We were not sorry to leave Quetsaltenango the next day because the hotel hosted a graduation party the night before which made sleeping rather difficult.
Our first stop was at a local glass blowing/recycling factory where we could watch the creation of many lovely glass cups, statues, pitchers, etc.
Again we were struck with the young age of many of the workers but it was certainly nice to see such nice products come from a lot of broken glass.
We then had another long bus trip back to Antigua for lunch at the local chicken fast food place - definitely puts Colonel Sanders to shame. I managed to find a "saleslady" in the plaza willing to sell me her ikat skirt fabric (6 yards) — actually a spare — for a decent price.
I didn’t take it right off her body, in spite of the later teasing from our group.
Then back on the bus to Guatemala City and a night in the Holiday Inn — not exactly local flavor, but it sure felt good for a change. We were only there because it was close to the airport, and we had a 6:30 a.m. flight the next day to Flores. In the meantime, our bus and luggage went on to Flores by road, so it was there to meet us at the airport the next morning. Clever — we had a 45 minute flight, but the bus driver had a 9 hr. drive.
Flores is a small island city on the second largest lake in Guatemala (Lake Peten) which is only famous because it’s close to the largest Mayan ruins of Tikal. When we flew into the airport the weather was cooperative (cloudy) so it was decided to take an excursion to the ruins right away while it wouldn’t be too hot. I’d certainly hate to be there when it’s really hot — between heat, humidity, and bugs, we really felt like we had arrived in a jungle.
RUINS OF THE FAMOUS MAYAN CITY OF TIKAL
The central area of Tikal is seven square miles, and, from the model by the front entrance, it was a very impressive place. However, it is also very much overgrown and hard to see in perspective.
The largest cleared area is around the temple of the Great Jaguar which is known for the rich burial chamber that was found underneath. The masks of Chac (probably) flank the stairway and are most impressive.
Tikal is the location of the Great Pyramid of the Mayas and, of course, most of us wanted to climb it. Definite feeling of accomplishment to make it up to the top and survey the surrounding jungle where occasional temples stick up like islands in a green sea.
According to archeologists, the Great Pyramid is actually the fifth built upon this site, one upon the other.
