October Break Part #2: Guatemala (Tikal)

Apologies for the wicked-long delay between posts. Let’s just say that our upgrade to Apple’s new “Yosemite” operating system didn’t go quite as planned on our older laptop (the one we store our photo library on, etc.). Long story short, we: (i) learned to further appreciate the power of DropBox (phew!); (ii) cursed the fact that I hadn’t backed up our iPhoto library since before we left…luckily it wasn’t THAT hard to recreate; and (iii) got to know the tech at the local Apple distributor quite well.

Somewhere in Cupertino the evil Apple people are dreaming up another way to force us to buy a new laptop...

Unfortunately we had to blow away everything on the laptop and rebuild it BUT the rebuild worked great. This MacBook Pro is an oldie but a goodie and we have once again thwarted Cupertino’s attempts to force us to buy a new one. Which is good because we need to save our pennies for an iWatch.

So where was I? Oh yeah. I was breaking up our 2 week vacation into a few different posts. This is kinda like those super special Brady Bunch episodes that were broken up into two parts to keep you on the edge of your seat (“will that evil prospector let them out of the jail cell? is that Hawaiian tiki doll truly cursed? what will Mike do when he realizes that he has a yoga bear poster in that cardboard tube?”).

Part #2 of the Gavin Fam October Break Special will be about Tikal...

As I mentioned before, we have the good fortune of HAVING to leave the country every 90 days. It forces a bit o’ discipline on the whole “explore Central America” plan. Our first stop of the year outside of Costa Rica was Guatemala.

Guatemala will forever hold a special place in our hearts, in part because we have enjoyed our time there in the past but first and foremost because Charlie was born there (juuuust about 9 years ago…his bday is in a couple of weeks!). It is SUCH a mind-blowingly beautiful country with a population that is friendly, open and down-to-earth.

Where else can you climb 1300 year old temples and watch traditional Mayan ceremonies in a jungle clearing one day…and then eat dinner in a high end restaurant built into the ruins of a 500 year old Spanish monastery the next? Or have open conversations with folks about the civil war’s impact on their town or the impact of drug trafficking today?

And yes, we let the kids take part in those conversations. The topics can be tough ones, but these are all living lessons that will stick in their heads 10x better than a classroom lecture or a chapter in a book.

I think Jack summed it up best when he said on day three of our trip “This is just crazy. Before we came here I kept thinking about how different Costa Rica was from the United States but now I’m realizing Costa Rica isn’t really THAT different. But this...THIS is different!!”

A few highlights, rambles, musings, etc. from Tikal...

— I wrote about the logistics of the first few days in an earlier blog post. Suffice to say it was a bit crrrrrazy. Multiple flights. Massive airport layovers. Late night arrival in Flores. Charlie (the one who has been talking the most about this trip for a YEAR now) burning up with a fever. The off and on TORRENTIAL rains at Tikal. The seven miles of hiking, temple climbing, etc. in that rain. The long drives and additional flights. Etc. It was a bit out of control but the kids were awesome. If we had tried that same trip a year ago there would have been at least 4 physical kid-battles, at least 2 parental tirades in an attempt to end or forestall said physical kid-battles, and at least 3 tear-filled meltdowns, not to mention a bunch of never-ending whining about rain, tiredness, etc. What a difference a year makes!

Mr. Bun-Bun liked the flight almost as much as his mom (Liadan)

Soggy feet and crazy rain couldn't dampen (haha) their enthusiasm.

— Best line of the first night was when Charlie was lying on the bed in the hotel room with an ice pack on his head after having been plied with a bunch of advil. Audrey took the others down to get some food while I hung out with the patient. When Audrey got back to the room she asked Charlie how he was feeling. He half rolled over toward her and said “ I am totes, totes down in the dumps.” : ( There is even a musical version of it but Charlie would kill me if I ever shared that video clip. We’ll save it for his prom date some day.

Nobody was "totes down in the dumps" by this point in the day.

— It WAS super interesting talking to our guide about Tikal (and the latest theories about the collapse of a 150,000 person super-city…basically a classic “fat, dumb and happy” story where the leaders got so damn wealthy they started focusing only on the next cool building to add to the mix or the next big engineering feat to pull off…all the poorer people were doing construction and barely anyone was growing food. End result = massive food shortage, passive revolt of the people (they all started leaving) and total and rapid collapse of the city).

Former housing for some of the upper class in Tikal. Killer views must have made it easy for 8th century realtors to find buyers.

— BUT it was almost more fascinating talking about today. Hearing his stories about the army and the rebels coming into the schools, lining up the boys and pulling out the 12 years olds big enough to hold a machine gun. Hearing about all of the people he knew who were killed. Talking about the drug traffickers today (let’s just say that most of the locals have much more of a “see no evil, hear no evil” approach). And talking with the guide and our driver about how all of this ties in with the continued strength of cultural events like Day of the Dead (“look…it all just goes to show you how close we all are to death and it changes your attitude towards death. You REALLY don’t know when it’s coming but we have all seen many times that it can come quite young. That’s why you HAVE to think about your dead relatives not as gone but only as having moved to a next phase a tiny bit before you.”

Walking around the corner and coming up THIS scene was pretty awe-inspiring

— It’s awesome seeing the kids THINK about the topics we discuss. For example, we talked a lot about the guide’s statement that “the government just spent millions of dollars on two armed helicopters. If they just left the drug traffickers alone they could have spent that on schools and food for starving kids in the rural areas.” Leads you into a discussion of “would you rather have 70% of $100 or 100% of $50?” and serves as a backdrop for explaining the basics of how an economy works (investments, taxes, the need for some level of security or that investment leaves, the jobs leave, the taxes go away, etc.). Complicated stuff and without a REAL LIFE conversation as a backdrop, I don’t think kids that age would pay attention long enough to get it. It’s too confusing without context. But THAT is the beauty of these trips and letting the kids be a part of all of the conversations. They suddenly have a context that inspires them to focus on — and enables them to contextualize — complex topics. VERY cool to see.

— When I visited Tikal in 1995, there was NO infrastructure. A few hostels for the backpackers that hauled their arses into the middle of nowhere in the Peten and that’s about it. Now there are hotels along the lake (not 5 star hotels but nice, clean hotels), tour buses filled with retired Europeans, bathrooms and snack stands at a few spots scattered throughout the park. It’s funny. And, I think, good for the park and the locals. It lets them fund the archeological digs THEMSELVES rather than having to rely on American and European universities to pay for it all (the downside of the latter is that if, say…Harvard pays to dig out a temple, they reserve the right to TAKE a bunch of the stuff that they find for their museums).

Our hotel in Flores with a view of the lake.

— If you are Guatemalan and want job security, find your way into the group of archeologists that gets paid to dig up stuff at Tikal. Not a lot of openings but if you get one…they started digging in the 1950’s and at this point THEY ARE ONLY 20% DONE. Everywhere you look are massive jungle-covered hills that aren’t really hills…they are parts of an ancient city that have yet to be dug out of their cocoons.

There is another building under this hill...one of a bazillion such hills in Tikal.

The top of one of the latest digs...now they just have to dig out the rest!

— Real tarantulas look like toys. Seriously. They are so big and fuzzy they look fake. Although I still wouldn’t pick one up like our guide did (no he is not trying to kiss it. I guess that if you blow on it, it makes the fangs come out or something like that). This guy’s dad used to work in the park as a ranger. He said during school breaks he would stay with his dad in the park along with his brother and that they used to kill time by catching tarantulas and giant wasps, clipping one wing of the wasp so it couldn’t fly off, and then watching them fight. I remember catching salamanders as a kid and racing them but that doesn’t seem quite so cool after hearing his stories.

But not so much so that I would pick it up!?!

— The Mayan ceremony that we came upon during our day at Tikal was their version of “Columbus Day.” But in this case, they are commemorating the last day BEFORE Columbus showed up and signaled the beginning of the end for pretty much every indigenous group in the Americas. They aren’t reciting cute poems about Columbus and his boats.

Wonder if she is on her way to the new refreshment stand?

Don't think they are saying prayers of thanks for Columbus.

— I think that everyone in Central America thinks it is hysterical that tourists take so many pictures of Coatis. They are basically raccoons. It’s like watching people take pictures of squirrels and raccoons in suburban Boston. But hey…we got some pics of Coatis, too. Maybe I’ll get a good pic of a squirrel in the yard when we get back to Milton.

In short — if you EVER have an opportunity to go to Tikal…do it. There are places in Mexico where you can take a big ol’ bus from your cruise ship and see a temple or something like that. But there is nothing like Tikal. They probably won’t finish uncovering it for another 100 years so you’ve got time…