Week 7
El Mirador - a 5 day trek through the jungle to one of the largest Mayan cities, only 1,000 visitors per year see this site.
Monday,4:00am. An early start to catch our chicken bus to Carmelita (the last village situated on the edge of the jungle)!
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| So pleased to be up at 4am!! |
It took 3 hours to get from Flores to Carmelita. Carmelita is a small village where all El Mirador treks begin. Here is where we met our guide, cook and mule packer.
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| Waiting for the chicken bus |
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| This bus was heaving with people when we got on it! |
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| Chicken Bus! |
Before we started the trek we were fed a breakfast of scrambled eggs, beans and tortilla, and were introduced to the 3 American guys who would be joining us - Carlos, Edson and Leo.
It had rained everyday for the past 5 days in Carmelita and this was evident by the amount of mud experienced early on in the trek. We were very pleased to have wellies! The American guys were not so fortunate, and only had trainers! Apparently their tour operator had told them that there would be no water/mud on the trek!!!
As we walked, we also realised that there were literally thousands of mosquitoes ... we each had about 30 swarming around us - thank god for the heavy duty repellent that was mostly doing the trick ... it didn't stop us from thinking we were being bitten - mosquitoes paranoia set in!!!
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| Small river crossing |
After 5 hours of exhausting walking, we arrived at our lunch destination which was called La Florida (a small Mayan town).
We were already quite tired from trudging though the mud and the thought of another 4 hours didn't really fill us with joy! Carlos and Leo could not trek any longer as they were experiencing severe leg cramps. They were lucky that the cook was kind enough to give up her mule and that there was a spare mule for emergencies!
There was so much mud and water on the trek that instead of taken 6 hours to complete the first day, it took us 9 hours! This resulted in trekking 2 hours in the dark with only head lights to show us the way. This was not a pleasant experience and was quite terrifying when wading through mud that reached your calves! I found it all too much and had a little cry while stuck in the mud and after loosing my balance and falling onto a tree covered in thorns.
By the time we had reached our camp we were all extremely tired (well those who walked) and were surprised to hear that there was a shower!
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| The shower - a bucket filled with rain water! |
Once we were clean, we were fed a well earned dinner of chicken, rice and vegetables.
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| Having a go at making tortillas |
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| My first tortilla! |
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| In the tent |
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| The loo! |
Tuesday. 6am. Surprisingly we slept well, mainly thanks to wearing ear plugs! Not sure if we could have slept without them due to the Americans snoring all night! Breakfast was eggs and beans (again) and we started trekking at 7am.
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| Our guide - Adrian Centeno |
It had rained during the night which meant the terrain was even wetter! At one point we had to wade up to our knees in a massive puddle (not a lake as it looks like in the picture!) The wellies were useless at this point and we had wet feet for the rest of the trek! This did not help my already painful blisters.
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| "Ahghghghg, it´s in my wellies"! |
We were pleased to see that make-shift bridge had been erected to cross this river ...
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| This mule had died during the trek a few years ago! |
We trekked for 5 hours before we had lunch, and we were starving! Roland scoffed down 4 sandwiches (I ate 3). This kept us going for the next 4 hours. Due to the blisters and a very sore knee I rode the spare mule for 3 hours. Roland was a champ and walked the whole way with Edson.
We arrived at the El Mirador camp at about 6pm and were greeted by a flock of wild turkeys. We were all completely exhausted, wet and muddy. And when the food finally arrived - a massive plate of spaghetti - we all virtually inhaled it! We all went to bed really early.
Wednesday. Today we did not really trek that far at all and spent most of the morning waiting on the Americans to see if they could get a helicopter to fly us back to Flores - no one could face the return journey! But at $2,200, the fare was too expensive! Dreams were shattered!
At about 10:30am we walked about 1 hour to visit the main ruins of El Mirador (the point of our journey!).
The archaeologists have been working on the site since 1978 (first discovered in 1926) and only a small amount of the ruins are visible. A lot of the ruins are still buried beneath the jungle. And many of the ruins we visited were still being dug out from the jungle by the archaeologists - it really felt like we were visiting something special.
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| View of surrounding jungle |
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| Top pyramid of La Danta - 72m high - the tallest Mayan structure ever built |
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| This mural portrays a scene from the Popol Vuh (Mayan Bible) - Click here for more info |
After lunch, it unfortunately started to rain quite heavily and we could not go and see other temples. A bit of a shame considering it took us almost 20 hours to walk here!
We were all really dreading the return journey. Leo and Carlos intended not to walk at all if possible and therefore managed to negotiate 2 extra mules at a cost of 700Q. Luckily my blisters and knee were feeling a little better and it was a relief to know that there was a spare mule if I needed one.
It had rained so much that our tent had flooded. I just managed to transfer all out stuff to another tent, before they got wet - all set for bed so we thought ... Just as were were about to go to sleep, I spotted it, a SCORPION!!! Oh My God! I shouted out to Carlos to get the guide over to help us kill it. Once the guide had found the scorpion and killed it, we felt safe enough to attempt to sleep. Just before, Roland decided to do one last sweep of the tent with his torch - "Aghghghghghghg there is another one". There was another scorpion resting on the roof of the tent, just above Roland's head! Again we shouted out to the guide to help us. It was hard to sleep afterwards!
Thursday and Friday. 5:00am. Due to the weather we had to get up extra early on both days to prevent walking in the dark.
The return journey was even more muddier and wetter than before but thankfully it took less time as we had the mules and we knew what to expect. On Thursday we trekked for 7 hours and on Friday we trekked for 5.5 hours. I was lucky enough to ride the mule for a large portion of the return journey. Roland and Edson were the only people in the group who completed the trek on their feet!
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| Waiting to start the return journey |
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| Cant wait to start! |
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| Riding the horse though the knee high mud! |
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| Rest time. |
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| Preparing lunch |
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| Mud, glorious mud! |
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| Roland and Edson made it all the way by foot! |
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| The gang with the guide and the cook |
The journey was extremely tough but both the jungle and the ruins were amazing so overall well worth it ... (Roland and I only agreed this once it was all over and we were lying in a comfortable bed drinking beer!).
Contact Details to organise trip directly with Carmelita below. We discovered that if you arrange the trip directly with the team in Carmelita,the price you pay is as follows:
2 people - 3,000Q (total price for 2 people)
4 people - 4,500Q (total price for 4 people)
Roland and I paid 4,800Q (9,600Q for the entire group) when in a group of 4 via a travel agent in Flores. We could have saved quite a lot if we booked directly with Carmelita Cooperative!
www.tourismocoorperativacarmelita.com
email: expedicionmirador@yahoo.com
tel:(502) 3177 9387
(502) 7861 2641
(502) 7867 5048
