Guatemala Jungle

Guatemala is very rugged, a place where the past and present collide rather than mix. We are driving on half paved roads and half gravel laden with giant crater sized pot holes. Then you pull up to a brand new shopping plaza with a pizza hut. Very strange, but welcome anyway.

We were prepared for the Guatemalan section of our trip to be very rugged. Our plan was to follow past Camel Trophy area jungle roads to explore rarely visited Mayan sites, some of which were not restored.

Our first day was outstanding overland terrain in thick jungle with occasional trees to clear from the trail with a chain saw or machete and mud pits to navigate. We were all very happy to be in these conditions. After night fall we arrived at Nakum, it was a Mayan ruin being restored by archeologists, they had a rustic camp onsite that had been built several years before, a large field was cleared for their recreation purposes on long stays. We quickly setup camp in this field and prepared a simple meal. Then we enjoyed sitting and gazing at a most spectacular sky, it was thus far an amazing day in the jungle, yet the experience was just about to begin.

After crawling into our tent and just closing an eye, we heard terrible screams. At first we though a jaguar or puma had taken another animal with a great struggle. But then the screams seemed to have a pattern, it was really communication. First a single but loud deep scream lasting 5 seconds , then a pause for 5 seconds, then from a different location a response of many many higher pitched screams for 5 to 10 seconds, then another two responses similar from yet different locations in the jungle. Howler monkeys! The alpha male was yelling to his family groups for their locations. They would reply all night long. The sounds were beyond description. But it, mixed with the other jungle animals and insects made for the most amazing orchestra of nature. We were truly in the jungle, but still our experience was not nearly complete.

The next day after touring the ruins of Nakum we headed to the much more remote Holmul Ruins. These ruins are typically visited only by archaeologists and less than 1 time per year, they are completely unrestored. The journey started on a similar jungle road with typical clearing issues. But after several hours we turned onto what appeared to be an overgrown ATV path. I was excited, some in the group I think we are overwhelmed at first. “how can we drive down that?” Well our guide and I started in the front reclaiming with machetes and chainsaw the once drivable trail that had been over taken by jungle for several years. Eventually with such slow movement others joined in on the clearing work and we labored tirelessly for 7 hours into the late night. It was a total of about 10 kilometers of the most heavily overgrown trail you could imagine. 4 Ticks, a large thorn in my knuckle, 3 bouts with fire ants, and near heat stroke while Stacey drove the truck, any we finished the trail. This was only my personal damage, others had similar. Every truck experienced some damage, nun major.

It was well worth the work to have the experience behind us. This is what I came here for; to be pushed beyond what could be expected from anyone, to see what we were capable of. I hope the few pictures explain the trail. Although most of the action was at night in headlights and photos were far from our mind set. Scott Brady did take some exceptional photos and video of the experience. These may be published, so well have to wait to show them.

We are now back in San Elena in a hotel on a lake. We have a crummy internet connection, so that’s why your getting these updates. However I so far I have not been able to upload any more photos. Ill try again until they are uploaded to match this post. We leave here at 2pm today to head towards Honduras but we have a night stop tonight at a jungle lake.

I heard about the snow.. Sounds nice in a lot of ways. But were happy to be enjoying the 90 degrees here.

James Y Stacey..