Tikal

The day before our wedding, we traveled across the border to Guatemala to visit the ancient ruins of Tikal. The Cartwrights and my sis and bro-in-law, Beth and Henry, attended while my mom and lil sis stayed behind and went snorkeling and kayaking. We began our journey by meeting up with Emiliano, our guide, at 4:00 A.M. UG!!! We recevied travel mugs of coffee and set out in to the dark morning. We arrived at the border a couple hours later and ate breakfast while our 2nd guide presented our passports and cleared us for crossing.

We then walked across the border and hopped into another van headed for Tikal. The ride was interesting. The eastern and northern parts of Guatemala are remote and unpopulated, compared to the millions living on the Pacific side. Despite the low population density, I was dismayed at how much rainforest had been cleared for cattle grazing. Almost the entire way from the border to the entrance of Tikal was cleared. We passed 3 large lakes along the way too. The one pictured below is actually a popular tourist attraction.

After a really long drive, we finally arrived at Tikal and embarked on a several hike through the ruins. The best wildlife were the numeroud coatamundis wandering the grounds. They were not shy at all and we even witnessed 2 spatting at each other, which, despite their best intentions of looking mean, are incredibly cute!




My impression of Tikal is beyond words, and I believe that sentiment is shared by all. It was magical and wonderous, beyond belief really. I took close to 200 pictures and Randy took at least a dozen videos. Basically around every corner was more and more impressive structures with the finale being a couple of temples about 130 feet high! We climbed all over the central plaza. Climbing is so tiring becuase the steps are very steep and each one may be a couple feet high, so each step is basically a lunge/squat. The granddaddy of them all had steps that were close to vertical; the wooden steps built for people to climb was basically a ladder (below). It was about a 75 degree angle and you had to walk backwards to get down. I actually got vertigo at the top looking straight down off the narrow ledge. Only Randy and I climbed that one. Talk about shaky legs!

The stairway to heaven!


And from the top looking down:

View from the top of the world:

One of the largest temples:

The temples undergo regular maintenance to clean off the vegetation and restoration is an uongoing process.
Many of the temples are only exposed on one side because once it is exposed, the structure must be maintained all the time.

It was unnerving the see the men working on the scaffolding with no safety measures.




All in all, FABULOUS!

Here is a clip of the grand plaza: (our video camera is amazing, but the converted files are not as crisp as the original)