Tikal Lessons
by Dominic Hamilton

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"We really should turn back."

"Yeah, but maybe it gets better in a while."

Lesson one: don't push your luck.

Three hours later, with darkness looming, we were out. Just.

Lesson two: always take advice from people who know better.

Our enthusiasm had got the better of us. The result ? Being stuck in a gully on motorbikes not designed for the Somme-like conditions we were putting them through; one bike with no clutch discs worthy of the name; £15 wasted getting the machine back to the none-too-happy owner; one severe ego-bashing.

Lesson three: always have extra cash on you.

Until then Guatemala had seemed an enchanted place. OK, so the buses were a bit stingy on the leg-room, and the public amenities were a tad unsavoury, but its people were colourful, charming and ever-curious. After the commercialism of parts of southern Mexico, it was a breath of fresh air.

On my National Geographic map the PetŽn region of Guatemala had seemed like an immense green mass cut out by an ancient Mayan god with a pair of golden scissors. To the North and the West it stopped, as if by magic, with its border with Mexico. Recent human politics, I later determined, were responsible for this strange geographic anomaly, -- divine intervention was a thing of the past.

Only two roads lead to Tikal, set in the heart of the PetŽn, and arguably the most impressive of all the Mayan ruins. One threads its way for twelve hours from Guatemala City to the South, the other from the West and the Chiapas region of Mexico. For those who didn't fancy the excruciating bus journey there was always the plane at pretty excruciating prices.

Guatemala has only recently begun to realise its tourist assets, and for the low-budget traveller it offers acceptable infrastructure and facilities at more than acceptable prices. Politics have most recently been a military affair, the Indian population suffering greatly in the past decade at the hands of a government who see them as an obstacle to progress and development. The country, still frighteningly over-populated with young soldiers with arcane guns and unconvincing moustaches, covets its ancient monuments and Indian heritage while excluding and repressing its rightful inheritors.

It is possible that the growth of tourism in the country, combined with the pressing need for foreign exchange, could benefit the Indian majority, in that their culture and traditions will be more highly valued, and often forgotten and neglected regions will be revitalised by the income generated. But the opposite could also be true, with a celluloid-friendly and mis-representative "show" put on for the tourists, while big-business and not the Indians reap the harvest of tourist dollars.

My guidebook had mentioned a place to stay that had been under construction "at the time of writing". Knowing the Latinos, we'd tutted in Flores the nearest town to the ruins, it would still be in its late 80s state. However, as we were informed by the rather mis-matched couple who ran the place, the site had in fact been up and running for about two years. The location they had chosen was superb. Nestled into the hillside with plenty of shade provided by a host of tall trees, it had an incomparable view of a calm lake upon whose back the sun set dutifully for our delight every evening. "The Gnomes' Lookout," as it was called, was heaven on earth after our bum-numbing , patience-stretching journey - although we never did find the gnomes.

The road that led to Tikal, one of the only asphalt roads in the whole of Guatemala, was well served by buses, but, gringos being gringos, we had grander ideas. After negotiations with the stout German woman owner, I rented her 500cc motorbike at a decent rate, persuading her that I knew all about bikes despite my give-away question about which was the clutch lever and which the brake. We also managed to entice a local mechanic into handing over his 125 to my friend for a decent sum, and, with my Easy Rider helmet safely on my inexperienced head, we set off for the ruins and the jungle.

The ruins of Tikal are worth dedicating a whole holiday to exploring. They boast one of the highest ancient constructions in the world and they positively ooze the mysteries of a "lost" civilisation. Set in luscious tropical forest alive with screeching howler monkeys, patrolled by impertinent peacocks and all sorts of wildlife, the whole place teems with the unexpected and the unknown. Attempting to see all the temples in a day would be impossible as they're up to a mile apart. It's worth bribing a guard and sleeping on a temple for a night or two just to let the past sink surreptitiously under your skin.

After a few days exploring the complex we headed North to another hamlet. There we were befriended by a local of our age who welcomed the chance to act as our unofficial guide. We got to know Ervin quite well and daily struggled to comprehend his life with his four kids at 21. I don't think we managed.

The battle of the Somme came a few days later, Ervin having aroused our curiosity about some more ruins nearby. Other locals seemed less convinced that we could make it. It was the rainy season after all. Ervin sounded ambivalent. We decided we'd go as far as we could; if it was really too hard, we'd turn back. Mad dogs and Englishman isn't far off the mark.

By the time we realised that it wasn't going to be possible, we'd gone too far. The back wheels clogged with mud. They got stuck in trenches four feet deep. It started to rain. I was freezing cold and felt like crying. Instead, after a consolatory sodden cigarette under a tree, we excavated fistfuls of mud from my mudguard, got the bike out and managed to find help.

To shorten a long story, the expression "mucho lodo" (loads of mud) will forever be ingrained in my muddy Spanish vocab book.

Lesson four: learn your lessons.

The author lives in Venezuela and is currently working on an illustrated trekking guide to the Gran Sabana region of Venezuela. "Jeeps cause a lot of damage to the Sabana's extremely fragile soils, and I want to encourage people to take their time more when visiting this wondrous part of the world." Contact Dominic via email

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