Tikal
Days 25 (July 23, 2018) - Tikal, Guatemala
Tikal is one of the largest sites of Mayan ruins in Central America. Tikal reached its peak somewhere around 200-900 AD, and within a few hundred years afterwards it was completely abandoned. Archaeologists are not sure why, but it was likely a combination of drought and wars. The Tikal site is huge, and only a fraction of the structures have been excavated. Left for only a short time, the jungle/forest takes over the structures. In fact, when we were walking around Tikal, we walked right past some structures without even noticing them (until a subsequent walk through), since they had been overgrown with trees and plants and covered with dirt. They looked just like hills.
Tikal is in the northern part of Guatemala, which means it was a much hotter and stickier climate than Antigua/Panajachel (which is in the south) where we had just come from. We were exhausted after our first day walking around the ruins since we weren't used to hiking in the heat, nor were we used to hiking up temple steps.
Walking around Tikal, there were two very strong smells: allspice and garlic (sometimes separate, sometimes together). There were allspice trees all over the place, and the allspice berries had dropped to the ground where they were trampled by people, releasing the strong allspice smell. It smelled really good. There was also a tree that was shedding flowers all over the ground, and these flowers when crushed by walking over them released a strong garlic/onion sort of smell. I thought it smelled kind of like onion soup, but Mark thought it just smelled bad.
We were in Tikal for one full day and two half-days. We attempted to do a sunrise and sunset tour, but it was too cloudy during the sunset tour, and too foggy during the sunrise tour. The sunrise tour was so foggy we could see the other temples only fleetingly as the fog rolled through. I call the picture below "Hint of Temple."
The one cool thing about the sunrise tour was you could hear the howler monkeys on either side of the temple as the jungle started to get light. If you've never heard a howler monkey before, they sound like vicious beasts that could eat you. But they're just a small to medium sized black monkey with impressive vocal production. Here's a video of the howler monkeys at dawn:
Tikal is famous in pop culture for a scene from Star Wars Episode IV, where the Millennium Falcon is landing at a rebel base. The scene was shot from the top of Temple IV, the biggest temple in Tikal. Compare the movie shot below with our picture.
Many travelers normally visit Tikal for a day trip from Antigua, which is quite the grueling journey. They have to take a 10 hour overnight bus, followed by a full day of hiking around Tikal, and then another 10 hour overnight bus back to Antigua. We were all set to take the overnight bus, but got lucky and found a plane fare that was only $25 more per person than the bus. It would've been exhausting doing the bus route. We unexpectedly met someone (Thomas) from our Spanish school in Antigua at the top of Temple IV who was in the process of this "day" trip to Tikal. Small world.
 |
| Temple I at Tikal |
Tikal is one of the largest sites of Mayan ruins in Central America. Tikal reached its peak somewhere around 200-900 AD, and within a few hundred years afterwards it was completely abandoned. Archaeologists are not sure why, but it was likely a combination of drought and wars. The Tikal site is huge, and only a fraction of the structures have been excavated. Left for only a short time, the jungle/forest takes over the structures. In fact, when we were walking around Tikal, we walked right past some structures without even noticing them (until a subsequent walk through), since they had been overgrown with trees and plants and covered with dirt. They looked just like hills.
Tikal is in the northern part of Guatemala, which means it was a much hotter and stickier climate than Antigua/Panajachel (which is in the south) where we had just come from. We were exhausted after our first day walking around the ruins since we weren't used to hiking in the heat, nor were we used to hiking up temple steps.
Walking around Tikal, there were two very strong smells: allspice and garlic (sometimes separate, sometimes together). There were allspice trees all over the place, and the allspice berries had dropped to the ground where they were trampled by people, releasing the strong allspice smell. It smelled really good. There was also a tree that was shedding flowers all over the ground, and these flowers when crushed by walking over them released a strong garlic/onion sort of smell. I thought it smelled kind of like onion soup, but Mark thought it just smelled bad.
 |
| Selfie in front of some ruins |
 |
| Picture looking out the back of a palace doorway. Whoever lived there had a pretty good view. |
 |
| Some ruins. |
 |
| Mark and a tree. |
We were in Tikal for one full day and two half-days. We attempted to do a sunrise and sunset tour, but it was too cloudy during the sunset tour, and too foggy during the sunrise tour. The sunrise tour was so foggy we could see the other temples only fleetingly as the fog rolled through. I call the picture below "Hint of Temple."
 |
| View of one of the temples during the sunrise tour (the dark spot just left of center). |
The one cool thing about the sunrise tour was you could hear the howler monkeys on either side of the temple as the jungle started to get light. If you've never heard a howler monkey before, they sound like vicious beasts that could eat you. But they're just a small to medium sized black monkey with impressive vocal production. Here's a video of the howler monkeys at dawn:
Tikal is famous in pop culture for a scene from Star Wars Episode IV, where the Millennium Falcon is landing at a rebel base. The scene was shot from the top of Temple IV, the biggest temple in Tikal. Compare the movie shot below with our picture.
Many travelers normally visit Tikal for a day trip from Antigua, which is quite the grueling journey. They have to take a 10 hour overnight bus, followed by a full day of hiking around Tikal, and then another 10 hour overnight bus back to Antigua. We were all set to take the overnight bus, but got lucky and found a plane fare that was only $25 more per person than the bus. It would've been exhausting doing the bus route. We unexpectedly met someone (Thomas) from our Spanish school in Antigua at the top of Temple IV who was in the process of this "day" trip to Tikal. Small world.
The comparison photo of the Star Wars movie to your camera landscape is remarkable. You guys are have a great time on your journey adventures. Continue enjoying every moment -Uncle John and Aunt Carol
ReplyDelete