(Saturday, 4 April 2009)
Aguateca is a small Mayan ruins site, 1h30 by fast boat from Sayaché. “My first Mayan ruins”, actually.
The boat trip is beautiful. The river is surrounded by tropical jungle and populated by many birds, which keep flying away from the boat only at the last minute. And then there is a large lake a few minutes before you get to the ruins – really quiet and peaceful.
The site doesn’t impress so much from the ruins stand point – there aren’t that many buildings in good conditions anymore and most of the stone carvings are long gone. But the natural beauty of it is amazing.
The old ceremonial site had good natural defences: it was built on top of limestone cliffs that cracked long ago due to an earthquake; a deep and long gorge that was then formed goes around almost the entire site making it difficult for enemy armies to come in. But not impossible – the city was eventually conquered by a rival city state and eventually abandoned.
The place is a bit remote and not that frequently visited (I was the only tourist that day – lucky me), which adds to its charm.
The jungle grows well into the archaeological site. As we were walking around – I was with the boat man who drove me there and who, conveniently, showed me the place around, even if without to much information to add… - we saw a jungle rat. I was looking for it underneath a thick layer of leaves when I finally noticed something far more interesting one meter or so from my feet: a long fat snake. I only saw half its body as it was going under the cover of the leaves; that half was a good meter long and 15 to 20 cm large; the skin was brown and yellow, really shiny – just like on TV... I let my imagination work the first half of the snake’s body.
When I described it to the boat man, he said the snake wasn’t poisonous – just a bit aggressive if attacked.
What the hell does that mean: “just a bit aggressive if attacked”? And is it supposed to leave me more reassured?
By the way, lucky rat: it looked like our presence prevented him from being snake's lunch…
Aguateca is a small Mayan ruins site, 1h30 by fast boat from Sayaché. “My first Mayan ruins”, actually.
The boat trip is beautiful. The river is surrounded by tropical jungle and populated by many birds, which keep flying away from the boat only at the last minute. And then there is a large lake a few minutes before you get to the ruins – really quiet and peaceful.
The site doesn’t impress so much from the ruins stand point – there aren’t that many buildings in good conditions anymore and most of the stone carvings are long gone. But the natural beauty of it is amazing.
The old ceremonial site had good natural defences: it was built on top of limestone cliffs that cracked long ago due to an earthquake; a deep and long gorge that was then formed goes around almost the entire site making it difficult for enemy armies to come in. But not impossible – the city was eventually conquered by a rival city state and eventually abandoned.
The place is a bit remote and not that frequently visited (I was the only tourist that day – lucky me), which adds to its charm.
The jungle grows well into the archaeological site. As we were walking around – I was with the boat man who drove me there and who, conveniently, showed me the place around, even if without to much information to add… - we saw a jungle rat. I was looking for it underneath a thick layer of leaves when I finally noticed something far more interesting one meter or so from my feet: a long fat snake. I only saw half its body as it was going under the cover of the leaves; that half was a good meter long and 15 to 20 cm large; the skin was brown and yellow, really shiny – just like on TV... I let my imagination work the first half of the snake’s body.
When I described it to the boat man, he said the snake wasn’t poisonous – just a bit aggressive if attacked.
What the hell does that mean: “just a bit aggressive if attacked”? And is it supposed to leave me more reassured?
By the way, lucky rat: it looked like our presence prevented him from being snake's lunch…
The boat ride to Aguateca
Entry to Aguateca
Walking towards the gorge...
... And in the gorge
_
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