Tikal

BE SURE TO VIEW THE EXTRA PHOTOS ON THE BOTTOM OF THIS TEXT!! ************************************************

Today we woke up at 4am and by 5am we were out the door to pick up Lydia, Max and Ivy and head out to the airport. We arrived at the airport at 6:05am for our 6:30am domestic flight to Tikal. Much to our surprise, we were told that we couldn´t board the plane because they had closed the doors at 5:55am. We missed our flight by 10 minutes. Not a great start.

After pondering our options, we were put on the 10am flight, so we had over 3 hours to kill at the airport. We wound up having Pollo Campero breakfast and chatted for a while before making our way to the gate. It was here that we realized that even if we would´ve arrived just in time to check in for our morning flight, we still wouldn´t have had time to make it because of all of the time consuming obtacles that came after check-in.

In trying to go from the main lobby through the doors that led to the gates, they wouldn´t let us in because we hadn´t paid the airport tax. The lady at the counter didn´t tell us about any tax, so we were perplexed and had to go back and ask her. She then told us we had to go to a different counter to pay the tax. So, we did.

Then they let us through the doors, but also had to go through security where we had to take off our shoes - we had hiking boots on - so that took a while to take them off, get screened, and put them back on. Then we had to find our gate, which wound up to be the last one and took us some time to get to. We would´ve never made our morning flight. It just wasn´t in the cards for us. We were disappointed about having to cut the zip line part out of our day, which was scheduled for that morning at 9am, but knew that things happen for a reason so kept optomistic - maybe someone was going to get hurt and that´s why this happened. And the main reason for going to El Peten in the first place was to visit Tikal, and that was still in play, so we would be fine.

We finally made it on the plane, and 45 minutes later landed in El Peten. It felt like walking into a sauna while getting off the plane. We were greeted by Noemy, Mike´s niece, who drove us to the hotel to drop off our things and where our driver and prívate guide awaited us. An hour drive into the Guatemalan rain forest jungle later, we were in Tikal.

Hiking through the jungle from temple to temple and pyramid to pyramid, in humid 90 degree weather was not the exhausting experience we thought it would be - compared to the Pacaya Volcano hike, this was easy. We climbed some of the smaller pyramids, and then made our way to Temple IV or the "Star Wars” temple, like Lydia kept referring to it.

I was surprised to find a set of wooden stairs on the side of the temple to climb to the top, since the last time I was there one could still climb the actual temple steps on the front. But, up the wooden stairs we went, and then arrived at the top to, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful views on earth. Nothing but a sea of green with the tops of the Temple of the Masks and the Temple of the Great Jaguar peaking out through the tree tops. Such a serene scene. And the best part: we were the only ones there! There was no one else in sight. We had the entire place to ourselves. At one point the 5 of us were just sitting on the uppermost steps (with the exception of Lydia who stayed on the bottom stairs because of her fear of heights), just admiring the view, completely silent. Although it was my 4th time visiting Tikal, that spot still amazed me just the same as the first time.

We stayed there for about half an hour, and then made our way down to continue our trek and climb some more and make it to the Great Plaza. On the way, we spotted toucans, spider monkeys, pizotes, an agute, and heard the howls of the howler monkeys, which sounded more like lion roars.

Then we made it to the Great Plaza and once again, there was no one in sight! We had the entire plaza all to ourselves! It was about 4pm by this time, so all the tourists who got there in the morning were already gone, since the park closes at 6pm. We were so high on the fact that we were in such an amazing place all alone that we got a little creative and silly with our picture taking. Max captured some really good ones, so can´t wait for him to download them and share. There´s a group photo of all of us jumping in the air in front of the Temple of the Great Jaguar that I want to see.

This is the reason why we missed our morning flight. All the other times I´ve visited Tikal, there´s always been people everywhere and you´re trying to get good photos without other people in them. This was the first time I´ve experienced it completely empty. And what an awesome experience it was! Experiencing my culture like this was truly amazing. Can´t quite explain it. Guess you had to be there.

After having our fun, we left Tikal at around 5:30pm and went back to the hotel to shower and have dinner (a very yummy one, I may add), and get some rest. Another early morning flight back to the city tomorrow and don´t want to miss that one.

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