Back From Belize, Part Two

After checking out of Chaa Creek (previous post), we took a van to the Guatemalan border where we were picked up by the folks from La Lancha, a Francis Ford Coppola resort close to Tikal, the largest Mayan excavation in Central America. We spent two nights at the resort where we were awakened at 3 am by a family of Howler Monkeys and then again at 5 when the monkeys grew restless again. Our rooms over looked a 78 square mile lake close to Flores and presented us with another walk up some steps to the dining room. The food was terrific. I had a whole freshwater bass that had just been pulled out of the lake for my first dinner. It was so good I had one again the second night.

But the whole point of our excursion to La Lancha was to tour Tikal. It was magnificent and our guide, Jesus Antonio, was a fountain of information with a particularly liberal ax to grind. Needless to say, I liked his healthy disdain for the excesses of western civilization.

The photo above is of the four of us standing in front of Temple V. This was the last temple we looked at and you will notice my linen shirt that was supposed to keep me cool and my yellow bandana are both wringing wet, but by that time I was too hot to care.

We have visited lots of Mayan sites on our various trips to Belize and I have noticed at each site that Mayans must have had very small feet because the steps leading up to the top are always about half wide enough for a normal person to use, making the climb up and especially back down a dizzying experience. Bud and Kathie have height issues and so rarely scale the steps. Janet and I, on the other hand, usually find ourselves climbing up on all fours, oohing and aahing at the top, and coming back down on our butts.

Temple V was 200 feet high and a series of seven nearly vertical ladders were in place for anyone who wanted to climb to the top. We stood at the bottom. Janet looked up. I looked up. Janet looked at me, "You want to go up?" I don't know what got into me, but I said "sure, let's do it."

I began to question our sanity when the teenager from Holland in front of me kept looking back down the ladders with panic written on his face. But we kept plugging away. When we got to the top, even unflappable Janet admitted that she was a little dizzy and I noticed that she kept her hand on the back wall as we walked to the center of the temple and sat down. There were Kathie and Bud 200 vertical feet below and I started to come to grips with the fact that we would have to get back down.

After getting my feet on terra firma again, I noticed that the guys from Holland were a sweaty, trembling mass huddled at the base. That made me feel good, but if I ever go to Tikal again you can forget Temple V.

When we got back to La Lancha I immediately headed for the mini bar in our room and popped myself a little can of Sophia, Coppola's surprisingly nice champagne in a can, sat on porch, and listened for that family of Howlers.

No time for reading on this leg. Out to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye on the next day.