TIKAL - Guatemala.

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Sunday 5th September

We left San Ignacio and headed for Tikal. Firstly we had to do a border control to get into Guatemala. Security is a bit severe here as the policemen look like they are ready for war and the old Guatemalan guy in front of us in the queue has a 3ft wooden baton for protection. from what? im asking. Welcome to Guatemala!
We had to change bus on the other side plus we got our money changed by street trader as we no longer need belize dollars. Its added to the confusion as we've gone from peso's, Belize $ and now to Guatemalan Quetzals. Oh we have some american $'s too.

Tikal is only 45 minutes away and our bus driver has been great by telling us about the severe weather in the south and the damage to the roads that have occurred. Looks like we're in a spot of bother in regards our next stop after here as there has been landslips and broken roads across the country.

We've arrived at the Jaguar Inn which is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala. The site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park and in 1979 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We will be doing a sunrise tour of the site tomorrow. Looking forward to it.
Our hotel is nice, quiet and isnt a wooden cabana!! woohoo!! nice concrete solid walls..!!
We had some chicken toasties for lunch and had a wee wander around. nothing here outside the site apart from another hotel. however lots of exotic birds fly around us and there's black squirrels, wild turkeys and Aguti's. Agutis look like long-legged guinea-pigs, they are actually relatives of the guinea-pigs. They taste fine apparently, a bit like pork! shame..😊 We are being met by our guide at 6am, so another early night and hopefully no insects!!

Monday 6th September

Woke up feeling great!! good sleep for me, bad one for jill. Apparently there were noisy birds at the window all night, i wouldnt have heard them with my hearing aids out and my ear plugs in!!
We met our guide, Lewis, along with 20 other people, most of them Israelis. Off we go and within two minutes we've encountered agutis and white nosed coati's. Then we see some wild turkeys and Oropendola's which are the noisy ones that kept jill awake all night. At the gates we are met by armed guards with shotguns which are protection against jaguars and poachers. Our guide lewis speaks very good english and gives us a quick talk on what our route today will consist of and also the do's and dont's.

Tikal is only 20% excavated and the city has been completely mapped and covers an area greater than 16 square kilometres (6.2 sq mi) that included about 3000 structures.
Population estimates for Tikal vary from 20,000 to as high as 90,000 inhabitants. Evidence suggests early settlement as long as 2000bc but most of the buildings we see today are 400bc to 900ad.

Unlike the two previous mayan sites we've visited, you can climb the tombs and temples here when available. Our first stop was complex Q. There are 7 such complexs that consist of a twin pyramid system and were built as cerimonial structures. Built in pairs to symbolise male and female they also have 9 stelae or pillars in front of each one. The theory here is that each pillar represents the moon cycle of 20 days.
So really 2 pyramids X 9 pillars at 20 days = 360 days. each pillar catches the sun and moon at different times of the year. ring any bells? And of course the accoustics are evident here at the bottom of the steps. Clapping = quetzal bird chirp. High priests would stand on these temples covered from head to toe in feathers and crytals such as jade and when the sun passed through them it cast a elaborate shadow and rainbow colours down the steps. Only royals and high members were allowed up on the top of temples.

Anyway we climbed the steps with much effort as they are steep all right...there's a sense of power standing on the top when you gaze down below and across the tree tops. We could see a couple of temples in the distance not to mention 2 funny shaped hills in front of us. We walked past these mounds and it became clear that these mounds are the same as the temple that we had just been on only unexcavated! See photos to see what i mean. Wow, there are a lot of such mounds yet to be dug out and researched as the forest and soil has claimed them...for now...

Moving on we start to walk on the mendez causeway that the mayans built here to connect the temples. There are 4 or 5 causeways and they are still visible. Made from plaster and rocks and in places 30 ft wide. They know it was probually used in the transporting of building materials around Tikal with the use of wooden rollers.

As we approached our first temple we could see the sheer size of the thing poking through the trees before us. Temple I or the Great Jaguar Temple. It looked awesome and it was only a taster of what was to come. Please read photo discription for additional information on certain temple's.

Behind the Jaguar temple I we have the Great Plaza with the North Acropolis and Central Acropolis either side of it. At the opposite side of the plaza from temple I was temple II, also known as temple of the masks due to the masks that can been partially seen on the facade.
Temple II is just as impresssive as temple I and is very similar except its slightly smaller. We climbed up the wooden stairs of temple II and the views were beautiful. We could see the whole plaza in its glory and both the acropolis's. We then walked over to the central acropolis ourselves as our guide had given us all 30 minutes exploring time. On the way to this area we bumped into another white nosed coati just playing around in the grass oblivious to us bumbling past. The central acropolis has many hidden rooms and levels to explore and has a great veiw of the little ball courts next to the jaguar temple.
Next we climbed to the top of the north acropolis across the plaza and its a fair slog i can tell you. Not only is the sun basking down, the steps are so close together and steep that you have to have your wits about you as some of the steps are rubble and slippy. We made it up to the top and took a few snaps. Cant help but wonder what the constant roaring, howling noise is, i mean its deafening. The roar sounds like a big cat but it turns out its the famous howling monkeys that they have here and they are very territorial. Two monkeys are directly above us in the tree's having a right old battle with their howls!!

Its worth noting here that this is when my day changed. In my wisdom i tried to climb up a steep embankment to get a good photo of the howlers, I slipped out of my flip flops through the front because my feet were wet with sweat and in the process ripped them clean apart. great! nice skills leon!! So the next 5 hours of the tour would be bare foot for me! That's what i get for buying cheap hookie flip flops!! Jill hit the nail on the head by saying 'thats more authentic a tour than anyone else here'. The Mayans got about on bare foot so if its good enough for them its good enough for me! The pain of walking on sticks, stones, rocks and leaves wasn't as bad as i had thought as the buzz of seeing these magnificent structures and anticipating what was next kept me going.

We all regrouped and i had some stares from various people in the group who had 'crazy scotsman' written on their faces. ah well.
Off to temple V next. Wow this structure is the second tallest in Tikal. built 700ad, Temple V stands south of the Central Acropolis and is the mortuary pyramid of an as yet unidentified ruler. Excavated in 1996 completed 2005. The before and after photo's of this work in the nearby info board had to be seen to believed. Nearly 60 metres tall and the wooden steps up the side were so scarey that only a handful of people went up. Of course i did. And what a view you got at the top. You can just see various other temple tops and the panoramic view was awesome. I sat up there for about ten minutes pondering the walk back down the step ladder/stairs with my slippy feet.

Well i made it down and we were off to the next stop. Lewis in his wisdom decided to take a short cut through the jungle which delighted the barefooted one!! I walked with him at the front as he felt sorry for me at this point. Turns out he was guatemalan and a celtic supporter!! could my day get any worse?! 😊 Anyway he told me that leon in mayan means the puma so i was well chuffed, mind you at this point i was flowing like a puma as bare feet is the way to go in rough terrain!! We got carried away and our group were about 5 minutes behind us so we stopped and had a wee chat about football.

Next stop, The Lost World complex. Named so due to the plans that were found under a temple that showed the buildings that were to be built here but they have disappeared or were not built at all. Hence lost. Next to this site excavation was being done on a grand scale. If you see the photo that has the model on it you can see what it will look like when finished in 2015. The 7 temple square will also have a plaza and two ball courts to boast when totally uncovered. This will probually be as grand as the Great plaza when finished as we could already see 6 of the seven temples rising out of the ground and the large covered mounds we walked past hide more splendour. As we were leaving this area we found a snake that wasnt poisonous but then out of nowhere a local came at us with a big black tarantula!! eeek!! i got close as i could stomach and got a couple of photo's. some people let it walk over their hands and arms.

Feet are nipping a bit now. But we are nearly done, only the the showcase temple IV to go. Temple IV is the tallest of all mayan temples in mayan history standing at 230 ft (70m). It was estimated that 60000 mayans took part in the construction of this temple. Looking out from the top of the Temple IV, over the jungle canopy, it is possible to see the Great Plaza and Temple I and II in the distance. This temple was also used in the film star wars as a rebel base! I climbed to the top on the spiral like stairways which took forever and just before the top spider monkeys were playing around in the trees around me. On top the view was amazing as i had almost 270 degree Vieiw above the canopy. I took some movie shots and camera shots and heading back down as the heat was unbearable and my feet were hot on the stones!

At the bottom we had some water and headed for the exit which was a solid half hours walk on rough ground. We arrived back at the shuttle bus at about midday and i got some socks and shoes on. phew!!
We are off to Flores now to stay the night so we can catch our plane to Guatemala City.

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Photos

Us. Temple I in background
taken from top of temple II

Temple I
Built c. 730 AD
Abandoned c. 1450
Height 47 metres.

Pizote
very tame.

Temple V
Excavation started in 1996 and was completed in 2005.

Me and jill
tree is 150 years old. imagine tikal being abandoned for 1000 years. Overgrown!! no wonder 80% of tikal is still to be uncovered.

Temple I (jaguar temple)
known as the Temple of the Great Jaguar because of a lintel that represents a king sitting upon a jaguar throne

Spider
web is 2 ft in diameter.
our room is below. :P

spider
about 4 - 6 inches

Pivert - woodpecker
ther are 240 different species of birds in tikal area.