El Mirador y Flores

 December 10

Our last day in Guatemala centered around a trip to El Mirador, a massive and very early Mayan city near the Mexican border. First, however, we went for a two hour bird walk at Las Guacamayas, seeing several new bird species. Several of these were classic “tiny birds in dense foliage”, which are very satisfying to finally track down. 

One of the projects of the local WCS team is to support the breeding and survival of scarlet macaws. These birds are prevalent  in other Central American counties but not in Guatemala. At this time of year they are not nesting, although two were seen earlier this week scouting out the nesting site. As we approached the nesting site this  morning we saw two Collared Forest-Falcons, a major predator of baby macaws.  

After breakfast we boarded helicopters for a short flight to El Mirador. El Mirador is a huge site, five times the size of Tikal. The city was so large that it included a 23 km long causeway (50m wide and built 6m above the surrounding plain) to connect the central administrative area with outlying temples. it also includes the most massive Mayan structure (acropolis Danta) in the Americas: three platforms topped with ceremonial pyramids. The lowest platform is 310m x 590m and 10m high. The full structure is 72m high and the view from the top was spectacular. El Mirador was active between 600 BC and 150 AD; it was a massive center when Tikal was just a village. As with any city, feeding the population and finding enough water was a critical requirement, and it is hypothesized that the city collapsed when the natural resources had been over-exploited. 

The site is from the “pre-classical” period while most surviving written records (as at Tikal) are from the later classical period. There is much that we do not know about El Mirador. The site was discovered from the air in the 1930s and has been actively excavated since the 1980s. It remains quite remote with only a small portion excavated or restored. As with Tikal it is hard to imagine it as an open and cleared space rather than the current forest or jungle, and to realize that every part of the topography is hiding manmade features. 

In the late afternoon we helicoptered to Flores, a city on a small island in a lake fed by the San Pedro River. En route we were again able to see the effects of fire and illegal cattle ranching on the forest. Flores was the last Mayan holdout during Spanish conquest

as the lake served as a natural moat. Once the city fell, the Spanish built religious buildings on top of the Mayan pyramids. Today it is a quaint tourist focused area; most tourists coming to visit Tikal stay in Flores and drive over to the site (1.5 hours on paved roads) for the day. 

Pictured: Acropolis Danta from the air, long-billed gnatwren, collared forest-falcon, stucco frieze adorning water features at the administrative center