Day 11 and 12 - Tikal Ruins

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Day 11 was pretty boring... including a 5am wake up in Lanquin, a 2 hour shuttle to Coban, then a 4.5 hour shuttle to Flores. Once in Flores, I waited about an hour and then head to Tikal to see the Mayan ruins. When I arrived in Tikal, I checked into The Jungle Lodge. This hotel was MUCH more expensive than what I had been paying in hostels, but it's one of three options in Tikal and all are similar prices. I also figured I'd treat myself, as it was the last stop on my trip.

Once I'd checked in, I went to buy my entrance to the park. If you buy it after 3pm, it's good for the following day as well. I then headed straight for one of the temples, where I was told I would find the best view of the setting sun. After 73 giant steps (according to one of the guides), I was at the top and saw a great view of the jungle, other temples and the sunset.

I met a great family while I was up there. They're from Oregon. It was a father (Phillip) and his two daughters (Camille - 14, and Rachel - 10). Rachel was so funny... starting conversation with everyone around her. Very social 10 year old. Both girls were so mature for their ages. Smart girls. For all you Centauri peeps, they reminded me SO much of Erica and Alex Deutchman their first summer at camp. Anyways, I spent the majority of my time in Tikal with these girls. They said I reminded them of a camp counsellor they once had... go figure.

After the sunset, we all walked back to the entrance, said goodbye, and I head for dinner at the restaurant. Next was a shower and bed, as we were meeting back at the park entrance for the sunrise tour at 4:45am.

The next day there were about 60 or 70 people who all went to the sunrise tour. The cool thing about this is that no one else is allowed in the park. It doesn't officially open until 6am and only those on the list for the tour are admitted.

We walked about 30 minutes and then hiked up to the top of temple 4 for the sunrise. Unfortunately the mist was too thick to see the sunrise, but it was still cool to listen to the sounds of the jungle waking up. We were then broken up into smaller groups and given a 3.5 hour tour of the park/ruins. Cool place. There are HUGE temples. Temples which were used in the film Star Wars - Jeturn of the Jedi, during the Ewoks part apparently. Planet Yavin?

In any case, these were HUGE temples. My tour guide at the ruins in Copan said that Copan was like the "Paris" of the Mayan cities... artistic. Tikal is like the "New York" or "Tokyo" of Mayan cities - very big and tall structures. The best part was it being set amongst the jungle. I saw tons of Spider monkeys. Got a video of a whole family of them even.

Cool place.

After this was the bus ride to Flores and then me getting sick. Not fun.

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Comments

[Uncle Waybe]

Hi
Awesome pics, hope you had a great time on your trip. See you soon. Uncle Wayne