Hearts, flowers, Tikal, and roosters

The whole time on this puny plane, I'm thinking of a song by the Indigo Girls (with help from The Roches): Airplane.
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The alarm went off in time for 6:50 breakfast at Hotel Dos Lunas, then we were off to the airport, where we waited to board a plane to Flores. Mike and I used the time to give each other back rubs. I noted that it was quite odd to be in a building with so many large windows, only to look out upon acres of concrete.

The plane ride to Flores (smallest plane I had ever been on) was uneventful. We met a couple from Florida on the plane and we all shared a taxi to the small town of El Remate. El Remate is the last big city on the way to Tikal, approximately 40km from Flores. Along the way, Mike asked the driver to stop at a roadside vendor so we could sample mangos and oranges from the orchard. They were served with a sprinkling of some kind of crushed pumpkin seed (allote, perhaps?)--savory without being spicy. Mike says the taste brings back memories of his childhood in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

With our gear stowed and our bodies carefully slathered with mosquito spray, we headed back to the main road ...

Romance is alive and well in El Remate.
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The taxi dropped us off at Hotel Mon Ami, a bit off the main road, where we would stay the night. I was surprised to be left alone to check us in, but I did so while Mike ran off with one of the gardeners! When they returned and Mike showed us to our room, I discovered to my delight that he had been hatching a Valentine's Day surprise: carnations cutely arranged in the shape of a heart on the bed, plus several vases of flowers around the room. Mike also had brought along risque Valentine's candy and metallic heart shaped sprinkles to add to the fun.

One of several Mayan structures at Tikal.
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With our gear stowed and our bodies carefully slathered with mosquito spray, we headed back to the main road to catch a colectivo to Tikal. [Colectivos are popular, local, cheap transport options. The vehicles are usually minivans or small buses. They'll stop nearly anywhere along the road where someone is waiting to be picked up or asking to be dropped off. Some take payment upon boarding, others as you deboard. Many have a driver and assistant. Few stop fully unless they have to. A colectivo can get quite crowded and the roof piled high with belongings. To give you a sense of cost, the drive from Tikal to Flores (40 km) was $4 per person.] We arrived at Tikal early enough to spend an hour or so in the park, but late enough that we could pay the entrance fee and be able to come back the next day for free. Needing to wait for an hour or so before we could enter Tikal at the reduced rate, we located a worker who showed us where we could stow our luggage the next day and had a bit to eat at one of the overpriced, underwhelming hotel restaurants. The short time we spent in the park was impressive, though we only got as far as the first monument. We didn't see many animals, but did watch some monkeys swing through the tree tops.

Sunset as seen from the deck of Cahui, a restaurant in El Remate.
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On the colectivo trip back to El Remate, Mike talked for a long while with a local man who tried to explain how to make the powder that was sprinkled on the oranges and mangos we had eaten earlier.  Apparently you get some squash seeds and roast them and add  salt....  Hmm, sounds complicated to make. Perhaps one can buy it somewhere? We also met a gardener at Tikal, a very nice man who commutes every day from  El Remate. He invited us to his home and Mike understood him to be offering to sell or give Mike a clean handkerchief (which he wanted in a bad way), but we may have misunderstood. Or, perhaps he forgot once we met his family and spent time chatting with them. Here was an opportunity to see a local's home--at least from the doorway. It appeared to be a single room, though there were several curtains hung to section the space up into several 'rooms.'  The floor was dirt and we saw no evidence of tables or chairs. Not wanting to gawk or be insensitive, we did not look in for more than a moment. But it was fascinating and memorable, to get this glimpse of real living conditions. The gardener's wife and daughters were sitting outside the front door peeling some kind of root vegetable for their dinner. The girls giggled a bit as we all tried to understand each other. Sitting on their makeshift porch, we were struck by how happy and peaceful their life seemed.

Without the hand, the bug would be invisible against the tree.
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When Mike asked where we should eat, the girls recommended a place that we ended up liking very much. We left after about fifteen minutes, without Mike's lusted-for handkerchief.

Cahui, the restaurant the girls had recommended, had an open patio at the back that looked out over the lake. Attached to the patio by a suspension bridge was a lookout tower, so we 'swayed' ourselves over to take a look. Dinner (delicious fish and a bowl of tortilla soup) overlooking the lake as the sun goes down--quite a romantic way to top off Valentine's Day.

Tikal, the jungle canopy
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We weren't to know it at the time, but El Remate is as much rural as it is town. The first notice we had of this was at the Restaurante Cahui, which overlooked the yard next door where three big pigs snuffled around. The true evidence, though, was the chorus of crowing roosters the next morning. It seems that all along the lake there are roosters. It was quite a concert, and helped us get up at 4:45 a.m. to catch an early shuttle to Tikal.

When the shuttle to Tikal arrived, we discovered that the driver wasn't expecting us and there wasn't any room for us. After much good-natured groaning from already hot and crushed tourists, we and another couple squished our way into the van and rode along as far as the main road. From there, the driver arranged for a friend to take the four of us in his own car up to Las Ruinas Tikal.

Pyramid at Tikal, with person climbing to give sense of scale
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Once in the park, Mike and I stowed our luggage in the 'locker' we had discovered the day before and paid the $2 fee. Then we talked with another couple from Slovakia and hired a guide to take the four of us on a tour. That was a very good idea, but also one with unexpected consequences. The guide tried to be  informative and patiently waited while we climbed the various structures and looked around, but he only spoke Spanish in a frustrating mumble. Mike translated some things for me and some I understood without his help, but after a while it was too difficult to listen closely. He did show us a fascinating bug, something like a butterfly, that is expertly camouflaged to blend into a specific tree bark, where it lays its eggs. The underside of it's wings are more colorful and include an eye on each, no doubt to ward of predators. He also showed us a ground cover plant that wilts and droops when brushed. It 'plays dead' essentially, to protect itself. After four minutes or so of no threat, the leaves spring back into place and the stem straightens.

Flores, can you see Mike's sunburn... and why he would be dreaming of a handkerchief
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Arriving at the park early was a good idea. It was only near the end of our four-hour tour, near the largest temples, that we encountered crowds. We felt as if we had the place to ourselves. Yes, it was definitely worth it to be there early in the morning.

The structures at Tikal are fascinating. Many have been uncovered and restored or are in the process of being restored, but many others are covered over by earth and trees of the jungle. Again, we didn't see many animals, but did see a few monkeys and one toucan. Also a very colorful bird and a small group of coatis.

Now here's a colorful fellow. A young ocellated turkey, perhaps?
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Lunch was homemade tamales and fresh coconuts from a group of local women who set up a stand to feed the park workers. The coconut, by the way, was expertly peeled with a machete, and a hole "drilled" with the tip--just large enough so as to get a straw in and the coconut milk out. We also spent a little time at the gift shop and walking around the hotel grounds on the outside of park before eventually catching a colectivo back to Flores.

In many of our colectivo rides, Mike and I were the tourists among locals, but this time the van was full of tourist types. One was a diving dude, originally from Tillamook, Oregon, who really likes Argentina, especially the cheap prices. Another earned a retirement living by being an available dance partner and dance instructor on cruise ships: A modern day Casanova if you overlook his tendency to drink beer through a straw! Mike enjoyed chatting with the colectivo drivers, asking about how much things have changed since the mid-seventies, when he visited Tikal as child--before the road was paved and when the hotel parking lot was an air strip.

Sad to be leaving Tikal, but ready for the next part of our crammed itinerary, we headed to Flores for dinner and to catch our flight. Flores is a small island town. It's very colorful and in the Spanish colonial style, with narrow winding streets. Hot and exhausted, we searched for and finally found Mike's bliss at last: handkerchiefs. And hungry again, we sought out an interesting restaurant. Many were closed in the mid-afternoon, but we located one called Las Puertas that seemed promising. We were right; the food was very good. And the limonada was even better. Still wanting to be off our feet but with time before we had to be at the airport for our flight back to Guatemala City, we rented a tuk-tuk--a fun, motorized, rickety, 3rd world 3 wheeler--for a quick tour around Flores. The driver also agreed to take us to the airport. It turns out that a tuk-tuk on the Guatemalan highway is not where you want to be. Chalk that one up to experience. Now, back to Guatemala City.