From Chichen Itza to Tikal

Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza was at the center of the Maya empire. It Concentrated all the economic and military power, and other cities subordinated to them. The buildings reflect the nature of the city itself. They are more serious looking buildings, with decorations reminding of their role as a regional power. Warriors, snakes, and skulls abound. They have a huge ball court in optimum conditions. The captain of the winning team was sacrificed, and this was an honour for them to participate on these games. There is also a cenote (a huge natural water well) used for ceremonials and human sacrifices. Overall, it is not a cheerful city such as Palenque, for example. 

 

On Mexican roads and drivers:

Generally speaking, roads in Mexico are excellent. There are some exceptions in secondary roads, but overall the traffic is safe and drivers seem to be well trained.

We choose to drive on secondary roads so we can learn more about the daily life of Mexican people, therefore we drove through every single small town. There is no mayor problem in doing so, except that each town has speed bumps which make our trip so much slower. However, we have our rewards when we pass through nice towns such as Kantunil, on our road to Chetumal. 

Chetumal is the capital city of Quintana Roo state. This is another neat city on the same style as others in the Yucatan peninsula.

On January 17th we visited the ruins at Calakmul. This was another major city, and apparently it was as important as Chichen Itza. Calakmul is in the middle of the jungle and it is not so easy to get there. From Chetumal we drove west for almost two hours, then south for 13 miles on a narrow winding road bordered by plain jungle. We arrived at a parking place where we left our car and continued our trip forward on a shuttle for another 26 miles, getting very close to the border with Guatemala. Once in Calakmul we had to walk a while until we arrived to the first ruins. The place seems to  be still in the discovery phase, but it is well maintained. The trail that takes you through the different circuits runs under a tall tree canopy where we were lucky to see black spider monkeys right atop of us. Also many wild big multicolored pheasants.

The most noticeable feature of Calakmul is the amount of stellae (some 120) covered  with hieroglyphics.

At the parking lot where we left our car there is a small museum showing fosils of prehistoric animals found in the area.

Overal we had a good impression of Calakmul. We should have arrived some time earlier in order to spent more time on the site. An advice for future visitors: it takes between 3 and 4 hours to visit the place, plus one more hour from the main entrance on route 186, therefore plan to arrive very early to the site, otherwise you will run out of time to visit the entire place.

 

Belize

On January 18th we crossed from Chetumal into Belize. Quite frankly, "we were not amussed". The place is very poor and unappealing, and I have the impression that they are still a colony, not from the British but from multinational corporations. The northern part is covered with sugar can plantations while the central part has more variety. It seems that the government does not provide public education, because there is an unbelievably amount of private religious schools, organized by  a variety of religious organizations from abroad. From the border we drove to Belize City, then to Belmopan, and then to San Ignacio, and we didn't like what we saw. Besides impoverished people, we saw many religious groups and churches, and tourists. Ignorance + poverty + religion: what a bad mixture!

We rushed to get out of the country, which we accomplished in just 6 hours.

 

Guatemala

Everything changed once we drove into Guatemala. We went to an hotel by a lake in El Remate, near the ruins of Tikal. The hotel setting, the lake, the temperature, the food, the beer, everything was perfect.

Now talking of Maya ruins: Along with Palenque, Tikal is one the best places we saw so far. It is located in the middle of a dense jungle, and there are paths taking you through the different parts of the city. The design of the buildings, the decorations in stuco and stone, the general layout of the city, and the jungle covering the entire place makes it one of my favorites. 

Specially, Temple #5: It has the shape of a truncated pyramid, not too tall but with a simple design. It is like a multiple layers' wedding cake, composed of seven blocks on top of each other, each one about 3 meters high. Each block is smaller than the previous one, and with almost vertical walls. It is crowned with a big monument which cannot be reached by the stairs. The stair itself has a steep angle, like all mayan pyramids. 

There is plenty of wild life, and we were able to spot a variety of monkeys, coaties, turkeys, and birds. Definitely, I would recommend a visit to Tikal.