San Ignacio

July 12 to Caracol

After arriving in San Ignacio early the afternoon before I actually recovered pretty quickly. I quickly made friends with some people at the hostel. Though I couldn’t make the Caracol ruins by bike I decided to explore other options.

After checking tour prices it became apparent the most economical way and giving me the best freedom to explore the Maya mountains was to rent a vehicle.

This was harder to do then expected. The roads in the mountains (as I described yesterday) are known to destroy vehicles. And people are loathe to rent. However I eventually found someone renting junk second hand cars. So I went back to the hostel armed with prices and convinced 3 other people to join me and split the cost. So early this morning we picked up our car and took off.

No one could give us great directions. It was all kind of vague. And it’s 60 miles of winding and disconnected roads. We quickly discovered both google and openstreetmaps had errors. Roads going through private property and such. And no good signs. So we continually stopped to try to get directions. Each would get us a little further.

After traveling about 50K we came upon a military encampment where vehicles are required to register. Apparently there have been incursions from Guatemala since it’s right by the border and the border dispute (now many decades long) remains. Looking at the registry we realized we were among the few people that actually braved going up here.

Shortly after we came to an outpost where security and workers for the archeological area resided. And there we found Ratna and Patrick preparing for the final climb. We convinced them however to jam in with us for the last strenuous uphill and also convinced the staff to watch their bikes. And so we all got to visit Caracol together.

Later in the afternoon we came back and left them there. Upon which Ratna discovered she’d left her portable camera back at the ruins. When we left they were deciding what to do about it.

Returning back we stopped by one of the several streams with small falls and pools. Taking a wonderful cooling dip at the end of a very nice day.

July 13 -Green Iguana Project & Cahal Pech

Yesterday having left Ratna and Patrick a bit down from Caracol I thought they might be in late today as it’s all downhill. And waited around a bit. But I got a message that they’d decided to go back and look for Ratna’s camera. And only descend part way today.

Casting around for something to do I decided to visit the Green Iguana Project. And then after. Since I was already up that way. Walk a bit further to Cahal Pech which is the local ruins nearby. And so I did.

July 14 -Actun Tunichil Muknal

Today I got another notice they would be arriving late in the afternoon. They’d only ridden half way down the day before and stayed in a place also near a stream and waterfalls and decided to hang a bit. These lovely little oasis’ are common in the Maya Mountains. So I decided to pay real money for a tour of Actun Tunichil Muknal.

Since it involves a bit of swimming and it’s prohibited to take photos in the caves because of religious prohibitions I chose not to take the camera. So I’ve no pictures to show for it. Instead I include the link below.

Returning I found Ratna and Patrick waiting and we caught up on events. Amazingly they found her camera still sitting on the steps of a pyramid where she had left it. It shows how few people actually visit. I think we saw a total of 5. All from a single group.