Tikal

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I opened my eyes to see a large, hairy spider resting on top of my mosquito net a foot above my face. The sky had lightened slightly, so I carefully slid out from under my bug shelter to check the time. Five forty, time to go to the ruins. We bought tickets and entered with the opening of the gate at ten till six. The plan was to catch the tail end of the sun rise from he top of the tallest temple, templo cuatro, which was located on the opposite side of the archaeological site. It was over a mile away so we decided to get in a nice morning run. Quickly reaching the Mayan temple, we climbed wooden staircase to the top, where we were surprised to see a large group of tourists. They had apparently paid extra to be allowed in at four thirty to see the sunrise. We caught the tail end of their guide's informative talk about the various temples and their significance. They soon left for the rest of their guided tour and we had the view all to ourselves until the other tourists who entered at the standard park opening arrived.

The morning symphony of the birds was accompanied by a roaring contest between several groups of howler monkeys. Their ferocious growls echoed through the trees and temples. We saw an array of morning birds including parrots, toucans, jays, swallows and a bunch others I'm unable to name. Tikal is one of my favorite Mayan sites, with tall, steep temples surrounded by dense jungle with an abundance of monkeys and birds. After six hours of walking around and sitting atop the temples, we headed back to our campsite for brunch. We were very fortunate to get to experience such a popular mayan site with relatively little overcrowding. We were able to relax on top some epic temples in solitude, gazing at the surrounding jungle and other mayan ruins. The time of day, looming rain clouds and good timing all worked in our favor and the stone temples and wildlife we were able to experience were amazing.

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Comments

[Russell Towle]

Great blog!
Hi Ian, Desperado (word related to Spanish verb "esperar," to hope, formed from contract of "de" and "esperado," literally "of - hoped," hence, hopeless. Really neat to have those temples to yourselves on not-so-quiet morning in the jungle. I have barely touched any Mayan temples, although once I played baseball with some Mayan boys, in Yucatan, in which the bat was a tree limb, carefully chosen, and the ball, a rock wrapped in rags ... There are some great hikes aroun here, Ian, I hope to share some with you. Best regards, Russell