A conversation trip through the heart of the Maya Route: The call of nature

The conversation lasted less than an hour and a half, but the time was enough for Julian to describe hundreds of miles of highways and rural roads, the La Pasión river and 21 years of living close to the Mexican border, where his wish to have something of his own and share it with others faces the continuous onslaught of flora and fauna in El Petén.

First stop: Municipal Fair, June 1975

The inicial investment of 50 dollars was all Julian and Margot, his wife, needed to start a Taco business during three days at the Municipal Fair in Sayajché. The result: Three times the amount of money invested, a few plates and forks and the beginning of an adventure which continued two months later.

SECOND STOP: CAFETERIA LA MONTANA

Grandfather's land served to start Cafetería La Montana, where the "mochileros" (backpackers) passed by. In Sayajché there was no one like Julian to explain to visitors what the place was all about. Taking the spectators chair, but being the leading actor, he talks about trips to the river, to Petexbatún Lake, Ceibal, Dos Pilas and other archeological sites.

THIRD STOP

During six years, between occasional trips and taco and enchiladas sales, the business survived until the coup of General Romeo Lucas García. Until that year, eco-tourism was being talked about and the international visitors began returning again to Guatemala. While his wife waited tables at the cafetería, Julián accumulated experience taking tourists on water routes. Back then, there was no road from Sayajché to Cobán. The river was the road and it took two days to reach Sebol. A motor boat and some sheets of plastic to cover up was all the equipment necessary. And of couse, visitors didn't ask too much for the money they were paying. Anyway, not many believed in what Julian came to tell in the city. " We thought tourism was going to improve and we wanted to build an Eco-Hotel. No bank would give us credit and nobody would pay attention to what we had to say."

FINAL STOP: POSADA CARIBE 1996

Tourist trips, a Hotel and La Motana Restaurant are now the businesses the Marionas developed in the middle seventies, twenty- some years ago, when many considered them crazy.

In the beginning, a river trip included $1 in tents. Later came the idea of building Posada Caribe at the Petexbatún lake. A kitchen, a dining room, and a rancho to hang hammocks and pitch tents, as well a a bathroom had to be built. There was no money, but with the help of the family they tranformed the camp into a conservation hotel, with wooden floors and screens on the windows. "What are you doing, Julian?" he asked himself more than once, especially, when money was scarce. He makes it seem like nothing now, when he describes the time and work dedicated to each of the 12 cabins where 30 people can stay at a time.

BUT THE JORNEY DOES NOT END

Each time he comes to the city he looks for new business relations. People are not going to travel to an unknown hotel in the middle of the jungle. Who will know that Posada Caribe exists in such a nice place if we do not tell them about it? The trip from the city to Petén is 45 minutes, by plane; from the airport to Sayajché one must travel about 30 miles, to the river. Up the river there is Ceibal, by the Petexbatúbatún. From there you can visit other archeological sites.