Story

Trek to Mirador

October 31, 2009 | Pulitzer Center
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Don Oscar navigates the boat across Lago de Petén Itza as the group of archaeologists begin their two-day trek towards El Mirador.

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All the gear for more than a dozen travelers is packed into burlap sacks and tied to mules.

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The mules are loaded with as much as 80 pounds of gear and supplies and covered with tarps to protect from the elements.

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Don Oscar leads the way to the start of La Ruta Turistica (Tourist route) to El Mirador.

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The trail wound its way approximately 50 miles, spaced over two days. The first day was approximately 5.5 hours of walking the second day about 8 hours.

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Workers sift through lot 108.L at El Mirador site. Every recognized pottery shard, tool fragment and other identifiable evidence of former human existence at a site is bagged and tagged for cataloguing.

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Dr. Richard Hansen, director of the Mirador Basin Project at Structure 34.

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Structure 34, seen here, was the first site that Hansen worked on in 1978.

Trek to Mirador

Trek to Mirador

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Work to clear the top of La Danta, the tallest structure at El Mirador, continues. Hansen's desire is to have the majority of this structure cleared of vegetation and dirt.

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The Petén forest looking south from the top of La Danta.

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At El Mirador Basin camp workers can choose from English (see here) and Spanish classes, as many workers are native Q'eqchi speakers. Q'eqchi is an indigenous Mayan language spoken throughout Petén.

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Listening to lessons in English.

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Open areas of grass mark the places south of Carmelita where the rainforest has been cut down to make grazing pastures for farmers.

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A horse runs behind a motorcycle carrying two men in the dirt road out of Carmelita towards Flores.

The two-day trek to El Mirador and the three-day stay was our introduction as a group to Petén, Guatemala.

Photos by David M. Barreda