This was no walk in the park…

A five day round walk to the ancient city of El Mirador.  A site now covered in jungle, that was once the thriving Capital of the Mayan Civilisation.  This Mayan complex is deep in the Petén rainforest of northern Guatemala. El Dante, the principal temple, claimed to be the world’s largest pyramid by volume.

This was a time of initiation.

Carmelita

We were dropped to our first stop, the chicle (chewing gum) gathering village of Carmelita, 40 miles north of Flores.   We wouldn’t see any roads for five days now, locals were about, children and dogs.  We met our guides and team, they checked our footwear, Eric looked at my shoes and said no you need gumboots, so I hired some.  Eric was our hero for the trip, as he was the main guide.

Deborah Skye had a vision many years ago in Australia, that she would be taking a group of people to El Mirador.  This was it, she had been to Guatemala many times, but never to this place.  There were two men and two women she was taking with her.  Michael, Rob and herself were from Canada, Linda from England, and myself from New Zealand.

At one stage on the hike Eric lent me his hat, as I had lost mine somehow on the journey, I was very thankful for this.  He was very kind, and funny too, we would sing a spanish song, ‘La Cucaracha’ loudly, this got me through really.  The song is a about Cockroach that is having trouble walking which is kind of apt.  I only really could sing the chorus.

In researching for this post, a quote states, ‘the hike is done in 5 to 7 days, and should not be attempted in the rainy season’.  We hiked it in the rainy season, which made it difficult, but we did it and it was a real mind-bender in terms of what the body is capable of if the mind is focussed, eg determined.

El Mirador

Walking in to El Mirador, Deborah, Linda and I were holding hands and wading in the last of the water.  We were walking in first, before the men.  I was crying, huge waves of sadness came upon me, not because I was tired and had made it (or maybe a small bit!) Tears were falling about the loss of the feminine, at a personal level and at a consciousness level, and somehow what had happened in this place.  It was remembrance.  I felt the huge loss. Deborah was in the middle of us both.  We didn’t speak as we walked in.  Arriving at camp was an amazing feeling.

We made it to the top of El Dante, with no idea of how high up we were really because of the rain and the mists, except for the knowledge of this from the walk up!  Here we are elated because we had made it, even in the rain… We had made it!

It was cloudy and rainy in the morning as we awoke in El Mirador, so we didn’t hike up one of the temples to see the sunrise. But after breakfast we started our morning of exploration with Eric.

It was a forty odd minute walk to El Dante pyramid, and we made some stops on the way. The first was a stunningly intact set of carvings. It had three tiers, like three large steps, and the bottom portrayed two daughters holding their fathers’ head. The second tier was not so legible, the top had a snake running through it, as well what looked like the man’s wife who was depicted as a witch, who appeared to be a little peeved. Next to her was a jaguar creature with a snake’s neck and head, who had a big fish in his claws.

The whole thing had been entirely intact as they excavated it. Walking on, there were countless mounds covered in jungle with who knows what beauties lying beneath.

Saw a deer and a pizote, a super cool orange animal with a white striped tail, that looked like a cross between a monkey and a raccoon! The wildlife was spectacular there really, big blue butterflies, monkeys, woodpeckers, two cans. and smelly old us! No electricity in the places we stayed at… fire flies looked cool at night.

Facts and Figures about El Mirador

El Mirador, was re-discovered in 1926. It is a series of massive pyramid structures, which in turn support three smaller pyramids.  El Dante is the Principal temple, rises to 216 feet (72 metres), the largest Mayan building known. The Tigre Complex, to the west is 132 feet high, and Los Monos.

El Mirador is set up to correspond with the three stars of Orion’s belt. There is the main largest one with two smaller ones and the three make up a triangle.

La Danta is in fact the largest pyramid in the world by volume, at 2.8 million cubic meters. Archeologists only work here for two months a year and it took five people five years to excavate this pyramid. At the base, were carved Indian faces and going up from them were stone steps leading to the altar on the top.

The city of El Mirador covers an area larger than downtown Los Angeles.  It encompasses 810,000 acres of pristine rainforest, the last tract of virgin rainforest in Central America.

It was believed to have a population of 100,000 people. There are 26 known sites like El Mirador and only 14 have been studied.  It is estimated at least 30 more to be discovered.

Dr. Richard Hansen, discovered Preclassic pottery that dated (2000 B.C.-A.D. 150) at El Mirador, thus placing the Maya civilization’s peak about 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, home to the earliest Mayan ruins on earth.

Talk about El Mirador by Richard Hansen

Here also lies the first evidence of a highway system. As there used to be raised stone causeways, that were 3 to 6 meters up and linking the major neighbouring ancient cities.  The name for these is Sacbe, meaning ‘white road’.  One sacbe linked El Mirador to the neighbouring site of Nakbe, approximately 12 km away, while another joined El Mirador to El Tintal, 20 km away.   

According to Carlos Morales-Aguilar, a Guatemalan archaeologist, the city appears to have been planned from its foundation, as extraordinary alignments have been found between the architectural groups and main temples, which were possibly related to solar alignments.^[8] For more info

Places we stopped at on the way, walking to El Dante.  You can see the carvings that had been excavated.

A few of us kind of missed lunch, as we slept in the tents a bit longer, as exhausted. During the day I went for a walk back to this spot, by myself, the energy here was amazing.  It was like a portal and I felt guided to stand on this platform for quite a while.

That evening, just on sunset, crawled out of my tent and realised that it was time to head up El Tigre. Deborah stayed back, and Eric took the four of us up. The sunset was not spectacular because it was overcast, all the same there was a real peace being there at that time, we all felt this and sat in this silence together for a good while.

This man was so lovely and one of the crew, we didn’t take much with us, our things were put into the sacks every day, and he loaded them on the mules.  Deborah told me on the quiet that he had some interesting visions and vivid dreams when staying here, and was a bit shaken up the next morning, this was his first time here.

This is me, I think it was the second to last day walking, arrived at camp.  On this day I walked for about 1 or 2 hours by myself, as Deborah thought I was with the others, but the gap between the two groups had widened.  Waiting in the jungle was not an option, I told myself I wasn’t afraid and I wasn’t.  I feel like this was part of my initiation as well, no one else around me, just me walking through the jungle path, and realising I just have to trust, and pull in all my energy to keep going.

So it was three days walking in and two days back.  The main day, a nine hour day was epic as I am not a ‘hiker’ as such, more someone who enjoys idly strolling.  We had to do the days in certain times because of the daylight hours, there was no time for dawdlers.  If you stand still, the mosquitos swarmed anyways, it was like you had to continuously keep moving.  It was easier walking back as we bypassed Nakbe, as we had been there on the way.

Every single foot step, I said quietly to myself, ‘I can do it’, this was my mantra.  I barely spoke to anyone whilst walking, as it was the best I could do to conserve energy and stay focussed.  Finishing this was when I realised really how much mind is over matter.

For us it was a journey of personal endurance and stamina, like reality tv shows where people are pushed to the edge.  I think we all had our own personal melt downs along the way.  Michael on the first day got something in his foot, it was very sore, he made it in his own determination.  Rob had to go on a mule on the way back as he had brought new hiking boots, which had caused swelling on one of his legs because of the water.  Linda, the mosquitos loved her, her face was well bitten.  Deborah stood on something on the last day I think it was, but she soldiered on, and she did the whole journey in bare feet.  The pump for the mattress wasn’t working either, or had been forgotten, which meant for the first night or two we were sleeping on the concrete too.  But somewhere along the line I think Eric borrowed a pump.  But looking back we didn’t really complain, just got on with it.

Young Monica, as part of the crew, a fifteen year old Mayan lass cooked our food on the fire for evening meal and breakfast. She was with us either walking or on a mule, I guess they are used to the heat and the mosquitoes.

For some reason, when walking in formation all of us along the track, if I was behind, I found it very difficult to walk, I was very tired.  But when I asked if I could go at the front, it was much easier and I had renewed energy/strength.  Deborah said when I was in front it felt like I was pulling everyone through.

Before we walked out of El Mirador, we did a ceremony in a circle.  Deborah said that the ancient ones of the land, had circled us and they thanked us for coming, it was powerful.

Walking with monkey boy, this wee chap was a relative of Erics, he walked with us the whole way. (sometimes he jumped on a mule) he always had a smile for us.  We were amazed as we were so knackered, but he had a way of walking.  I watched the way he walked and realised, he was walking relaxed, in this trek I worked on my walking, from watching monkey boy.

At the end we all gave our guides big tips, and Eric took me to his house to meet his wife and daughter, whom he was very proud of.

It was a rocky drive back to Flores, with lots of potholes from the rain and we saw a bus stuck along the way.  We were all covered in mosquito bites and exhausted but happy.  I jumped into the El Remate Lake when we got back to the Hostel, for the relief.  Ten years later my toe nails still haven’t fully recovered, but I wrote on my Facebook posting afterwards, ‘I feel like anything is possible now’.

Maybe I should have read this before I put my hand up to go… “No major excavation has taken place at this city of 16 square kilometers so everything is still hidden beneath the jungle. Trekking to El Mirador is not for the faint of heart. There are no toilets, beds, cold beverages and bathrooms. The ants, ticks, and mosquitoes never relent, the mud is knee deep and the hiking is strenuous and dirty. That said folks who make this journey will never forget it.” Lonely Planet.

An Initiation.