Rural Guatemala

Typical scene along the road from Belize to Tikal , the ancient Mayan Temple deep in the jungles of Guatemala.

The journey from Belize to Tikal is an adventure like no other, after waiting an hour at the Guatemalan border for permission to enter the country, the first attraction was an army base , complete with armed guards watching our every move.As the uniformed soldiers were combat ready and not a smile was to be found,  It didn't take long to realize that this was not the time or place for horse play or to make any move that would  arouse their suspicions.

As of now, the Guatemalan government hasn't adopted our highway system, traveling along an extremely bumpy, dirt road one has plenty of time to observe the jungle and the many different types of wildlife living there. Entering through the "back door" of Guatemala, we found the atmosphere a lot more cheerful once arriving at Tikal.

Several tiny villages dot the landscape,  the people who  live in thatched hut roofs are extremely poor, owning only the bare essentials and probably a horse with which to do meager substance level farming. Many scenes like this small boy on his horse are seen. Women are washing their clothes in the river, just up stream from where some one else is drawing the daily supply of drinking water from the same body of water. With all of our supposedly necessary clean water standards one wonders how they don't get sick. We Americans get sick and they probably do too, however the human body is  much more capable of warding off disease then most people want to admit.

I have nothing against a clean environment and the cleaner the better, however, in my humble opinion, a lot of our clean air standards are more about selling water and air filters than they are about clean air and water.

After several hours of traveling dirt roads, taking photos , and stopping to shop a roadside markets we arrive at Tikal, where we would observe the full moon rising over the ancient Mayan temple. After the moon rise , it would be a forty-five minute journey through bandito infested areas to our hotel. The last group to try this wound up tied up along the roadside and robbed of all their worldly possessions.Hope we make it!

Gary is a travel writer and photographer living in Sarasota, Florida. He maintains a website featuring some of his travel photos and markets a line of products featuring many of his photos.