My favorite blog posting from my backpacking trip through Central American with La Ruta Inka.

           In the past few days La Ruta Inka facebook page has been reposting some of my images.  I thought it would be cool to pick out my favorite blog postings and re share them with everyone.  So here they are; in order by date:

1. "First meeting with a tribe"

2. "The art of extracting balsamo"

3. "Age old festival in El Salvador"

4. "The Maya juego de la pelota or ballgame"

5. "Assimilation of Christianity and Mayan religion"

6. "Finally Tikal, Guatemala"

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Travel Photograph Wednesday - Guatemala

Tikal, Guatemala.

Travel Photograph Wednesday - Guatemala

Rio Dulce, Guatemala.

Travel Photograph Wednesday - Guatemala

Flores, Guatemala.

Travel Photograph Wednesday - Guatemala

Guatemala.

Travel Photograph Wednesday - Guatemala

Antigua, Guatemala.

Facade of the former El Carmen church.

Travel Photograph Wednesday - Guatemala

Tikal, Guatemala.

These Mayan ruins is the location where one the scene in the Star Wars movies was filmed.  You can see the scene and read up more about my visit to Tikal here.

Travel Photograph Wednesday - Guatemala

Santiago, Atitlan, Guatemala.

Travel Photograph Wednesday - Guatemala

Castillo de San Felipe, Rio Dulce, Guatemala. 

Finally Tikal, Guatemala

     La Ruta Inka ended in the accent Mayan city of Tikal and of course I was really pumped to get to see this fascinating place.  The day we got to Tikal we decided not to go in till the next day since we had arrived late and wouldn't have that much time to explore.  I was told for 50 bucks I could get snuck into the park before they opened and see the sunrise from the highest temple.  That night we camped right outside and there was a down pour, I thought it wouldn't of been worth it to go in for the sunrise since you probably wont be able to see much,  but I did swear to my self to go back and see the sunrise.

    The next day some friends and I got a group together, got a tour guild, and started our hike into the jungle to get to the temples.  As soon as we started walking the tour guild told us that everything we saw when Tikal was at it's prime had no trees at all and was just building after building like NYC.  As you hiked you could see a hill after a hill after a hill and a nicely made rode between them, this is because each of them hills are temples/buildings under all the dirt.

     You can't image the size of the largest temples until you see them in person.  Just image hiking on a trail threw the jungle and then getting to a clearing wheres there's a stone wall and you look up and you just can see any end to it.  There are only a few temples you can go up on but the climb up them is quit an adventurer it's self and then the climb down scares the shit out of you.  The steps you use to go up are straight up into the air, they're more like a ladder then steps.  The average height of the temples are about 20 floors high, so just imagine climbing up the side of a 20 floor building on a ladder and then when you get to the top there aren't any railings and then you have to climb back down that ladder.
  

     The hypothesis why Tikal was abandoned is that all the trees you see below were all cut down by the Mayans to build temples and buildings.  So because they had cut all the trees down area dried out and it was uninhabitable.  What blows my mind is the fact that 100s of years later Mother Natural has taken this area back and you can barley see the huge city that was once there.

  
   The image below was taken from same spot that was used for Star Wars.  I've post a clip below from the film so you can compare.

   If you zoom in to a small section of the middle of the left side in the image above you find these two little guys below.  Tikal is a real jungle and there are no cages at all, the animals are in the wild and roaming freely.  

  
    I'm a huge Patriots fan and when I seen this lady, with a Pats hat, in Tikal, the middle of a jungle, you best believe I was pumped.  It was just great benign able to be at the NYC of the ancient world and then seeing another Pats fan there what more could I ask for.

Antigua, Guatemala

     When I was in Guatemala I had a chance to stay a few days in Antigua.  Antigua was on of the first cities in the Americas built by the Spanish.  I really didn't like it that much, it looked really old on the outside but when you really walked around you can seen it was kind of fake.  The buildings look really old on the outside but when you walk inside they look like boutiques you would see on south beach.  It felt like a movie set or like going to Disney Land but it does has tons of history and thats what makes it worth visit.
 

   Like I said there's tons of history in Antigua, you can just see it in the architecture.  There are tons of churches all around the city and the one below stood out to me.  The Spanish would have the Mayan people build the churches and at this church they had them make grapes for the outside design.  But instead of making grapes the Mayan they made the design look like corn, that is very important to the Mayan culture.

   Also in Antigua there is on of the top Jade factories in the world, La Casa del Jade.  Jade is a precious rock that is used for jewelry.  Jade was a very important item to the Mayans, that the kings wore all over their bodies and even placed them on their teeth to show their power.

Assimilation of Christianity and Mayan religion

     While in Guatemala I was extremely impressed how the Mayan culture is so alive threw out the whole country.  I've lived in New England most of my life and have been out west to Yellowstone, places that  share and teach the Native American culture but it's always has a feeling of being in the past like when you learning about the Romans or Egyptians.

     One of the place where the Mayan culture is very strong was in Chichicastenango.  Chichicastenango has a huge market and the amazing thing about this market is that threw out it there are three Christian churches that have been build on top of ancient Mayan temples.  In these temples the only people that are spouse to go inside of them are people of Mayan decent.  Here they practice a mix of both religions, also outside the temple/church they have Mayan ceremonies.

    Another place where the Mayan culture was really strong was in the towns around the lake of Atitlán. We stayed there in a gymnasia in Panajachel.  On a side note if you very go to Guatemala you should visit Panajachel, it's a big backpackers stop and very chill.  The 2010 NFL preseason had started, I was dieing to watch a game and I was able to go into a bar there and watch one, totally made my day.
    So around Atitlán there are towns that are fully populated by the Mayans and even have their own law separate the the government.  One of the days we were there we took a boat and visited a few of these towns.

     While getting on the boat a 7 year old little boy that made bracelets got on with us.  I asked him how many bracelets does he he make on a normal day and he told me about 7,  with us on the boat he ended up making 35.  He also knew how to make wallets, purses, and scarfs all by hand.

    While in one of the Mayan towns we had a chance to visit a shaman that was the host to the statue of a new age Mayan God.  People of the town visit the God, pray, and leave offerings of money, cigars, liquor, and many other things so the God will help them and grant wishes.

 
   They also have a shrine for the God right next to the towns Christian church.  This church was extremely interesting,  it displayed the assimilation of Christianity and Mayan the clearest I've seen any where.  The front steps look like an Mayan temple like the way the church/temples at Chichicastenango are.

  The quetzal bird is a huge spiritual symbol to the Mayans and the he altar has a quetzal engraved in it.

    The statues of the saints are made in the image of the Mayan people and are dressed in their typical clothing.

   They also have the God we vistit engraved on the altar.

     When we were on our way back from visiting all the towns we had a chance to jump off the boat and swim in the lake of Atitlán.

    Below are the great guilds we had from INGUAT that showed us just about every corner of Guatemala.