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Published: January 28th 2008
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This is my next and final item on my list of "Top Things to Do in Guatemala if You're Visiting for a Short Time." (See Dec 24 entry for my list). Tikal is a national park and an ancient Mayan city with temples dating to 900 BC. That's BEFORE Christ. We're talking OLD.
We had eagerly waited for the Gellerts and Carlos to visit so that we, too, could visit Tikal, as this is one of the more special yet somewhat less accessible trips from Antigua. (That is, you have to fly).
Tikal is an hour's flight up north (to Guatemala's only other airport), and we landed in the afternoon, walked around the lazy town of Flores a bit, then went to a little hotel in a little town called San Jose, not terribly far from Flores. (The actual site of Tikal is about 45 minutes' drive away) We stayed at a little 9-room hotel called Hotel Bahia Taitza, for which I recently posted a recommendation on TripAdvisor.com. Great little hotel, great host, and great pizza!
After a nice pizza dinner and evening playing our newest favorite game, BananaGrams (a gift from Gellerts), we turned in for the
Stelaes
I'm not an expert, but I understand these stelaes record history. Their Long Count method is considered amazingly accurate, accouting for Leap Years and such. night.
The next morning we headed out to see Tikal, and had a great guide to give us all sorts of interesting information about the ruins. Tikal is one of the greatest sites in all of Guatemala - it is amazing that there are (relatively) so few tourists here, unlike the crowds at the Mexican ruins. It was only made public in 1955! As we drove into the national park entrance, we started noticing various road signs warning of the fauna we might encounter. We noticed that the animals got increasingly scary with each sign. (See photos in the following blog entry for photos of the road signs).
There are literally thousands of acres that make up the park, so it can take hours just to see the basic areas of interest. At its peak the city covered about 48 square miles and had a population estimated at 55,000.
We visited the major pyramids of this huge complex, including the iconic Templo I which was on the cover of last July's National Geographic magazine. I LOVED Tikal - there was so much to take in, and I am inspired to learn more about the Mayan culture that
created this.
What I also found absolutely fascinating is that, to date, only 30%!o(MISSING)f the temples have been excavated, so when you walk around the park (which is a jungle filled with lots of animals), you will see these massive dirt hills, under which lie more temples in their natural state (that is, slowly taken over by the jungle). As this is a World Heritage Site, which seeks to preserve a balance of both the cultural AND natural treasures, they will never exceed a 50%!e(MISSING)xcavation rate, keeping half of the temples in their current natural state with their trees and wildlife in place, and the other half excavated to show the Mayan culture. How cool is that!?
In typical Guatemalan style, which is to say you'd NEVER get away with this in the US, there are these super rickety wooden ladders/stairs which lead you up several temples. I climbed the ladder up Templo II and almost started hyperventilating at about 60 feet, when I realized that a fall from the ladder would, in fact, kill me. I knew I needed to just push aside that little thought and "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming" (
Finding Nemo) and
See the hill here?
Underneath the centuries of jungle life lies a Mayan temple. climb the next 20 feet. When I got to the top (yeah! I'm still alive!), I looked over and saw this 70-year old Mayan woman, in her traditional skirt and sensible little pumps, getting ready to head down the ladder. Sheesh, these people are STURDY.
Both Tamara and I had had about the same experience climbing up, so when it came time to descend, we turned our bodies around, ship-ladder style, and slowly but steadily decended the stairs. At times I wanted to shut my eyes because the mere sight of our situation was just so DANGEROUS. With every step down I comforted myself with "well, at
this level l'll only break my neck...at
this level maybe just a bunch of broken bones...at
this level I'll just land on that little Mayan lady..."
Needless to say, we overcame our head games and made it down safely. Further along the path, we came upon a vista that was the spot where George Lucas filmed his temple scene showing where Luke Skywalker and Han Solo got their medals for their heroic deeds performed, presumably, somewhere in these Guatemalan jungles. That was Templo IV, which is also the tallest pyramid in
Close up of a stela
This one is in excellent shape, and is something like 2,000+ years old! the bunch, 70 meters, or over 210 feet. The view from this temple is unlike any other; it rises above the jungle canopy and looks over the jungle, and then, in the distance, you see the tops of Templos I and II poking out. It's an amazing sight, and makes you marvel at the engineering skills of the ancient Mayans.
This temple featured a new set of stairs which apparently opened only the week before. Nick was curious about the footings of the structure, because there was no visible means of attaching the footings for the stairs. Ha ha! but up we went! Perhaps they were just stuck to the side of the temple with paste, or possibly held by gravity but certainly no bolts.
That night the kids swam in the warm lake until it was almost too dark to see them! It's really true: kids are always happy in warm water.
The next day we had some time to kill before our plane left, so we went to the Ixpanpajul Nature Reserve, where the Gellerts took in a guided horse tour, and the Trautmans and Carlos rode the zip lines through the jungle. We are
View of the Grand Plaza from Tempo II
(I took this photo only after recovering my wits from the climb up the rickety stairs.) In the center of the plaza you see a cement circle where today's Mayans still hold religious ceremonial fires. becoming fans of these zip lines, they are soooo fun! (Wheeee, I can fly!)
NOTE: We've since gone back. For more blog on Tikal plus Yaxha, please see
Steve's entry where he took his mom, as well as
mine, where my brother Eric and I went. Bonus: one of them features a snake!
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