To El Mirador by Motorbike

• published: 31 Mar 2015
• views: 30

Follow Carlton Brown (www.carltonbrownV47.com), Gustav Otto Braarud (http://www.vulcanolodge.com), and Oyvind Søgaard as they ride by Motorbike to El Mirador. Deep in the Peten jungle, close to Guatemala’s north Mexican border, resides the world’s largest pyramid by volume – and we wanted to check that out! Carlton, author of “Sun God Sacred Secrets” (www.carltonbrownV47.com), continues his quest to visit many of the world’s ancient pyramids and religious structures. This hobby led to the discovery of ancient priesthood ritual processes for accessing our higher states of consciousness (see on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/phoj3hj). The ancient priesthoods of the Maya (and Egypt, Central & South America, India) used pyramid and temple art and icons to embed symbolic information encoding their ritual processes – and Carlton discovered this. This trip was a blast!!! Guatemala never ceases to amaze us. She openly shares her treasures, expands our minds, and just at the right moment all the connections get made and adventures manifest. Sure we ask permission from the ancient Mayan ancestors, and connect to Mother Nature and all her life forms. If we’re lucky, the moment auspicious, we can use sacred rituals and connect with powerful forces beyond this world and words. Come see some of what we experienced at El Mirador; the beautiful sub-tropical rainforest, the wondrous El Mirador reclaimed by the jungle and shown in all her glory, motorbikes in the thick of it, howler monkeys visiting us under the moon light, and much more. Starting in Carmelita, 75km along a gravel road north of Santa Elena (Flores), we found a guide from the El Mirador Cooperative who was willing to assist our adventure. We each took 20 litres of water for 5 days, 12 litres of petrol, food for hungry lads, and had these supplies transported by two mules (A guide plus 2 donkeys Q300 per day), first to El Tintal where we camped overnight, then on to El Mirador the following day (7am). Organising your own trip is much cheaper than buying a trip from Flores, and puts you in control of your adventure. There really weren’t a lot of maps or blogs from other riders available online beforehand for planning, nor much high-resolution satellite imagery, so we had to largely wing it! I watched some Bear Grylls outdoor survival YouTube videos beforehand. We had neither maps nor GPS, and simply followed our noses and bush instincts. Sure a manual compass, watching the sun’s trajectory and looking for signs on the path were all helpful. We travelled in late February, early March, during the dry season; you would not wish to do this by motorbike during the wet season! From Carmelita we followed one of four track entrances to El Tintal – and we were shown the toughest one! Clay bogs for the first 8km, where you sink one foot deep and it sticks to the bike (we all used off road knobbly tires) and sucks you in!! My clutch burnt out, but Gustav and Oyvind made it all the way to El Mirador! Good on you guys ☺. We got some good Gopro and video footage en route too! I ended up walking, which turned out to be a really nice trip for me. Lots of connecting solitude in the jungle, and I saw a lot of beautiful animal and plant life, and emptied my head to witness moment upon moment in silence. All up it took me 11 hours of walking to get there (supposedly 43km), split over two days; and the motorcyclists quite a bit less! We hired hammocks with mosquito nets from the guide (Q10 per day), but tents would also work. There are a lot of mosquitos around, so come prepared. The trail was safe, all the locals incredibly friendly and helpful (typical of Guatemala), and any fears we might have held before rapidly melted once we got underway. If you’re thinking of visiting El Mirador – do it! It’s still at the early academic phase of excavation, and most of the site is covered in jungle and the pyramids resemble jungle-covered hills. We hope you enjoy this YouTube video, and thank you for watching it. Contact Carlton via www.carltonbrownV47.com, or reserve your stay at Vulcano Lodge; the award-winning hotel in Jaibalito, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, with Gustav at http://www.vulcanolodge.com.