January 2011 - A private trip: Antigua to El Mirador
 In the morning, at the hotel in Flores, loading drinks into the first two helicopters. Click in any photo to see a larger image. |
 Reaching the top of La Danta pyramid |
| For the 20 who have been on this trip, please skip down to the photos and avoid this section, which will serves as a "manual" someone to repeat. | |
 No, we are not a travel agency, the name is just a joke. 20 of us, who live in Antigua, Guatemala, have traveled to El Mirador and thanks to careful planning, enjoyed over 6 hours there and had a fabulous day. We used this page in the weeks before our trip to keep all 20 people informed about the plan and what they should expect. Now that we are all back from El Mirador and had an amazing experience, we will leave this page here for others to let you know how to arrange it for yourself. Most of us have visited, many times, Tikal and Uaxactun, Yaxha, Copan in Honduras, Takalik Abaj and other sites, but El Mirador was a distant dream. If you cannot afford thousands of dollars on a helicopter, then you have to drive a dangerous dirt road to La Carmelita and from there, hike 2-3 days through mud, or ride on a mule. We did not want to do that and it now seems possible to go by air and not pay a fortune. Each person paid $710, except the two who drove, who did not pay for the TACA flight. The price included a bus from Antigua to the airport and back, the flight to Flores (5 in a helicopter, 13 on TACA), the Maya Internacional hotel, two dinners, a breakfast, all drinks and tips, helicopter flights to and from El Mirador, an experienced archeologist guide, all drinks and a lunch in El Mirador, tips to various people along the way and a return to Antigua. It also included a $50 contribution EACH, to FARES, which funds the Mirador Basin Project. Tuesday January 25 15:00 - 5 people plus our guide flew to Flores on an Aerocentro helicopter, from Guatemala City and kept their car in the Aerocentro parking. They arrived at Hotel Maya Internacional heliport at 16:30 15:00 - bus from Antigua for 13 people to the airport 18:20 - 13 people flew on TACA 7978 to Flores. Arrived 19:30 at the Mundo Maya airport had a free transfer to Hotel Maya Internacional, 5 minutes away. Meanwhile, two people drove to Flores from Antigua and arrived the afternoon of January 25. They carried three cases of water, a case of beer and coolers to keep cold drinks at the site. They bought bags of ice. We bought supplies in Guatemala City, but you could get everything you need in Flores. 20:00 Dinner, with vegetarian and non-vegetarian options, with drinks and tips was included. Over dinner, we distributed lists of the 4 helicopter groups of 5 people each for the next morning's exciting trip to El Mirador. On average, each helicopter carried 850 pounds, but one also carried the archaeologist guide. The helicopters can carry a 1,000 pounds easily. Hotel Maya Internacional is at http://www.villasdeguatemala.com/indexeng.html. The site, is, unfortunately, like so many other Guatemalan websites, in Flash, and so I can't send you an exact page location. When you get to the site, please click on the "Hotel Maya Internacional" link. |
Wednesday January 26 06:20 - Breakfast was included. The restaurant normally opens at 07:00, but the hotel was kind enough to open it early for us. 07:30 - We took a group photo and two groups, one 5, the other 6, with the guide, and with coolers with cold drinks flew to El MIrador and landed at 08:00. Meanwhile, the second group of 10 made sandwiches and loaded them into a big cooler. Helicopters returned to the hotel about 08:30. 08:30 - two groups of 5 each flew from the hotel to El Mirador, with the sandwiches and arrived 09:00. 09:00 - 15:25 - A walking, hiking, climbing tour of El Mirador. Dr. Richard Hansen, Director of the Mirador Basin Project, provided an archeologist, Enrique Hernandez, who flew with some our people up from Guatemala City the previous day and returned with them and who was extremely knowledgeable, having worked on the project for 7 years. We made a $50 per person donation to the Mirador project, as part of the price of the trip. We think that if you go, you should contribute also! See the map below and links to various websites about El Mirador. We first went to La Danta and then returned for lunch and structures closer to the helicopters. Lunch: We had lunch at the amazing Structure 34. We had enough food for the guide, drivers, pilots and the security staff at the site. 15:25 - the first two groups flew from El Mirador back to the hotel in Flores, and arrived 15:55. The helicopters quickly refueled and returned to El Mirador about 16:25 16:25 - the second two groups flew from El Mirador back to the hotel, arrived at 16:55 and we all shared a bottle of champagne to say "thank you" to our guide. 17:15 - Dinner, with vegetarian and non-vegetarian options, with drinks and tips was included. Meanwhile, we sent a bus with one person to the airport with all the tickets, ID's and bags to check in at TACA, which then allowed us to arrive late for their evening departure. The group that flew down to Flores by helicopter, the guide and the couple who drive from Antigua stayed the night at the hotel, which was also included in the trip. 18:50 - 13 people ... transferred to Maya Mundo Airport 19:55 - 13 people flew on TACA 7973 to Guatemala City, and arrived on time at 20:55. We had a bus waiting for us, arranged by Voyageur Travel, from the airport back to Antigua. It dropped everybody off at their houses between 22:30 and 23:00. With hindsight, it would have been better to spend a more relaxed evening at the hotel and return home on TACA the following morning. Given that 8 people of the 21 (with our guide) already were staying there and their night was included in the price, the second night would not have made much difference in cost. January 27 07:00 - Breakfast for the 8 people still at the hotel. 08:30 - The group of 6 that flew in on a helicopter returned the same way from the Flores hotel to Aerocentro in Guatemala City, arrived at 10:00 and picked up their car to return home. A good time was had by all. The helicopter company we used is Aerocentro and you can visit their website. They are very professional and have helped us with discounts and good deals on TACA and in the hotel. They based one of their helicopters in Flores and are embarking on a "strategic alliance with TACA", to package El Mirador as a destination ... and we happened to come along just at the right time, as this page shows. |
 Most of us made it to the top of La Danta. We wondered why it should be called the "largest pyramid, by volume, in the world" and now we understand a bit ... it sits on a huge platform 600 x 300 meters, and once you scale that, there is another platform with more pyramids on top. |
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 Talking about La Danta, here is part of the staircase system. Click on any photo to see a much larger image. |
 This composite photo is missing a small part ... made of about 14 photos, but I will have to come back and take the missing one. It's the uppermost level of the La Danta structure. Click to see a larger image.  At the very bottom, there is a very clear sign showing you what it must have looked out and how it was built. |
 From La Danta, above the tree canopy, you have a 360 degree view, this one with the site's El Tigre pyramid behind us. You can see, in the other direction to the pyramids of Nakbe, which are connected to El Mirador by a Maya causeway. El MIrador is just 7 km south of the border with Mexico. |
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 The interesting thing about this, the bottom part of the top pyramid at La Danta is the "reconstruction". The original pyramid may have been build, as a religious site, about 200 B.C. El Mirador was soon after abandoned. However, more construction went on and about 700-800 A.D., many big stones removed and made to support walls of many small rooms, of which you can see four here ... probably residential. One of our party thought it was like converting a New York brownstone into apartments ... more on the the next two photos below ... |
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 ... at another site, another "residential conversion". The sloping hill behind shows you the condition in which the archeologists found this structure. The plan sloping wall with dirty green stucco was the original, ceremonial pyramid, maybe 200 B.C. However, the stone wall in the foreground was added almost 1,000 years later to turn the "ceremonial" into "residential", probably for some king's family around 700-800 A.D. ... and see the next photo to keep up with the story ... |
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 Just above the area shown in the last photo, here is a residential area constructed about 700-800 A.D. on top of a ceremonial building that was built some 1,000 years earlier. Talking about converting old buildings into "condos", seems the Maya were at it much before us. With each photo, you can click and see a much larger image. |
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 The Mirador Basin Project and the site are now supported even by Guatemalan companies and here is a sign listing some. Click to see a larger image. We each made a $50 contribution. |
 By mid-afternoon it was sunny and getting warm, but Barbara kept on going, as did our entire team ... we still had to see the latest discovery, below ... |
 ... and here it is. This is the side of one of the causeways, where in 2009 they found what they now call the "Popol Vuh Relief", made of stucco. It is amazing. And yet a small part of the causeway was explored, and only one side. There could be much more of this on the other side or further along. The photo is a little dark, since it's all protected by black tarps until they can build a more permanent roof to protect it. Larger image if you click. Visit their website for a detailed story. |
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 Around the archeologists' camp and the old heliport, which was abandoned once it was discovered it was in the center of a post-classic acropolis, a fairly "new structure", there were dozens of ocellated turkeys. We used to see many at Tikal some years ago, but not now. Here there were many. |
 More ocellated turkeys (not "oscillated") ... see Wikipedia |
 Out of the heliport, en route to El Mirador, we flew over the island city of Flores, with the old Spanish cathedral on top of its' small hill. Click to see a bigger image. |
 Enrique Hernandez was our excellent guide through the site, here showing details of an old stella, always ready to answer all our questions about El Mirador, the Maya or any other sites. He has worked here 7 years. |
 Aerocentro took a group photo before we left for El Mirador in the morning. What a trip it has been! |
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 Map credit to www.mapasdeguatemala.com From the Heliport, we first explored the archeologists' camp and then went all the way to La Danta. Richard Hansen suggested that we do that early, while we are still fresh and it turned out to be an excellent idea. The staircases constructed to get you to the top are long, but sturdy and excellent. We went on a fairly cool day, overcast in the morning, but by lunch, the sun was up and it was getting warm and we were glad that after lunch we explored the areas closer to the helicopters, a Maya royal palace, the newly discovered "Popol Vuh relief" stucco and the "royal bath" on the side of one of the causeways. By the time people were tired, we were close to our choppers. |
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El Mirador: If you
plan to go, please
study these links before you go, to have an advance idea of what to expect:
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Here, we will post your photos of El Mirador:
Please send me whatever you have: |
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This page is a combination of our photos and a description of the
component parts of our trip to El Mirador: Mirador Basin Project, ran by Dr. Richard Hansen, FARES, the organization that raises money for it, and the helicopter company, the airline and the hotel in Flores. We are not, in any way, connected with them, and this is not an advertising page, but a summary of a successful trip. You can try and get to El Mirador some other way, but it is extremely inaccessible. Unlike at Tikal, where you would be one of several hundred visitors on a given day, here at El Mirador, during our visit, other than our guide, the pilots and security staff, we were the only people at the gigantic site. Our experience in January 2011 with everyone listed here was flawless, everything was well planned, they were helpful and all provided exactly the services they promised, so we can all highly recommend them. |
To contact the author, Tomas Cernikovsky, write to: cernikovsky@hotmail.com
This page was last updated on
01/28/11.