10
Nov

Survivor Mayan Style – Yaxha Archaeological Site, Guatemala

Posted on November 10th, 2011 :: Posted in Archaeology Site, Camping, Central America, Glad We Had, Guatemala, Mayan, National Park, Product Partners, Ruins

Little known fact: Eric sent in a video application to be on the very first season of Survivor. That obviously didn’t pan out and, in hindsight, that was for the best. What does that little confession have to do with Yaxha, the remains of a pre-Columbian Mayan city in Guatemala? Quite a lot, actually.

Surviving Survivor

In 2005 Survivor Guatemala (ridiculously called “The Mayan Empire” season) descended on Yaxha where cast and crew spent weeks shooting and stirring up controversy over things like whether it was culturally sensitive (or even accurate) to ask participants to dress up like Mayans by smearing on face paint and sticking feathers in their hair. Hmmm.

The Northern Acropolis at Yaxha archaeological site in Guatemala where a season of Survivor was shot in 2005.

One of dozens of stelae (carved stone pillars) that have been found at Yaxha archaeological site in Guatemala.

Anyway..Yaxha survived Survivor. Yaxha is one of the largest Mayan sites in Guatemala and has nine plazas and more than 500 buildings, most of them relatively un-reconstructed. Most of the big structures (and there are plenty) have their original stairs. To facilitate climbing, wooden staircases have been built up the sides of the buildings allowing us to get to the top but leaving the original architecture intact and looking pretty authentic. The staircases also happened to be gorgeous and ingeniously constructed with wooden pegs instead of nails which would just rust way in the jungle humidity.

Yaxha also has a twin-pyramid complex in Plaza C. The only other known Mayan site with a twin-pyramid complex isTikal.

The Northern Acropolis at Yaxha archaeological site in Guatemala.

One of the ball courts found at Yaxha, one of the largest Mayan archaeological sites in Guatemala.

We loved the rounded corners on this pyramid at Yaxha.

The wildlife of Yaxha

Temple 216, the big daddy of Yaxha.

Templo 216, aka the Eastern Acropolis, is the highest structure at Yaxha. The temple itself is only 100 feet (30 meters) high, but its constsructed on top of a massive platform. The top of Temple 216 is a great place to get an overview of the site and peer down into the surrounding croc-filled lakes and dense jungle, home to howler monkeys, spider monkeys, coaties and birds including raucous Montezuma Oropendolas dashing in and out of their strange pendulous nests in the huge trees that dot the plazas.

Howler monkeys (named for the sound they make) must be heard to be believed. Check them out in our video, below.

Survivor may have brought some degree of fame to Yaxha, but you wouldn’t know by looking at it. During our two days at the site we saw fewer than 25 other travelers. At times it felt like there were more groundskeepers than tourists at Yaxha, each of them armed with a green palm frond broom which they used to meticulously sweep every possible surface.

Guatemala's Yaxha archaeological site is book-ended by two croc-filled lakes as you can see in this shot taken from the top of Temple 216.

The best campground in Guatemala

Survivor did, however, prompt an upgrade of the facilities at Yaxha so, in a roundabout way, we have producer Mark Burnett to thank for the awesome camping area at Yaxha.

Yaxha is part of a trio of pre-Columbian Mayan cities, along with nearby Nakum and Naranjo which make up the Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo National Park. Your admission fee of 80Q per person (about US$10) includes access to all three parks (though Naranjo is remote and best reached on horseback) and two nights of camping at Yaxha in one of five raised platform camping shelters with weather tight thatch roofs (we know because it poured) and views of lake. It was like camping on the awesome porch of a friend’s lake house.

Two nights in one of these awesome camping platforms is included with your entrance fee to Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo National Park in Guatemala.

The camping area also has outdoor showers, indoor flush toilets and a communal outdoor grilling area. Howler monkeys woke us up each morning and adorable pacas (basically very large jungle hamsters) scampered around on the ground at dusk. It would have been one of the best campgrounds in Guatemala even without the Mayan ruins. We still can’t figure out why we were the only ones using it.

Templo-de-los-Tableros at Yaxha archaeological site in Guatemala.

GLAD WE HAD

Our SteriPEN which allows us to quickly and easily purify water anywhere using UV light, not chemicals. This allows us to say yes when a lovely camping opportunity (like Yaxha) unexpectedly comes our way, even if we’re not prepared with extra drinking water.

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21
Feb

Travel Gear of the Year(s) – 4 Year Anniversary Edition

Posted on February 21st, 2011 :: Posted in Blog Carnival, Product Review

We just realized that the Trans-Americas Journey’s four year anniversary of active road trip travel (not counting various planned and unplanned recesses in the action since we embarked in April of 2006) just sort of slipped by this month (hey, we’ve been busy!).

That got us looking back at the best of the past 1,500 or so days of travel including the travel gear we’ve used the most and loved the most since day one.

Costa del Mar sunglasses

Our Costas have literally been on our faces (or pushed up on the tops of our heads or dangling around our necks) almost every single day and there’s not a scratch on our 580 series lenses or a loose screw in sight. We’re about to put these watersport-specific sunglasses (the lenses cut glare and improve vision on the water) through their paces double-time when we board the Aggressor III in Belize for a week on the water and some hardcore liveaboard SCUBA diving. We’ll fit right in since 99.9% of the guides and boat captains we’ve met during our 2.5 months of travel from tip to tail in Belize wear Costas too…

Costa del Mar sunglasses

SteriPEN water purifying wand

There’s no telling how many gallons of water we’ve purified over the past four years–especially since leaving the US and Canada in 2009 and entering Mexico, Guatemala and Belize where tap water does not equal drinking water. This thing is tiny, easy to use (can you push a button?), quick (60 seconds) and chemical/yucky taste free since it uses UV light to zap the belly busters. Another plus? Imagine the money we’d have spent and the mountain of plastic water bottles we would have left in our wake during the past four years if we’d been buying commercially purified water instead of using our SteriPEN…

Pacsafe anti-theft “securse”

Karen’s Pacsafe Metro 200 shoulder bag is a nylon bag reinforced with lockable zippers and an unslashable wire-filled strap. It’s certainly secure (that’s why she calls it her “securse”). It’s also durable, easy to wipe clean and it holds a ton including:

1 bottle of hand sanitizer
our Samsung SAGA smart world phone in a snug sleeve which protects the screen
multiple pens and notebooks
1 Lonely Planet pocket guide to Spanish (yes, we still cheat)

wallet
our car alarm keyfob and keys to the truck
2 packs of chewing gum
1 Canon S95 digital camera
1 mini tripod (found along the way)
1 Tide Stain Stick (indispensable)
2 different lip balms
Trans-Americas Journey business cards and stickers (yes, we have stickers)
breath mints
2 packets of pocket-size tissues
1 dispenser of Visine dry-eye relief drops
1 in-country cell phone
1 tough-as-nails SureFire E1L Outdoorsman mini flashlight
3 packs of matches
1 mini Totes umbrella (also found along the way)
4 individually packed Ya! bug repellent wipes
1 Canary Wireless Digital Hotspot Wi-Fi Finder
assorted toothpicks
1 sewing kit
2 mini emery boards
pocket-size dental floss dispensers (kindly supplied by our friend Dr. Dave Goldberg of Gentle Dental in Massachusetts)

Cocoon lightweight/warm night sleeping bag

Sure we’ve got hardcore sleeping bags but most of the time south of the border it’s too warm for them. That’s when we go for our Cocoon Silk Tropic Traveler mated with a zip in silk sleep sheet to create a double bag with two different weights. Put the lightly poly-filled side up on cool nights, put the silk-sheet side up on warmer nights. We loved having this lightweight (less than a pound) option when we packed down into Havasu Falls in Arizona for a few nights of camping and, most recently, we broke it out in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary in Belize (the world’s first jaguar preserve). It’s also ideal on dodgy beds.

point6 super socks

Wet or dry, short or tall, thick or thin our wardrobe of point6 merino wool socks (made by the folks who started SmartWool but way more affordable) have gotten us through steamy cities, up Half Dome, through caves, down into the Grand Canyon (from both rims) and back up again. They even work in Eric’s cowboy boots and his fancy-time loafers. The magic is in the wool. Feet (even Eric’s baby-soft feet) stay comfy and blister-free even if the socks are wet and we can wear the same pair for days and they don’t get stinky. Honest.

KINeSYS Sunscreen

No stinging in the eyes. No oil slick on your skin. And no sunburn. This non-aerosol (read: no waste) spray-on super water resistant sunscreen is the reason neither of us has gotten sunburned during the course of our Journey.

This post is part of the Lonely Planet BlogSherpa Travel Blog Carnival hosted this time by Vago over at Vagobond. The Carnival is hosted every two weeks by a BlogSherpa member. The topic this time is Essential Travel Gear.

Some of these products were provided to us for use and review.

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19
Oct

Knock on Wood (but be covered if that doesn’t work)

Posted on October 19th, 2009 :: Posted in Announcement

Yes we’re out here to try new things and have adventures and go to far flung places. However, we believe there’s a line between intrepid travel and reckless travel and we do what we can not to cross that line.

This means reducing unnecessary risk whenever possible and being prepared to handle the risks we can’t avoid. We purify water with our SteriPEN. We secure our valuables with a whole range of Pacsafe anti-theft packs and locking systems. We protect our truck with Amsoil synthetic lubricants and we’ve armed it with a Mile Marker recovery winch and high-powered PIAA auxiliary lights. Our full arsenal of Adventure Medical Kits takes care of scrapes, bites and bruises.

But no matter how safe we try to be, serious accidents and illness can still happen. This is why we’re relieved to announce the newest Trans-Americas Journey team member: On Call International.

They’ve just supplied us with Extended Stay emergency medical evacuation coverage which will ensure that we get to the hospital of our choice for the best care possible no matter where or when medical trouble strikes. Bottom of the Copper Canyon? No problem. Amazon river? Yep. Galapagos Islands? No sweat.

On Call International has 7 million members and provides assistance 24/7 365 days a year. Last year they received more than 273,000 calls from members and handled almost 1,500 evacuations (this number really surprised us). They also fielded 1,700 calls to their unique nurse helpline which is staffed by US-licensed English speaking nurses who provide immediate medical advice and assessment on the phone. If we’re someplace where local medical care isn’t available or isn’t very desirable this service can help us determine how urgent our situation really is.

We have been incredibly lucky over the first three years of our Journey with nothing more serious than upset stomachs and head colds afflicting us and we have every reason to believe (and hope) that our good health will continue–particularly now that we don’t have to worry about what would happen if we’re wrong!