The Rebel Base

We were at Tikal at 6am. You might want to re-read that sentence, because it most certainly will never happen again. We left our hostel at 5:30am to avoid the heat of Tikal.

Along the road, there must have been 10 different animal caution signs, and within minutes we spotted the first coati foraging around.

Tikal is one of the Mayan civilization’s greatest cities, both in terms of size (222 square miles) and historical importance. It lays in a tropical forest which protects hundreds of animal species. Most interesting to Bode – even though he’s never seen it – was that this was the Rebel Base in the last scene of the first Star Wars movie… Episode IV (my first Star Wars I should say.)

On the hike we spotted spider monkeys and tons of birds, including a toucan. The grounds are enormous, and after a good half hour hike we made it to The Great Plaza. Plenty impressive, with enough tall temples to climb up to entertain a 5-year old. Only a few of the biggest pyramids are open for tourists to climb on, since apparently the Mayans were much better at climbing steep steps than us modern idiots.

Every tourist flyer, map and poster in Guatemala seems to have the same beautiful view of Tikal, and now Bode points to it and says, “Hey, it’s the Jaguar Temple- I’ve been there.”

The views from the top of the temple are astounding, and what is really amazing is that we only saw a small part of the park. We lucked out with a bit of an overcast day, but 2.5 hours is about all the ruins Bode could take.

We kept hiking and Jason climbed to the top of Temple IV, which is the tallest of the structures at 65 meters. Bode wanted to go, but we told him he’d have to leave his new costume (twigs and leaves) and he decided he’d rather play jungle boy. I was happy to join him.

One of the park rangers drove by in a 4×4 and asked us if we wanted a ride back to the entrance – a 45 minute jungle hike. We eagerly accepted.

It’s worth noting that the well-signed entrance fee to the park for Guatemalans is 25 quetzales and the entrance fee for everyone else is $150 quetzales. A 600% mark-up for tourists. Government sponsored discrimination is alive and well here and not the last time we would experience it this day.

By 9 am we were back at our hotel and eating breakfast. After another quick swim, we headed out for our next mission of the day – getting to the Belize border to obtain vehicle permission. An hour and a half later we were there.

As expected, there were a few good Samaritans offering to assist us so when a woman started yelling that we needed to pay to cross the bridge 50 feet from the immigration offices we just drove on through. I may have heard “Policia” but decided to trust Jason’s instinct that she was just another tout trying to get money from unsuspecting gringos.

Bode and I stayed with the van while Jason went to deal with registration. There were no lines and no problems, and it took him about half an hour. License, vehicle title, and passport is all you need for a 90 day vehicle permit sticker. You fill out a form and they copy and stamp everything. Total cost: 40Q.

Just before he returned to the bus, a police officer came up to our window. I thought he was saying we needed to move the car, and looked to see Jason walking up. What I didn’t see, was there were 5 other officers behind the bus. Apparently, we did need to pay to cross the bridge. The troll had called the cops on us.

There was a tourism official nearby who helped interpret, and through her we explained that we didn’t know about the toll and would pay on the way out. The officers asked if we were crossing into Belize and we assured them we were just there for vehicle paperwork and staying in Guatemala. Jason had asked at the immigration office and was told the toll was 5 quetzales, we confirmed this with the officers.

On the way back over the bridge, the woman lowered the gate so that we couldn’t pass. Jason handed her 5 quetzales but she insisted it was 50. We happened to see the tourist official and she stopped to help us argue that several people, including the police , told us it was 5. This went on and on for about 10 minutes (a long, hot 10 minutes). Meanwhile the traffic on the other side was passing just fine, not paying a cent. She finally closed their gate so everyone was stopped waiting for us. Not a nice lady.

Jason told her we had all day, and they could call the police to check. She went into her office and came out with some sort of paper that we weren’t sure said anything relevant. She insisted it was 5Q for Belizians and 50Q for everyone else. It was apparently free for Guatemalans. We finally paid the ludicrously exorbitant 50 quetzales ($7.50 USD) and drove away.