Into the heart of darkness - El Mirador with NLX

[overlander]

I've been waiting my whole life for a trip like this. It had the promise of everything I ever wanted in overland travel: dense jungle growth, ancient untouched ruins, extreme remoteness, danger, mud, winching, cigars, rum, fellowship and Rovers. The question on my mind as I waited for my flight from Charlotte, NC was "Will it live up to those expectations?". Reflecting back now on the trip as a whole, I can say it most certainly did, and then some...

This thread will be the log of our journey to attempt to reach El Mirador in Guatemala which is a recently discovered ancient Mayan site with the pyramid El Tigre. El Tigre is listed as one of the top ranking tallest structures of the ancient world. This thread will also attempt to share the sites of our itinerary on the way for other future travelers, as well as a narrative of a trip witih No Limits Expedition. My goal was to ensure this is a well documented expedition, which is no easy feat as I was soon to learn that an NLX trip is "hands on".

My crew on this trip is Bill (a former Navy officer from Minneapolis) and Lee (a market researcher from Charlotte). Hosting the trip will be James and Angela Brown, and Graham Jackson. We would be joined by tag-along travelers Byron (4x4 shop owner and ARB retailer) and Karl (German expat and expo member) who both live in Guatemala.

Let me caviat by saying that this trip completion thread will take several days to post, as we ended up with over 2,000 photographs that need to be sorted through. Welcome to our journey.

 

[PirateMcGee]

:lurk:

 

[overlander]

22 Feb 2012- Day 1 (travel day)
So our journey begins with Lee and I departing from Charlotte at 0:dark 30 with a connection in Miami. Bill left Minneapolis which was "frickin' freezing Mr. Bigglesworth" degrees F, and Lee and I had a good laugh about the climate shock Bill was about to go through.

When were setting up the flight itineraries with Angela, she recommended Belize City as an alternative to Guatemala City, as it was a little cheaper and would give us the option of seeing a little of Belize. She recommended that if we stay overnight we could have the morning of the 23rd before our charter flight to do some activity like snorkeling or jungle tour. Figuring we'll get our share of jungle in the days ahead, and having an interest in seeing Belize City to get a flavor for the country, we opted to pass and tour the town a bit. We were to find out that our assumptions about boys night out in Belize City were a pipe dream. Belize City is primarily a way port for arriving and departing tourists that come to see the rainforest attractions (zip line and such) and the barrier reef snorkeling. There is really nothing else to see in the city to our surprise.

Here you can see the runway and arrival taxi ramp at Belize City airport. There is only one runway, and the commercial jets back taxi after landing to get back to the control tower. Much smaller than we expected!



After arrival, we headed up to the airport tavern on the 2nd floor and order ourselves up a couple of the native beers of choice; Belkin. The distributor or bottling plant (unclear) was on the other side of the runway. Belkin beer tastes like a Corona or Michelob. Good enough for weary travelers but not to my Colorado micro-brew satisfaction!




Here you can see the front of the airport. Single terminal. One nice thing about Belize is they don't peddle you to death like many Mexico destinations.



Bill had an expat college friend named Melinda meet us at the airport and offer to show us around a bit. Her and her husband own a timber farm in Western Belize, and ironically, own several Land Rover Defender 130's. Unfortunately, she decided to pick us up in some Nissan or Mitsubishi (can't remember) SUV as she claimed it was more comfortable. She didn't know us at all of course or perhaps she would have chose differently!

During the drive out, I was amazed at how tropical it was immediately in the surrounding area. Big leaf tropical too.



We learned a little about Belize on the drive. Belize is British common wealth and relatively new country. the native language is English and everyone here is easy to understand. No 2nd language anywhere that I could see, despite it's being located in Central America. The architecture has a flavor of British Colonial Caribbean and the population is predominately Caribbean with what seems close ties to Jamaica.



We arrive at our accomodations for the evening, The Radisson. As this is not a tourist destination city, I recommend anyone traveling this way stay here, as the hotel is rather nice and has ocean views.

 

[overlander]

Lobby of the Radisson. Nice digs!



When we opened up the curtains of our room, low and behold..the Atlantic!


After unpacking, we headed down to the hotel patio bar, took in the ocean breezes, and had a ceremonial fatty and adult beverage by the "Smoke Extracting Tree" (gotta get me one of those!).



For the record, I'm in the middle with the white Ex-Officio shirt on (and OJ swag) and that Sangria I decided to try, and a Mojito somewhere later in the trip, where the only fruity drinks I had the whole trip. The rest of the time was scotch, rum, beer and wine. Lee is on the left in blue, and Bill is on the right. By the end of this trip, he begins to understand how there are downsides to being tall.



I know this isn't overlanding yet, but be patient, this is just chapter one. The winch line comes out within 24 hours of this moment and the spool doesn't cool down for 2 weeks!

 

[Kkilo1323]

Sweet! Subscribed.

 

[overlander]

23 Feb 2012 - Day 2

The next morning we hit the hotel restaurant for a fantastic buffet breakfast, and then decided to walk around the area a bit to get a feel for Belize City. As soon as we left the hotel along the street sidewalk, we came a cross a huge hermit crab on the ground and a 18" iguana in the tree overhead. Yes, the wildlife is everywhere and that wasn't going to change in Guatemala either.



Here's a few pics around the hotel and city to give you flavor of the area.




This one is my favorite. You have to love a place where beer is it's own meal category!

 

[overlander]

So later that day we checked out of the Radisson and caught a cab back to Belize Intl airport to catch our Tropic Air charter flight to Flores, Guatemala. We hung out in the departure terminal and decide to hit up the duty free for some Scotch and Tequila as supplies for jungle stint (Lee would find out later that his spontaneous desire for tequila was not shared with the larger group...party for one). Having read the article on expedition vices in the latest OJ motivated me to make sure we had good stock for our 10 days!



By the way, this is the local rum in Belize, and it is apparently not very good. I got a small bottle as a souvenir for a friend.




One thing to keep in mind is that Belize's main revenue is from tourism and the government depends heavily on those revenues, so it has a departure tax (about $40 US) each time you leave the country. Fortunately, the tax was included in the price of our charter, which was inclusive in our trip fee with NLX. Angela scheduled the charter flight and payed for it as well.

For a little airport, there is a surprising amount of foreigners moving through it. Additionally, the Tropic Air charter operations is hopping. There's a ton of tourists that fly in by commercial jet from US destinations, some in very large groups (high school and college trips no doubt) and are whisked away by mini-buses and taxis, or catch connections from Tropic Air. Tropic Air is the linkage to all the smaller remote destination and beaches in C. America, such as Flores. The main reason folks are connecting to Flores is to visit well known Mayan site Tikal (more on that later).

I was excited to find that we were flying in a Cessna Caravan. Being a student pilot, I really enjoying flying low a few thousand feet for the scenery and to have a close aerial view of the jungle canopy was going to be a real treat. Of course, most Americans don't share my enthusiasm, and as we sit in the terminal, there are many typical tourists around us that are saying things to each other like "look at how small it is" or "we're flying in that little thing?" Compared to a Cessna 172, a Caravan is massive, and a global workhorse. My point to my friends is that the smaller a plane is, the farther it can glide." That always seems to work.



And it's time to board the flight! Jungle, here I come!

 

[overlander]

So we took off to the East and began a turning climb due West to Flores. Cruising altitude for this flight is 6,500 feet above sea level...perfect. Skies are scattered.



Here's a few shots along the way.


About 40ish minutes later we approached Lake Peten Itza, which is where Flores is located. It's a huge freshwater lake in the just East of the center of Guatemala. Here's the view approaching from the East heading due West. Flores airport is on the Western part of the lake on the South Side.


Some views of the lake as we flew over.


There is a big difference in conservation between Belize and Guatemala. Belize is serious about it, and Guatemala isn't quite there yet. They say here that you can tell when you fly over the border into Guatemala, because that is where the clear cutting begins. You can see an example of it in these pictures on the South side of the lake.


We're approaching Flores from the East.

 

[overlander]

This little island is the old historic district of Flores.



Turning back to the East on final approach into Flores airport.




And we have arrived!


There's only our fellow passengers on our flight in the airport with us. We go through customs in a just a few minutes, grab our luggage (all in the same large room) and head outside, where Jose from La Lancha is waiting for us. He welcomes us and loads our bags into the hotel van and away we go.



And what do we have here in the airport parking lot? A Defender! Now I'm starting to get excited.



We head off East through the main roads to circumnavigate the Eastern end of the lake, as La Lancha resort is on the North East end. The streets are 2 lane here, one each way and roads aren't bad. Everyone is friendly and there was no panhandling or pushy vendors. They are clearly not used to heavy tourism and it's for the better I think. Complete opposite of what I experience in Jamiaca last year on a port of call with a cruise line. Geeze back off!

 

[overlander]

Here are some shots we took along the way. Yes, that's a Pizza Hut! As we buzz along, all the tension of media based fears about Central America begin to melt away from my mind. There's no cartel gangs in the back of pickups, or burning buildings, or bomb craters in the streets. People aren't running around with AK47's and cartridge belts in sweaty wife beater t-shirts with a cigarette hanging lazily from their mouth while they size me up for ransom. It's just easy carefree people living their life..



As we travel around the Eastern edge of the lake heading North, I look West in this view. Jose tells us that this land spur is called the Croc, because it looks like a croc in the water. This won't be the last croc we see...but that's for later.


Along the North side, the road winds through heavy canopy. The roads dusty, narrow and pothole riddled. The minivan crawls along and I think how much faster I could role through here in my 110. I'm already envisioning my next trip down here traveling this very same road, which will be a tag along with NLX in my Defender.

 

[r3run33]

Thanks for posting. Looking forward to the rest of the trip

 

[shov3lbum]

Subscribed!

 

[Christian P.]

Did you get to try the famous Marie Sharp's sauce while you were in Belize?



http://www.mariesharps-bz.com/

 

[dinoevo]

That will be interesting to see if you guys made it! I was up the road to El Mirador just a few weeks ago and to me it looked almost impossible to do without a lot of winching and bridge building due to the heavy rainfall lately. I mean muddy areas so large and soft you had a hard time to walk it. Apparently this year is one of the wettest dryseason in El Peten for decates.
Nevertheless El Peten has so much to offer. Specially with an 4x4.

 

[overlander]

Did you get to try the famous Marie Sharp's sauce while you were in Belize?



http://www.mariesharps-bz.com/

Can't remember, but I did grow to love habinera sauce over the duration of this trip!