A walk in the woods

Last Sunday Christobal, Andres and Herman set off for work - a little pootle around the rainforest that surrounds their village, Cruce de las dos Aguadas, in the northern Guatemalan province of Peten. They were accompanied by two gringos, Jose and Eliza who were okay, but a bit thick (they can only speak one language properly and squawk at the sight of a scorpion) and slower than the horses when it came to walking! But it wasn't a bad three days work for them and the tourists seemed suitably pleased with the usual bats, monkeys and ants (Jose seemed particularly impressed by the latter), just the average really, a wander round their backyard that just happens to be filled to the gills with Maya temples, 500 year old trees, snakes, spiders, jaguars and howler monkeys...
That may or may not have been what it was like for our guides to trek 60km through the jungle with 2 horses, Chepe (Joseph's Kechi Maya name) and Eliza. This is how it was for us:

Stats:
Distance: 60km
Time: 3 days 2 nights
Hours walking: 14
Participants: 3 Maya, 2 horses, 2 ingles
Venomous animals SEEN: 1 scorpion (in hammock), 1 snake (in the trees overhead)
Blisters: 2
Litres of water drunk: countless
Maya temples sites visited: 3
Maya temples sat on whilst having a break that we almost didn't even notice: 2
Ridiculous stories told by Cristobal:3
Number of times Cristobal or Herman said 'Cuidado' (careful) due to thorns, ants, huge roots, snakes etc: thousands.
Number of times we were more amazed than we'd ever been before in our lives: infinite
Number of trees drunk from: 2
Number of fruits used to make 'tattoos' on our clothes:1
Number of monkey species seen: 2 - howler and spider
Number of bats seen emerging from a cave at dusk: a huge bloomin' cloud
Amount of knowledge about the dyes, water sources, medicines and musical instruments to be found in the forest, held by Cristobal, Herman and Andres: total
Number of Ketchi Maya words learned by Chepe y Eliza: Approx 10 ('learned' being a very loose term)
Amount of time taken for Cristobal and Herman to shed the jungle simply by putting on a clean shirt and untucking their boots: 30 seconds
Amount of time taken by Chepe and Eliza to recover from rainforest trek: TBC
Blessings counted: chairs, water, BATH, fridge, duvet, SHOWER, cat, sofa

Photos and a bit of blurb:

Waiting for the bats to emerge from their cave. They all fly from the caves together within about three minutes of eachother like a huge black cloud dispersing into the night. We loved them, but there was something sinister about their flight as the whole colony took to the skies to gorge on insects and fruit (at the same time eagles were circling above them gorging on the bats). The bats seemed so Other in the deepening darkess, so at home in the night and the jungle whereas we could only stumble around, falling over tree roots, vainly swatting bugs and skidding down tangled slopes.

A spider plus egg sac lurking in the toilet at campsite number two which, like the first, was gloriously basic. No electricity, so we ate by candlelight, no running water so we washed at a brackish pond and pooed into a proud white ceramic throne. Perched atop a cess pit - actually not too bad!

Day two in the jungle. This track was actually huge compared to the one the day after, which we would dispute giving the title of 'path' atall! As a Geography teacher this is what I know about the rainforest: It is made up of four layers - emergents, canopy, shrub layer, undergrowth. Everything fits together nicely and has its niche. Sounds pretty neat huh? What we SAW was a riotous tangle of growth, plants climbing all over eathother in a attempt to reach the limited daylight, a mass of organic matter containing lianasshrubsfernsvinestallskinnytreeshugebutressrootsleaflitter brownleavesyellowleavesgreenleavesfruitflowersofyellowredpurple butterfliescrazyscreechingbirdstoucansmonkeyshugethickfallentrees hanginglimbsantsrottenwoodandmoremoremore. It wasn't neat and sometimes it wasn't even pretty but it was alive. Jungles are sweaty, smelly, anarchic places that seem far from the dominion of humans. Without our fabulous guides we wouldn't have survived for two minutes without being eaten by bugs or jaguars (chance would have been a fine thing, they're very elusive), getting some tropical sickness, or putting a toxic plant on our sunburn. And all that was the appeal of this glorious, wild, beautiful and sometimes uncomfortable place.

Spot the snake - muy peligroso!

'Chepe' looking like a banana in his hamaca

The spider monkey, the creature where spider meets human and Chepe's entry for Wildlife Photograher of the Year (his dream apparantly - the things you find out about your husband in the jungle!)

A howler monkey. They have barnies across the jungle and sound not like sweet furry monkeys but booming lions!

'El padre de la jungla' a 500 year old cedar tree. Geography teachers! Check out the buttresses on that! Finally we reached Tikal, tired, well fed, elated. This ancient Maya city rises out of the jungle (well most of it, some of it's still covered in forest) and simply blows the mind. This photo was taken the next day, of the sunrise over the pyramids. The jungle is unnervingly quiet just before it gets light - I guess that darkest hour is the hour before dawn stuff is right - and then then birds and howler monkeys crank up their voice boxes, the mists begin to clear and this is what you see. One of those moments where you can almost feel the earth turning, bringing you in sight of the sun.