Darren came back from investigating buses, face shining with jubilation. He adored the market - the dust, the activity, the noise. He'd located where the buses left, but wanted me there for moral support when he used his Spanish.We asked the first driver if he went to Tikal and he said no, those buses left from the new station. We wondered if they meant the main terminal - which was a bit of walk in the heat, but the driver had pointed to the west, not the south. We walked a block and asked a shop keeper. Darren understood something about two blocks. So we walked the two blocks and looked around. As luck would have it, a minibus was leaving the market, so we headed where it had just come out.
We found the station. A man in a straw hat offered to help us and we wondered if it was like the guy at the airport, but he seemed to be some sort of bus organizer -they certainly needed one as it was a mad house. We had to wait 40 min for the next one to Tikal.
Buses churned the dust; hawkers hawked everything from sugared peanuts to combs, to Colgate toothpaste. Darren was in hog heaven. I've never seen him happier. He even let me buy him a local straw hat.
Our friend came to get us when our bus pulled in. It had picked up two very blonde Europeans at the main terminal. They weren't very interested. One young boy waved a box of Colgate under the guy's nose, but he ignored him. I usually politely say no thank you. They loaded the minibus down to maximum capacity. You couldn't have squeezed an avocado in there. It was hot, but once we were rolling, there was a nice breeze from the windows.
Darren was still high. He even agreed to my suggestion of touring Central America in a tuk tuk.
It takes about an hour to arrive at Tikal. It's in the middle of nowhere. Then it's a 20 min drive to get to the hotels and campground. We found the campground and requested the hammocks. The man who worked there set them up - a good thing as we would never have figured them out - a denim hammock with a cotton box around it for mosquito netting. There was a secure room to leave our packs. Unfortunately, no water in the shower block. I’ve become very fond of hand wipes. May become like Mr. Monk soon.
We stopped at one of the comidors for lunch.
If you get your ticket after 3:30, you can visit the park until dark and then it's good for the next day, too.
It was a 30 min walk further into the park to the first temple complex. There was hardly anyone there - just a scattering of folks. The pyramids are awesome. We climbed one in the main plaza. Well, we climbed the ladder at the side.
We worked our way around to Temple IV. It was a longer climb. I saw a guard texting up there while we enjoyed the view of the other temples rising above the canopy. I thought I'd try the Blackberry as I'd not gotten a signal in the park.
We thought we'd left the flashlight behind, so we were sure to start back with enough time before dark.
Darren was trying to photograph a small mammal (maybe tapir) when a spider monkey startled us by throwing a branch down.
After the monkey attempted assault, we found a coatimundi subduing his dinner.
We got back to the campground as darkness fell and realized we had the mini flashlight in my bag all along. We retrieved our stored bags and tried to settle for the night.
We were sweaty from climbing temples and the general high humidity, but it was cooler when the sun went down. Surprisingly, the night/nature was no nosier than at home - a few crickets and frogs, an occasional bird. Didn't need earplugs initially, but found I couldn't sleep with the faint ding ding from Darren’s camera as he reviewed the day’s photos. The hammock took a little to get used to, but was not uncomfortable.
I woke about 11:30 freezing to death. I rolled to the side to dig in my pack under the hammock for my thermals and jacket. Not expecting to need them in the jungle - I'd packed them on the bottom. By the way, an iPod makes an excellent flashlight in survival situations such as these :) After I was done digging my stuff was strung out all over the cement pad under my hammock. If you've never tried to wiggle into thermals (excuse me - base layers) and a jacket while lying in a hammock, try it sometime - just for giggles. Strangely, I felt clammy as well as cold. I spent the rest of the night huddled with my rain shell over my legs and my spare pants and shirt wrapped around my head. No, Darren did not get a photo. Thought about curling up with Darren to keep warm in his hammock, but there was no guarantee we both wouldn't end up in a heap on the floor.
Darren said he spent most of the night needing a pee, but he didn't want to get up and look for scorpions in his shoes.
When Darren called me in the morning, I woke with an, "Aaaahhkkkk!" It was pitch black. I finally dug out the blackberry under all my stuff and saw it had been going off for 20min and the park opened in 10 min, but I'd set it wrong and we had an hour to pack up my crap.
We repacked under the flashlight and waited for the grounds man to rise to store our stuff before headng into the park as the sun was just rising.
So that was our night in the jungle in hammocks.
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