Deb's Travels: Tikal

I had a great last couple of days in Costa Rica!

I finished my Spanish classes on Friday with a 93% on my final exam and enjoyed my last day by the pool in the sun on Saturday. I had to check out of my little house on Saturday morning so I spent my last night in Hotel Belvedere again. It’s a really nice little hotel run by a lovely German couple in a great location…I was also relieved to be back in town so that I could have the freedom again to run in and out as I want. I was super proud of my self yesterday too…I went into town 4 times: for lunch, ice cream, dinner and a little shopping. I had entire conversations in Spanish each time! What a difference in my speaking skills after only two weeks, I was beyond surprised and happy to be able to communicate so much easier.

Sunday was a long day. I left Samara at 8:30am and 2 flights later I finally arrived in Guatemala City at 9:30pm. I started my day with a 6 hour wait at Liberia airport because the cheap tourist shuttle from Samara to the Airport only left at 9am and I didn't want to pay a fortune for a cab. I ended up laying my towel out on the grass in front of the airport and read/suntanned for 2 hours...I'm sure I looked ridiculous. Then when I was overheated, I moved to a table by a little cafe until I could check in for my first 16:50 flight to El Salvador That was followed by a 2 hour layover and finally a 45 min flight to Guatemala City.

I stayed in an airport hotel because I had a flight at 6:30am into Flores.... which is where I currently am! Well, not Flores, but about an hour north in the Tikal National Park.

Tikal is a UNESCO world heritage site and there area couple small hotels located right in the national park which is where I’m staying to take advantage of being able to see things at sundown and sunrise. I usually skip sunrise stuff, as I am not a morning person, but here will I make an exception! I’m doing that tomorrow morning.

Tikal is the mother of all Mayan ruins! It's pretty amazing!

It is located in North Eastern Guatemala and is one of many monuments of the Maya that survived to this day and one of the largest cities located in the province of El Peten in Guatemala. It is also a part of Tikal National Park.

Located deep in the jungle, it’s temples are uncovered and partially restored but to travel between them in the vast complex you walk through a dense rainforest canopy that is magical and full of spider monkeys, howler monkeys, foxes, tons of cool birds, turkeys, strange rat/pig hybrids, raccoons with monkey tails...you name it! We even saw a puma!!!

The monkeys make a special effort to defecate on your head...further cementing my long held belief that monkeys are in fact evil.

Wild turkeys!

It represents one of the most impressive architectural achievements of the Maya civilization, being dominated by five sky-scraper-like pyramids each exceeding 60 m in height!!!

Mayan skyscrapers seen poking through the forest.

The Mayans dated the beginning of their history to 3,114 B.C. The Mayans flourished in the Yucatan Peninsula and neighboring areas of what is now Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador until around 800-900 A.D. Tikal's reign abruptly ended when the Mayans abandoned the city... They believe it was due to deforestation and drought.

After it was abandoned, Tikal was enveloped by the jungle and was not be rediscovered until 1848. Since then, only 15 percent of the site has been excavated. The last recorded date on a Tikal monument is 869 A.D.

Tikal was known as Yax Mutul, and that is how it's referred to in hieroglyphic inscriptions. The strange name is explained by the fact that from 1st to 9th century Tikal was a capital of the Mutul Kingdom. This large city occupied the area of 60 square Km with hundreds of stone structures.

Not all of the structures have been excavated yet! Currently, the cleared area of the ancient city covers only 16 square Km, but there is a lot to see there, hence UNESCO including Tikal in its World Heritage List.

There are six step pyramids in the center, each with a temple on the top. In the past the complex housed various palaces, the Acropolis, funeral ritual grounds, and even a prison. The six temple pyramids dominate the skyline, the tallest of which, Temple IV, stands 212 feet high. We are able to climb it by wooden ladders they built along the back side.