delicious horchata for us to drink with our meal. I made the mistake of trying some of their pickled peppers and vegetables with my meal. They were hotter than than the flames of hell itself and I thought I was going to have to call the local "bomberos" to come put my mouth out, because it was on fire! After the extremely delicious lunch, I walked around to look at their fruit trees, as well as their flower garden. Their home was a really nice place to visit and I felt honored to have been invited to such a wonderful place, as well as treated to such a wonderful meal. I went from there back to my hotel, where I did some more fishing. I caught two more Blanco and gave one of them to a local woman who was walking by, while releasing the other one back into the lake. 

Day 5 - As I was fishing along the bank behind the hotel just a little before 7:45 a.m., three of the Gonzalez sisters who work at Cafe Yaxha were walking by, for going to work for the day. I decided to show a couple of them how to use my small fishing rod. It was very funny trying to teach them how to cast the spinning reel, for they had never seen one before. After eating a huge breakfast at Cafe Yaxha a little later in the morning, I decided to pay a boat operator $25 for a roundtrip boat ride across Lake Peten-Itza for visiting a Maya ruin site which was on a private cattle ranch. I was to visit the unexcavated Maya ruins of Nichtunchich. The site was nothing more than large dirt mounds, but I could use my imagination to make out the plazas and such while there. As I was walking across the cow pasture there, I noticed there was a keel-billed toucan sitting in a tree no more than twenty feet from me. Before I could get my camera turned on for taking a picture of it, the toucan flew away. I have the worst luck sometimes! 

The wind was blowing very hard when we left the private ranch and I was getting a little worried about the boat ride back to Flores. I am usually calm in any situation, no matter how bad it is, but not on this day. The water was now white-capping in Lake Peten-Itza. The twenty-five foot wooden boat I was riding in only had a fifteen horsepower Mariner outboard motor on it and it did not move very fast at all. I could have probably kept up with the small boat motor with a good 5 foot wooden paddle, but who knows. I watched the sides of the wooden boat flex outwards a few inches, as we would hit each wave. Considering there were no life jackets in the boat, I prepared myself for the worst case scenario of having to swim to shore, if the boat would have fell apart or capsized. The boat operator was bailing water out of the boat with some sort of plastic tub and the more water we were taking on, the more I kept looking toward the lake shore to see how far it was away. It would have been at least a 1/4 mile swim in either direction to the shore. I would have loved to have had my scuba diving gear with me at the time! Luckily, after forty minutes we finally reached the shore safely, back in the town of Flores. 

Once back to the hotel, I decided to take some dirty clothes to a nearby laundrymat for letting a local lady there clean them as needed. While I waited for a few hours, I decided to drop off two children's bibles in Spanish which I had brought on the trip with me. I gave them to the lady (Doña Rosa) who owns a hotel in Flores which is named the same. 

Day 6 - I decided to pay a boat operator to take me across the lake again, but this time I would be going to the town of San Jose, which I had never visited before. The roundtrip boat ride, which consisted of the boat operator waiting on me for a little over an hour once arriving to San Jose, was another $25. Once we arrived there to the shore, I could not believe my eyes. They have a very nice public swimming pool there and also have three water slides as well. I paid a local taxi driver $100 Q to take me up the hill to visit the Maya ruins of Motul de San Jose. The site was fairly small and mostly unexcavated, but it was very tranquil there. I saw lots of birds while there, as well as flowers. I love to take pictures of both, so I was enjoying doing so very much. After visiting the site, we came back down the hill. The driver wanted to show me the soccer stadium they have there and it was very nice as well. I found out that the soccer field was home to the third best soccer team in all of Guatemala. What a nice place San Jose is to visit! 

Once back to Flores, I decided to eat a quick lunch before going to visit the Maya ruins of Yaxha with a Swiss lady I met there in town. Lente was to drive us there and back for $400 Q. He would also wait for us while we toured the site there for a few hours. For those who don't already know, this is where "Survivor Guatemala" was filmed a few years back. Once we arrived to the entrance of the park, we had to pay the entrance fee of $80 Q to enter the site. I had visited the site on three previous occasions, but had never been there before in the late afternoon. While we were there, I saw at least twelve spider monkeys, four black howler monkeys, three keel-billed toucans, five montezuma oropendolas and a ring-tailed coatimundi. What a treat! I took some pretty good pictures of all of them while I walked around admiring the temples there. I must say, every time I go there the site seems more beautiful to me. Yaxha is a very nice site to visit. 

I went by and visited with my good friend Raul Noriega, who actually lives at the archaeologist campsite of Yaxha, even though he works as a architect at the Maya ruins of El Pilar, Tzikintzakan, and Nakum. I wish sometimes I could live there as well. Once back into Flores, Lente dropped us off at Cafe Yaxha where Dieter was waiting for me. Dieter had not been feeling well at all the previous days I was there, due to coming down with what is called "dengue fever". He had been guiding on a four day excursion with some tourists the previous week in the jungle and had gotten it while on the trip with them to visit the Maya ruins of Naachtun and Rio Azul. It was good to see him feeling better once again. Dieter and the girls at the restaurant who work for him, all had a surprise waiting for me once I arrived there, and without my knowledge. It was my birthday and they had bought a cake for me, as well as a t-shirt. After thinking about the nice birthday party they had prepared for me, I figured it had been at least ten years since I had even had a birthday cake, much less a birthday party. It was great of them to do such a nice thing for me and I will never forget it either. I said goodbye to everyone and went to the hotel for the night.

Day 7 - (The most wonderful day of the entire trip for me) - After checking out of the hotel and having Lente take me to the airport, I flew back to Guatemala City on the 8:05 a.m. Taca Airlines flight. Once I arrived to Guatemala City, I did my normal thing there by eating at the Pollo Campero Restaurant and afterwards, went to Gate #4 where I had to wait for my flight on Delta Airlines to take me back to Atlanta. Usually, the day I fly home is just a normal day for me, but not on this day. This day would be one which I will never forget as long as I live.  

As I was sitting there at the gate, I noticed a man walked by who sat down probably fifty feet or so from me. He was facing towards me and I had noticed he was looking at me. I wondered why he was looking at me and finally figured he was looking at me because I was wearing a tank top shirt, which easily reveals two very large Maya tattoos I have on my arms. After a few minutes, I thought I might have known who he was, so I decided to walk over to him to say hello and to see if he was actually who I thought he might be. I walked up to him and he told me that my tattoos were very nice as he offered me a handshake. I nervously shook his hand, while at the same time, thanking him for the compliment on my tattoos. I told him I was not positive who he was, but that I felt he might be Richard Hansen. He told me he was indeed Richard Hansen, who is a archaeologist at Idaho State University. I had been waiting at least five years to meet him in person and by doing so, I must admit I was at a loss for words.  

Richard's cell phone rang and he asked me to hold on for a few minutes, for he wanted to talk with me some more. As I patiently waited for Richard to talk with whoever had called him, I could not believe that he wanted to talk with me some more, to find out more about little ol' me. After all, anyone who knows me personally will tell you I am just a simple man that has simple ways, even though I once worked as a crew man for the legendary 6-time IHRA Pro-Modified World Champion; Scotty Cannon, and did so for two years while also helping him win two of his championships during the 90's. I have a lot of History Channel , Discovery, and Nova dvd's at my home which are documentaries on the Maya, some in which Richard describes how the Pre-Classic Maya people of El Mirador and Nakbe' lived in those days. Not only has he been featured in dozens of magazine and newspaper articles, but he has also appeared on the TV shows 20/20, World News Tonight, and the Australian Edition of 60 Minutes.  Heck, he was even credited for being a consultant for Mel Gibson's movie Apocalypto.

After Richard ended his phone call, we talked some more about different Maya ruin sites in Guatemala and I told him how many sites I had visited so far (79) in the Maya World. He unrolled two Maya paintings of murals he had with him, for sharing with me. One of the paintings was of the famous murals of San Bartolo and the other one was very unique, in which the Maya warriors were wearing transparent masks and a person could also see their actual face behind them. Both were absolutely stunning! He gave me his business card and asked me for my email address, for he wanted to send me something really nice about the Maya (which he did too once I got home). I only wished we could have sat together on the plane to Atlanta and talked about Maya history for the next 3 hours and 7 minutes. I was in seat 16D and he got a free upgrade to seat 2F, so I had to settle for watching Clint Eastwood's movie Gran Torino instead. Oh, but what a day it had been for me regardless!

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