(Daniel) This morning, the same 'Darth Vader' breathing of the Howler monkeys woke me eerily from slumber.  I lay in bed for a while feeling the aches and pains of the hard work that we had endured yesterday to get here.  The guard had told us that today would be an easy drive out, but I have noticed that people here like to tell you what they think you want to hear.

I got up, joining the others for breakfast before packing away the Wolf.  The rear anti roll bar had got twisted around from the heavy offroading yesterday, we jacked the Wolf up on the hi-lift trying to lever it back with the breaker bar.  It was stuck.  However, it didn’t look as if it would adversely affect the ride, so I decided to leave it until tomorrow when I would take it off for good. Another lump of dead weight to carry home.  The Spring had also required reseating after having popped out during dislocation, would I ever find someone to sell me dislocation cones?

The guide took us first into the jungle behind the camp, we trekked down into a valley, where he showed us the Mercielago cave, it turns out that this is the word for Bat, so that means Lamborghini’s latest sports car is called a Bat?  Doesn’t seem to sit well with the whole Bull thing to me, Bull Bat, Bat Bull... No.

The bat caves could be smelled before they could be seen, the Guano was like ammonia on the senses, and covered the rocks all around the entrance to the hundreds of small caves housing the tens of thousands of Bats.

From the caves we climbed back up, using the vehicles to leave the camp and travel to the ruins site a couple of kms away.  At one stage in the thick jungle a tree across the way meant that we had to cut a new section of road, something which didn’t take long with the guard and his machete on board!

The ruins themselves were very much untouched.  As we walked into the site our new friend explained that there had never been proper excavation here, and that the first proper team of archaeologists were due to arrive in a month from now.  

He led us through tunnels that travelled underground and through the pyramids themselves, until we popped out in what must have been the centre of the settlement here all those years ago.  These were the first tunnels that I have seen anyone go through, as all the other temples have filled them in for safety.

We climbed the two highest pyramids getting a view of Tikal 30km away. At the top of one of the pyramids a huge tree growing out of the temple hung out over the edge, after checking it for strength, I climbed out over the sheer drop to look over the jungle canopy across the former city.  The view was amazing.

We left our guard behind then, with a small tip and a big smile.  His friend would hopefully be back that night, otherwise who knows when the next tourists might hike in.  The last ones having visited over two weeks before.

As we drove away from the area, the words of the guard echoed in my mind, it was now midday.  If the track wasn’t easy going, we would be hard pressed to make it through the next 20kms in daylight.

We hadn’t even travelled 150meters down the track, when we came to a huge branchy tree across the track.  It took all three of us, all with machete’s almost an hour to cut through.  Tired from hacking away, we drove through the gap to find some of the worst ruts that I’ve seen.  Daniel and I hoped that this was just a patch, but after another 500meters of deep mud and huge water filled hole sections realised that we were entering the hardest part of the journey, to make things worse, we were on a time limit to!

A field of mud faced us.  Plants grew across the huge ruts disguising them, low trees hung across the clear sections, dangerously close to my roof height.  Yerko went first, clearing the worst of the holes, but still having to winch a long way down the track.  

I returned to the Wolf, stuck in the first section, two local men were inspecting my winch and generally poking around.  Behind them a bashed up Toyota pickup with huge 36” wheels and an overaxle setup stood ready to blast the way through.  They helped me to winch myself free, then I managed to climb the ruts long enough to get most of the way through the long section.  While we wrangled with the ruts, struggling to move a few feet, two horses loaded with around 400kgs each, picked their way nimbly past, accompanied by two tribal men.  

At the end of the section I was forced to stop in the deep mud by the sight of three female tourists and their two guides. The supplies on the horses must have been for them.  It looked like the guard at El Sotz would have some company after all!  Israelis by the look of things, they looked pretty tired out from trekking.  Their guides came and shook my hand as I got out.  I told him in my improving Spanish that we had been two days in the jungle to get here from Tikal, and that the way had been very bad.  He spoke back also in Spanish, his message was clear, it’s really bad back there, and it only gets worse!  We had to press on, now.

As we winched me out the battered old Toyota roared up the track behind us, Yerko spoke to the driver, who agreed to follow while his co-pilot pointed out the best route.  A good thing, as we now entered maze of choices only the right one could get us through each rut section fast.

The going was tougher than we had seen up until then.  But somehow we managed to keep winching down to a minimum.  Our wheels were probably slightly small for the deep track, but my underbody protection, and Yerkos ski-like leafsprings kept us moving as night fell.

Through muddy pools and up steep slippery rock sections, we travelled for hours, occasionally stopping to winch or tow one another, until finally we began to see livestock along the sides of the path.

After a few more kilometres we emerged in a village, the track turning first to gravel, then to blessed tarmac.  My handbrake no longer worked properly, and some strange scraping noises coming from the wheels.  I put it all down to needing a good clean underneath.

After saying goodbye to our friends in the Toyota, Yerko and I drove in convoy to San Benito where we found a cheap Hotel for the night.

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