Across Americas - Discovering the New World on a motorcycle

[AnjinSan]

Originally Posted by Merlin III

A quick look at the news indicates that 48 people were killed from that earthquake. We had a 4.6 quake here last month and it scared the hell out of me. I initially thought it was a car bomb.

Yes, last night we found out more news as well and it turns out that the earthquake was much more serious in parts closer to the epicenter. Sadly people died and also there was a lot of destruction.
We were fortunate enough to be far enough from the center and also people here in the city are very used to this and as long as there is no damage (people or buildings) they really don't care. I mean 10 minutes after the quake it was life as usual and that helped us a bit to not linger in the quake feeling (for me was the biggest in my life).

I was discussing yesterday with Paul (rtwpaul) in Antigua and he said something similar that people there just went outside, waited it out and that was it, back to normal. No panic no nothing. So that was good.

[AnjinSan]

Between the past and the present: 19-22 October
We are still far away from the border but we feel we are getting closer. The easiest (fastest) way would have been to continue on the Pacific coast to Guatemala. As we weren’t in a hurry we decided to head north first, entering the old Mayan empire territory.
We still have to ride for a while to get there. On some paved roads…

…and on others less paved

And the only constant is the temperature…. a high temperature. No wonder everyone is trying to cool off the best they can. And at noon, it is siesta time…


We manage to refrain ourselves from turning right on one of those small roads that seem to lead on a deserted beach. Maybe we should have done it, we weren’t in a hurry. We get on top of a hill and we can see in the distance endless beaches tucked in between thick vegetation and the blue waters of the ocean.

We admire the ocean one last time (in Mexico) and head to the green mountains. We are developing a new traveling rhythm but we still have to learn how to properly relax. This time we avoided the beaches because we had no cash and decided to look for an ATM first. Ah, what a “pragmatic” excuse. We have no time to regret the beaches left behind though as we get to enjoy the beauty ahead.


And the road wants to keep up with the scenery as well. Good pavement, well marked, going up in the mountains. Sometimes having a tall vegetation green wall on both sides and sometimes steep cliffs on one side.



We are then reminded that human footprint on the lands is not always a positive one.

Garbage has a strong impact in these places where nature has so much to offer. But who is to blame? People from here who produce trash and throw it in the nature or maybe the companies that commercially invaded their lives, selling them things they didn’t need, without offering them an efficient method to get rid of the trash? It’s an endless debate but a real problem that should be looked into from both sides.
And ironic enough, just a few meters down the road, we see the government solution for the situation: “Let’s scare them with big fines”!

So if you throw away trash you get fined, a 90 minimum salaries fee. That’s great, but I seriously doubt that this is really enforced or that it could be enforced for that matter (who would have here the actual money to pay such a fine?) And if they are not affected by it, they don’t really care about it.
These people live a harsh life, from another time, somehow forgotten by the new “always on the run” society living in the “civilized” cities. So it might be easy to judge but it might be rush and even useless.
There are no supermarkets here. There are no malls or other useful places where you can buy the “strict necessities” in life. But you can buy boiled or fried corn, right from the side of the road.

And how about walking all day long carrying with your head a load sometimes equal with your own weight? Would you still be willing to go to the next trash bin to throw our garbage?

Oh… and I forgot to mention, the nearest trash bin is… uhmm probably miles away!

We reach the village, more than 2600 meters altitude and we have a look around.

There are no big commercial establishments but this doesn’t mean that there is no capitalist life of unstoppable consumerism. Of course this Mayan descendants need Coca Cola on a daily basis as well as many other plastic wrapped products. Plastic that ends up on the streets where ironically puddles mirror the beautiful traditional costumes worn by girls and ladies.


And even here, in the isolated village, one can connect to the wonders of internet. We wouldn’t want a day to pass without Facebook (and yes, that’s self irony).

But people adapt to always changing reality, combining -sometimes in a pleasant, sometimes in a weird manner- the traditional past with present of jeans and printed T-shirts.

Most of the people wave back as we wave them. But some are not shy to show their despise towards (what they think) we represent. If only it would be just that -a calculated and conscious response- and not just a lack of good education and lots of stupidity…

But who knows? We continue onwards through people animals and corn fields.

Bare feet on a roll of barbwire. When us, the grownups, forget, children can remind us, even just symbolically, that we can and we should overcome artificial barriers. We don’t know who this girl is but we will take this image with us…

The last place in Mexico we wanted to stop for a while was Palenque, an old Mayan city, now an archaeological site that can be visited. The narrow road winds its way restlessly, descending from the mountains and getting deeper and deeper into the jungle. Vegetation changes again.


And as we were riding and enjoying the views we were forced to sudden stop. In front of us a group of people was blocking the road. Some people were skillfully manipulating 2 wooden boards with nails that they were putting in the middle of the street. You had to stop, and then other gentlemen were approaching you and telling things and asking for money. I evaluate the situation and realize that the good thing is we are not alone on the road. There is a full bus in front of us, also stopped. And on the other side two cars are greeted the same way.

Still…. I don’t feel at ease. This is not right… Andreea becomes all quiet in the back. One of the “gentlemen” approaches us. He is holding a jar and asking for money. He is speaking pretty fast so I don’t really understand what he is asking money for. But I decide I don’t want to give him anything and I tell him that in Romanian. He doesn’t hear neither Spanish nor English so he gets confused but repeats his request one more time but less convinced. I repeat in Romanian that I don’t understand what he is saying, I am from Romania, I don’t know Spanish nor English and I don’t want to give him any money. Of course the man only hears some nonsense words and decides we are good to go. He leaves puzzled. The bus in front is allowed to pass and I try to take this opportunity when there is no board with nails on the road to cross also. It’s not working. The wooden board is pushed back on the road and I have to break fast. The guy manipulating the board seems starts to talk with your guy and luckily they decide that we are nice guys and we should be allowed to pass. We speed up and few meters away everything seems to go back to normal.

We are quiet, thinking about what happened. Definitely these people weren’t the “bad guys” from Mexico we were warned about. They were probably some people in the village in big trouble and needing some help. The wooden board with nails was just a brutal way of convincing the people always in a hurry to stop and listen to their problems. And help them with some money, of course. Maybe we got scared and we weren’t supposed to. These kind of actions are not rare in Mexico. Something similar happened to us in Oaxaca. Just that there were no nails on the road over there, just a human shield. The feeling of insecurity stays with us for a while. I guess you cannot feel otherwise when you are stopped by men with macetas, using boards with nails. A brand new VW Golf 5 driven by the man in a suit passed us. For sure he was stopped just like us. Now he was talking on the phone, relaxed. Nothing out of ordinary for him. What a difference. I keep thinking what would have been the reaction if something like this would have happened in Europe. Call the police, hand out fines, tv news crew, everything. Here, just another day. It was OK that we weren’t alone. We thank God we are alive and continue our journey to Palenque. We avoid the city and find a place to sleep in the jungle, in a bungalow, close to the Mayan ruins. There is an unbelievable noise outside, there are lots of birds and animals hidden in the dense vegetation. Like in a movies I was watching as a kid.

I park the motorcycle in the howling of the monkeys and call an end to a too long day.


We go to bed after Andreea gets rid of a big spider hanging above our bed. Hmmm I thought we are sleeping in a bungalow and not in a hammock so that we could avoid such “creatures”. Never mind, all is good! The sleep comes with the the rain drops and a question: Will we exit Mexico tomorrow?
The map for this post:

View Larger Map
Next time we try to exit Mexico and we find out that it is not that easy. Stay tuned!

[bisbonian]

Originally Posted by AnjinSan

Most of the people wave back as we wave them. But some are not shy to show their despise towards (what they think) we represent. If only it would be just that -a calculated and conscious response- and not just a lack of good education and lots of stupidity…

He's just been following your ride report on ADVrider and is offering up the ADV salute!

This means good job!

[AnjinSan]

Originally Posted by bisbonian

He's just been following your ride report on ADVrider and is offering up the ADV salute!

This means good job!

Haha, yeah, that must have been it. Anyway, we were not upset. You win some you lose some

Vaya con Dios! :)

[Turkeycreek]

[QUOTE=AnjinSan;19999708]


Bare feet on a roll of barbwire. When us, the grownups, forget, children can remind us, even just symbolically, that we can and we should overcome artificial barriers. We don’t know who this girl is but we will take this image with us…



Alex, Andreea, I don't know which one of you took this photo but it is outstanding. It is my favorite for now. Thanks for sharing it an sharing your thoughts about this young girl.

Abrazos

[AnjinSan]

Tom you are right! For us is as well one of the images most close to us. We realized what we had taken just later, when we were looking at the pictures...

[AnjinSan]

Guys,
until the next writing, I have a question that some of you might be able to help with. Our boat from Panama to Colombia will leave on 8th of December so we have more or less 1 month to enjoy Central America.
We are now in Guatemala and are plotting a route at a slow pace towards El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama finally, at the beginning of December.
In this time and somewhere in one of these places we would like to:
- of course avoid trouble areas (should we skip El Salvador and/or parts of Honduras?) and trouble border crossings
- spend some quiet days (1 week maybe?) in a hammock at a nice and cheap beach (Pacific or Atlantic)
- try some "activities" for the first time in my life: surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving, zip-lining or any other stuff that is available and quite cheap.
- in general lay low and live cheap :)

So given the above coordinates, do you have any suggestions for us?

Thanks,
Alex

[SS in Vzla.]

Originally Posted by AnjinSan

- try some "activities" for the first time in my life: surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving, zip-lining or any other stuff that is available and quite cheap.

Thanks,
Alex

I'm a Scuba Diving Instructor. Scuba Diving is not cheap, but for "less expensive" scuba diving in a world class environment, I suggest Roatan in Honduras, which would also be a pretty cheap place with great beaches to relax a week in a hammock like you express.

Belize has the "Blue Hole" which is also a world renowned scuba diving destination, but I'm not sure about pricing.

I have a very good friend of mine who owns a Dive Center in Panama (close to Portobello). The diving is not as good as in Roatan or Belize, but if you've never dove before, you will enjoy it immensely anyways. And I can personally vouch for the quality of the instructors at that particular dive center. E-Mail me if you want me to put you guys in touch so he can quote you for some diving, snorkeling and even cheap accommodations (maybe?)



I haven't been there myself, but have read numerous reports here on ADV about a great time in El Salvador. For what it's worth, I would not miss it. You have the time, so inform yourself about the problem areas and simply avoid them.

Drum bun!

[Radioman]

Originally Posted by AnjinSan

Guys,
until the next writing, I have a question that some of you might be able to help with. Our boat from Panama to Colombia will leave on 8th of December so we have more or less 1 month to enjoy Central America.
We are now in Guatemala and are plotting a route at a slow pace towards El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama finally, at the beginning of December.
In this time and somewhere in one of these places we would like to:
- of course avoid trouble areas (should we skip El Salvador and/or parts of Honduras?) and trouble border crossings
- spend some quiet days (1 week maybe?) in a hammock at a nice and cheap beach (Pacific or Atlantic)
- try some "activities" for the first time in my life: surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving, zip-lining or any other stuff that is available and quite cheap.
- in general lay low and live cheap :)

So given the above coordinates, do you have any suggestions for us?

Thanks,
Alex

Hola Alex. You will have no problem taking a month to get through Central America. I was there earlier this year and have lots of information in my RR if you are interested. The border crossings are always a bit crazy in Central America. I have detailed the information in my RR at each of the borders that I cross. The best advice is the arrive early, well rested, with some food and water and enjoy the 2-4 hours that it will take at each border. It is a bit hectic as nothing is clearly marked and the procedure varies at each side of each border....... Relax you do not need to pay any "Fixers" ..... Decline them all, and just do it yourself. You will need to ask at each step what the next step is!

See the index on the first page of my RR for each country.

But don't miss El Salvador. You can ride to La Libertad which is a cheap little beach town!

Nicaragua has some nice places including Granada and also beach towns. Costa Rica and Panama will be more expensive as you head through them.

What boat are you taking from Panama?

PM if you have any other questions, and I will see if I can help!

Mark

[AnjinSan]

Hey Radioman and SS! Thank you for your answers. I am a little bit late with answering because we are having some fun in places without internet.

Silviu, I've read your email and will follow through with the guys in Panama that you suggested.

Radioman: I will read in detail your experience of the border crossings. This is what I am hopping as well, to be able to do it without any fixer.

I'll keep you posted.

[AnjinSan]

Hey guys! We are in El Salvador now and enjoying our first surf attempts. Well, let's just say that we won' win any competitions soon :)

But here is the next episode, back from the end of October:

In Guatemala: October 22-23

This is it! After more than 3 weeks in Mexico and with the initial moto insurance running out 3 days ago, we felt that it was time to hit the road so we wake up in Palenque with the clear target: Guatemala!

From Palenque to Guatemala it is not very far. You need to reach a small town called Tenosique and then onwards to El Ceibo a relatively new border crossing that is not very well known nor it is very used.

We found out about it from Alex si Dagmar, our friends from Mexico City. But the funny thing was that when trying to find more details about it while on the road we were getting very diverse answers. First of all it does not exist on our Mexico GPS map or Paper Map. Also Google Maps doesn’t know it. And when we were asking people around Palenque we were getting answers ranging from “There is no road that goes there, only a boat crossing” to “there is a road but it is in a very bad condition, you have to cross a river and then you are on the Guatemalan side. Passing over the mere existence of the place (of which we knew from Alex and Dagmar but we just could not pin point it’s location) we had another problem: when entering Mexico with a foreign vehicle you have to make a bank deposit (400 dollars in our case) that you get back when you exit your vehicle from Mexico. There is a separate entity dealing with this procedure called Banjercito. Apparently not all the border crossings have a Banjercito office so you cannot exit everywhere. Or you can do exit wherever you want and make a 400 dollars donation (your deposit) to the Mexican government. We learn from AdvRider that there is a Banjercito in El Ceibo but it is closed on Monday. And today is…. Monday, exactly! The post was from 2010 so maybe things have changed until now.

We decide to go to border and see if we get into Guatemala or not. We meet a few police and army checkpoints along the way. We ask about the Banjercito and they all confirm that there is one and it’s open. Let’s go then, maybe we can cross. Guatemala feels so close!

At one of the Mexican checkpoints we see the wooden board with nails again that brings us bad memories. So this “tool” is used by the army also, in emergency cases. Luckily it was just sitting there, on the side of the road.

The isolated and less known border crossing is almost deserted. We park in front of the frontier building and we are the only ones there. A man approaches us and tells us where to go. Ah, that’s good, it’s means we can cross today. We start preparing our documents when another man shows up and tells the first one: “Hombre, they cannot cross today, the Banjercito is closed”. Ah, we were so close! We take a sneak peak of Guatemala and promise to come back tomorrow. For now, Mexico, here we come! Again!

We go back 50 kilometers to Tenosique. At least the road is nice. Very nice.

After a few unsuccessful trials we find a hotel. It’s clean, it has internet and we have time to write another post for Micadu (probably one about Northern Mexico) and we wait for Tuesday to come….
Next day we go back to the border and everything goes well. Banjercito is open, we take care of the formalities for the motorcycle and then we get our exit stamps for Mexico on the passports. We are in “no man’s land” and head towards Guatemala.

On the other side we park the motorcycle in front of the Guatemalan frontier building. We are the only foreigners there. Only locals seem to know about this border crossing. And because the border is isolated there is no commercial traffic. Perfect, no trucks! We hope to have an easy crossing. And since we are in another country, we take down the little Mexican flag that we received from Tom in Banamici. Two border guys notice what we are doing and ask us what’s with the flag. We tell them that we carry the Romanian flag and the flag of country we are passing through, if we have it. In Mexico we had this small one. Now we have to find one with Guatemala. The border guy smiles to us, he has an idea. He tells something really fast to his colleague and comes back with a Guatemalan flag as big as our panier. He even has scotch tape, so the two men immediately start working on our motorcycle.

Andreea stays with the moto as I try to figure out the bureaucratic flow. First I need some stamps on our passports so we can be allowed in Guatemala. Meanwhile, at the motorcycle….

Then I have to go to another building and start the procedure for Gunnar’s temporary import in Guatemala.
Meanwhile, back at the motorcycle….

To finish the formalities I have to make some copies of the documents that they just issued. There is no copy machine at the border so I have to take a tuc-tuc (madly driven by a child) and go look for a copy machine in the nearby village.

Meanwhile, at the motorcycle…

I come back from the village with the copies and after I get some more stamps I have to go to a bank and pay some tax. You cannot pay with the credit card at the bank and I don’t have too many pesos left so it’s time to start looking for the dollars I kept well hidden “just in case”.
Meanwhile, at the motorcycle…

Basically, whenever I was going out of a building and running to the other one I was taking a look at Gunnar and saw that something else was going on there. But everything was OK and they were all respectful and nice with Andreea who got a cold drink and was invited to rest in the shadows. Meanwhile I was running around with documents from one office to the other. Oh well, everyone is having fun, their own way.
One hour and something later we are ready! I was reading all sort of unpleasant stories about border crossings in Central America. For us crossing into Guatemala was a real pleasure. Everyone was friendly and, being such a small border crossing, we ended up knowing everyone and everyone knew who we were and where we were going. We shake hands with the border men and they wish us safe travels in Guatemala. This is is! We are leaving!
We are in a less populated area. And full of contrasts. Normally we were supposed to be in a jungle, and the places where nature was on her own were luxuriant green.

But other places the jungle was just a memory:

Massive deforestations. Here you cannot say “you cannot see the forest from the trees”. No matter how hard we tried to imagine things were not how they were supposed to be. And we were to find out the next day about an old practice, thousands of years old. One that was probably the main cause for the decline of a civilization.
But before meeting the Mayan civilization from thousands of years ago we see the marks of a more recent one, from 2012.

A sad and strong contrast with the clean nature surrounding us.

We feel like we saw this before. We feel like this picture of trash thrown away all over the place is uselessly repeating. We promised ourselves before leaving that we will remember the world as it is. I don’t claim to be a photo-journalist but still I cannot only show the “beautiful” pictures, the ones that look good in the magazine. The New World is fascinating in all its forms.
We see the first settlements in Guatemala. We are in an area that was strongly affected by the Civil War that lasted over 30 years and ended not so long ago, in 1996. There are modest villages with barely no infrastructure, except the main road that passes them by.

Everything is closer to the ground. The ground that seems to be the main source for survival, ironically unsustainably used but many times strictly necessary on short term.

We pass the few villages we meet along the way and get closer to the place where we want to stop for the night. Lake Peten, in Northern part of Guatemala is famous for being one of the cores of Mayan civilization, the city of Tikal being probably one of the greatest ever built by the Mayans.We stop on Flores Island, a place that is mainly touristic. What a difference between the villages we just passed and this tourism oriented place.You can tell where you are from the marks left by the big commercial chains.

We barely find a hotel not made for foreign tourists (without North American price levels and not especting dollars instead of quetzals- nation currency of Guatemala). There is big bustle and the tuc-tucs are flying around carrying tourists and locals.

We manage to find a quiet place, park the motorcycle inside the hotel (again) and try to get used to the new location.

Today was a special day. The first day in a new country is a little bit weird, you are in between two different worlds, still trying to adjust to the new “rules”.

We enjoy the sunset over Lake Peten and our thoughts fly back to the last weeks.

We stayed in Mexico more than we hoped for and still, we feel that we could have stayed twice as much and still we couldn’t have discovered all that it has to show. We look back with joy and content to all that happened to us the past weeks. The frights of the first kilometers we rode in this country “feared” by so many people and the easy-hearted stops we take now anywhere to eat at the “comedors” by the side of the road. From the worried thoughts when we had a flat tire at 2500m in the middle of nowhere in the mountains to the relaxing days we spent by the ocean and the towns where we met such beautiful people.

Mexico was supposed to be just a short chapter of our journey. A gate to Central America, a place that many people avoid and even more fear, a place we had to cross. It turned out to be more than this and we would love to go back. And now Guatemala! A country we barely new anything about before coming here. Over the lake, hidden in the dense jungle, there is Tikal, the old Mayan city full of mysteries and answers in the same time, echoing the life of an empire that flourished thousands of years ago, with scientific and technological performances hard to explain for those times and that suddenly disappeared without a clear cause.
Wondering what we will see tomorrow? Stay tuned!
The road we took is not on Google Maps so the map for this post is shown on Google totally wrong. The route was Palenque-Tenosique-Flores, without the Southern detour.

View Larger Map

[Merlin III]

Civil War is too kind of a description for what took place in Guatemala. If you check Wikipedia you will see it was a US CIA funded genocide against the very poor people of Guatemala and to Support the US Corporation called the United Fruit Company from perceived threats from very poor people and labor organizers. Over 200,000 thousand people were killed or went missing with the vast majority of them being peasants, leftists, labor leaders, and people with a social conscience. It was so bad that even today people in Guatemala don't want to discuss it.

[AnjinSan]

Yeah, actually when we went to San Pedro, I got to talk a little bit about the events with the local (meaning mayan) people. Very gently approaching the subject and I could sense that the memories of those years are very much still in their minds. But Guatemalans are proud people that rarely speak about what happened then. So I think they won't forget what happened but will not linger in the past.
I've heard that now the government is trying hard to erase the old hatred and inequality between the old 2 sides. I felt

As for the involvement of the US in all Central America... I try very much to stay out of "politics". This being said though, what happened not only in Guatemala but in all Central America was believable. The subject is huge and it is a very interesting read. Not to judge as these things are in the past already, but to learn from what happened and maybe avoid the same (very tragic) situations.

[AnjinSan]

Tikal: 24th of October
With the head on the window, I try to get some sleep. That is not going to well for me as the small bus is bouncing on the bumpy road. It is 5 AM and it is way to early for me.
But everybody does it. There are tens of hotels and hostels in Flores during season all of them full with tourists. And all of them go to visit Tikal. It is after all one of the biggest Mayan sites discovered and we thought we might as well “play tourist” for one day as well. So… here we are, in the small buss, with other 6 foreigners and a guide, on our way to an old Mayan city.

Now Tikal is a National Park in Guatemala. But it used to be a flourishing Mayan city, an epicenter of their civilization. At it’s peak, it is estimated that it had a population of over 100000 people living on a radius of more than 7 miles. Now the place is home of just a few archeologists and other researchers. Fortunately they do not wake up that early so the paths in the jungle are still silent.

I haven’t seen the pyramids in Egypt. The Mayan ones appear to be generally smaller and they are solid, there are no inner chambers

And if the ones in Egypt are known to be tombs for the Pharaohs, the ones here served different purposes, they were ment to help men be closer to divinity by performing different religious ceremonies. The interesting thing is that while the Egyptians knew the concept of the wheel the Mayans did not. They knew how to make “round” things from stone (their altars are like this) but they did not used the wheel as a method of transport stuff. Then how did they managed with these huge blocks of stones? There are many theories (some of them involving Extra-terrestrial beings) but maybe a simple, albeit gloomy answer is much more “down to earth”: slaves. Many many slaves.

From our guide, Gonzales, we find out a lot of interesting details about the life back then. He speaks good English and he is not avoiding more sensible topics. Maybe now one can marvel at the architecture and ingenuity but the truth remains that on a lot of these temples there were human sacrifices. We can only imagine the priest climbing the stairs followed by the lucky person who was climbing them for the last time in his life.

The gloomy sky and the musky jungle add to the atmosphere that surrounds us. Beating hearts, taken from living bodies, bloody offerings to feared gods.

But who were these humans that started such a complex civilization? The research suggests that they actually came from Asia, crossing the frozen Bering Straight, then starting a journey South to Central America.

We continue our walk, and we reach the central plaza.

We observe a field where they used to play a ball game. The purpose could be differ (there were several games played) but the win prize was the honor of being sacrificed. Yeap, so the winning guys found their way up a pyramid and their slash! Uhh, that is a game that it might be better to lose…

It is difficult to understand all the details of the life back then. To me it was a strange combination. A society so advanced (written alphabet, math, astronomy, culture, art, buildings) and yet so entrenched in mystical believes and violent practices of them. Later on, Europe, with it’s Catholic Church, would burn on the rug a lot of it’s illuminated minds (philosophers, writers, mathematicians and so on) on the grounds of heresy, effectively delaying discoveries and technical advancements. Here, the “sicence” was somehow in symbiosis with a religion that was much more violent.

The same thing was bound to repeat with the Spanish conquest of Americas and the arrival of the church on the other side of the Atlantic. Thousands of writings burned, objects and building destroyed and people killed in the name of a peaceful religion, a religion of love.

And yet, the actual reason of the fall of the Mayans is unclear. When the Spanish came, the Mayans were already in decline. Entire cities, like Tikal, suddently were abandoned and were left empty. It is speculated that one of the main reasons for this was in fact… the heavy deforestation. The need for more agricultural space in order to feed an increasing population, the desire to build bigger and bigger buildings (the cement used was created involving a process that required burning huge amounts of wood), all of these led to cutting off a lot of the jungle. This in turn lead to irregular rains, which meant bad crops and also less drinking water. The funny thing was that just a few years after Tikal was abandoned, the jungle reclaimed it and covered most of the buildings.

And so it is. The humans who conquered Americas, the nature and in the end time itself, destroyed a good part of what was once a great Civilization. The little that we know and see today, remains though utterly fascinating!

All is tranquil now, but how was this place 1100 years ago? We can only imagine today. The jungle seems to know a lot but keeps it secretes well.

[wegimex]

Isee you loved it as much as we did. Happy jouney from Mexico City and looking forward to more...