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The Colors of Guatemala
When last we heard from them in the tropics, our world travelers Ramona Eichhorn and Uwe Krauss had crossed Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras on their KTM 640 Adventures. They now take us into Guatemala to explore the Mayan heartland of Central America.
Tikal
The road curves from the mountains into the humid lowlands of northeastern Guatemala. The air remains thick for hundreds of miles, and the pavement that slices through the monotony of rolling pastures only occasionally passes by colorful villages and homesteads. Painted in pastels, the picturesque town of Flores lies on an island in the lake Peten Izta. The colonial architecture, the narrow alleys, and the lake all radiate a vibrant Mediterranean mood; and only the appearance of a man wearing a sombrero and paddling past in his dugout, with a bicycle strapped to the top, reminds us that we are in Central America.
A half-hour ride from Flores, we see the Maya pyramids of Tikal towering amid the thick jungle canopy and arranged like stoic sentinels guarding relics and ancient mysteries. Yellow signs on the way warn of snakes crossing the road. The large, bag-like nests of bayas (weaver birds) hang from branches. When the road ends, we continue on foot over a dark pathway piercing the dense foliage. Soon, we step onto a sunlit plain, and the vision we behold is impressive to say the least. The site, enclosed on all sides by jungle, is ringed with stone tribunes and stepped pyramids, some as tall as 200 feet. Parrots and toucans squawk and flit, and howler monkeys screech and scamper in the trees....
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