F***ing Trecking

So like I said in my last entry my trip in Guatemala was going to be a jungle trecking adventure that I signed up for last minute. The trip was going to be cancelled due to a lack of a staff member wanting to go, so I decided that I woud jump aboard and save the trip. This was actually one of the trips that I wanted to do from the beginning but didn’t sign up because of the cost, but since I was sure I would be trip leader I would get the automatic 50% off!

The trecking trip didn’t leave till day two, so on day one I decided to go to Antigua with Anne and Ebonie. The night before I decided to chat with the interport student (a student that arrives prior to a port and talks about there country) and ask about the best way to get to Antigua. While chatting with him he just suggested that we catch a ride with him up to Antigua, which was great considering it was about a $100 cab ride and that we were told that the buses were the most unsafe way to travel (the US diplomat described a normal occurrence where people hijack buses, shot someone and let them bleed to death while they collect money, so needless to say we were going to avoid public buses).

So that morning we waited outside with the interport student Pablo and chatted with him a bit and found out that he owned a Sushi Restaurant in Antigua, so yes, he was definitely well off. This was also confirmed when we asked how his car was getting to the port and his response was that his driver was bringing it….duh…I hate it when I forget to ask my driver to come pick me up!

Antigua is basically a tourist town that has done a great job in keeping the area clean and safe and basically serves as a hub for tourists to get to all the other parts of Guatemala you would want to see. It was a very picturesque town, loved it!

We ended up visiting the market, getting coffee, and then having dinner at Pablos sushi restaurant with some of my favorite students. We had what has to be my favorite sushi roll I have ever had “Mango no come Mango” which was a roll with mango, shrimp, avocado tempura, and macadamia nuts…heavenly! After dinner and a few drinks we headed back to the ship to get ready for the jungle trekking and the rest of the trips Anne and Ebonie were going on.

On day 2 we left bright and early aboard a small plane to the area of Peten and the city of Flores in northern Guatemala. The plane was a 4 prop plane that sat about 50 people, so not that small really…When we arrived in Flores we got on some small vans and headed out to the starting point of our journey, a small town outside of the biological zone known as El Zotz. El Zotz, which means Bat in Maya, is the largest reserve of land in central America and the second largest in all of the Americas. Once in the small town we were given details of what the next 4 days would look like on our way to Tikal. Trekking and roughing it are exactly what we did, we were told this was going to be strenuous but very rewarding. Everything we would eat and sleep in would be on the back of about 7 horses who headed out about 30 minutes in front of us. We were also given the option on day 1 to have the horses carry our backpacks (mine which weighed I would guess 20lbs). Everyone decided we could carry our own stuff that day, I mean we signed up for a hard few days right!

Well Day 1 we come to find out would be a 20K hike along an old access road. The first hour of the hike was horrible as we trekked along a piece of road that was not covered by trees, rather was just HOT and HUMID and extremely muddy. After the first our we finally arrived to the entrance to El Zotz park for the rest of the 4 hours of walking up and down muddy roads and rocks to get to the first camp site. The first day was by far the hardest due to the lack of shade, the heat, and the backpacks we all had. The mud was so mad that for most of the hike we all had about 2 inches of mad on the bottom of our shoes adding another 5 lbs to each step it seemed.

At the first camp site which was composed of a small “kitchen” and an roofed area to hang hammocks we had some time to rest before we were to head off to watch the famous El Zotz bats. Around 6:15 we walked about 5 minutes to a small area near a cliff where at dusk millions of bats would leave from. I personally have a fear of bats and so I was definitely a little on edge when we arrived to a small dip in the path that was known as Bat alley where thousands, and I literally mean thousands of 6-8 inch long bats were flying around looking for insects to eat and we had to walk right smack through the middle of this. My first reaction was “are you fucking kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Yup...that is my first recreation to the bats...

After some more cursing I made my way into the alley and became one with the bats…probably one of the most incredible experiences of my life as thousands of bats flew within centimeters of my body without ever touching me, for the bats we were just another obstacle to fly around. Many many times a bat would come within inches of my face only to fly directly around me, so freaky!!!

After the alley we made it to the cave and were told to look up and within minutes we would see the mass exodus of bats. At the foot of the cave where we were standing we were literally standing in about ankle deep guano, or Bat shit, and were told that to squint when looking up because the bats as they flew over would be pooping all over us.

For those that have never stood in Bat poop it is basically a smelly really fine black powder. After a few minutes the dusk sky turned black as thousands of bats left the cliffs caves and made there way out for feeding for the night.

On our return to the camp we saw that our tents had been completed with mosquito netting that made each of us have our own little cocoon to sleep in…and so my first night of sleeping in the jungle in a hammock was not to bad. Oh ya…food, well dinner on the first night they prepared a chicken with potatoes and a sauce, it was actually quite tasty, but it could also have been that we were starving! So if you are keeping track I have now gone 24 hrs with no shower (and we sweat for every one of those hours) or pooping (I decided I didn’t want to have to poop in the jungle).

Day 2 we walked about 3 hours to a few un excavated Mayan ruins known as the Zotz and the Diablo temples. These were near the camp, but not in the direction of our final location Tikal, the largest and most spectacular of all Mayan Ruins. While on this small excursion we saw some creatures including 3 snakes and some scorpions…tasty. After we returned to the camp we packed everything up had some lunch (soup…very fitting for the cool afternoon in the Guatemalan jungle….not). And so we were off for our day 2 15K hike. This hike was down a smaller path that the horses could still travel on so I decided for Day 2 I would let them carry my pack. For the last hour of our 3.5 hour hike they skies exploded and we had to pull out our ponchos for the downpour that stuck around all night. Night 2 in the jungle was amazing as our camp was under the canopy which was home to a ton of howler monkeys who were kind enough to serve as our 5am wake up call to start our last and final 20K hike. So for your score keeping, 48 hours no shower or bowl movement (you would be surprised what you can do when you don’t want to poop). I was pretty grossed out by my own smell, it was repulsive.

Day 3 we started at 6am to walk 5 hours into the Tikal ruins along the final part of the Mayan trail. This part of the trail was to technical for the horses so we had to carry everything on our backs. While yes, this part of the hike got long, it was truly amazing as we weaved our way through the jungle following our machete wielding guide over and under logs and trees. After about 5 hours we left the jungle and had our first glimpse of temple 4 of Tikal and were told we had about 5 minutes. At this point I had been about 60 hours without pooping (and so had about 5 of my students, it was a great challenge for all of us) so as we saw Tikal we RAN to the bathroom and well I guess you can imagine the next ten minutes. It was about 11:30am and so of course we had been walking for 5 hours so we had some lunch, a can of black beans on white bread…yes…this may have been the most tasty bit of food I have ever had.

We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting all the ruins of Tikal where the Mayans once lived many years ago. I am not going to go into to much detail about Tikal, but here are some pictures. A lot of people have asked which I found more impressive, Tikal or Machu Picchu, and I would have to Say Tikal hands down…it was breathtaking. But I also think the arrival to Tikal was much more rewarding…. That is me right after arriving in Tikal

My reaction to seeing the first coke stand in Tikal...DIET COKE!!!!

so…a little summary of my trip to Tikal:

- 40 miles of hiking in Hot, sweaty, humid Guatemalan jungles for 3 days

- No showering for 72 hours

- No pooping for 60 hours

- The trek we went on is only done by about 350 people a year

- A ton of moneys, koatamundies, snakes, lizards, birds, and other scary things.

Our last day we spent the night in a cute little hotel where we got cleaned up and celebrated our true accomplishment of the Mayan empire.

After the hotel our flight home was on the smallest plane I have ever been on...I definitly held tight and hoped for the best!

I would have to say without a doubt that this was the best trip I had while on SAS, truly an amazing way to end my time at in port!

Just so everyone knows, we were not effected by the earthquake in Peru and the tsunami warnings and watches…but damn that was a close call, we were there less then a month ago!
Getting on the ship for the last time was definitely bitter sweet as I have been saying for a while, knowing that I get to see everyone again, but known that this adventure is coming to an end way to soon.

The next few days should be fun on the ship…I have my captains dinner tonight, Rasa’s b-day is tonight as well, the ambassadors ball in a few nights, and some going away parties…good times!

I will try and post a couple times before I get back in a few days, but if I don’t…see ya soon!

Love ya