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Published: February 21st 2007
Tikal Mayan Ruins, Guatemala
The money shot of the most famous Mayan ruin.What an action packed few days we have had!
We have visited the most important Mayan ruins in the world, flown through the canopy of the Guatamalan jungle placing all our faith in two carabeenas and climbed an active volcano 2000m above sea level!
I believe we last left you at Caye Caulker after our wonderful floating adventures on the pure azure of the Caribbean Sea, so let me go on from there...
We left Caye CAulker the next morning on a speed boat, passing solo mansions on picture perfect islands complete with cruisers parked out the front beside the jetty and made all the more impossibly mega rich hide'out by the small plane landing on the personal air strip!
From the terminal at Belize City, we boarded a bus for the 6 odd hour trip into Guatamala. The border crossing was something else - police with massive guns, hawkers, illegal money changers, all to be navigated in the boiling hot sun without shade.
We arrived in the picturesque town of Flores in the late afternoon where we were left to wander the cobblestone streets, soaking in the lovely atmosphere and sunset
Standing on top of the Mayan world
A view from the top of the highest pyramid in Tikal. over the lake. Flores is a town built on an island in the middle of a lake, mainly due to the lack of biting insects, something we were eternally grateful for.
The next morning, we headed out at about 6:30 to the ruins which were about 1hr away. The Tikal ruins are still deeply embedded in the jungle so our half day tour saw us doing a little bush bashing through jungle only to come across a partially unearthed Mayan ruin from 700AD! Spider monkeys jumping through the canopy, Howler Monkeys bellowing their haunting calls and the magnificent Toucan were just some of the animals we encountered.
There were many that you could climb ' the highest allowed us to see the whole 16km2 complex from above, it was a big climb up almost vertical steps but it was well worth it! You could see the main 4 refurbished/unearthed temples from there, the peaks sprouting out from the canopy - absolutely awesome!
After our ruin adventure, we headed to a different part of the jungle to have a go at the 2.3km zipline through the canopy - absolutely freaking brilliant!! To start, you had to climb a
Toucan
Dougo was very excited to see this toucan high in the canopy at the Tikal ruins. Lovin´the telephoto lens! vertical ladder up the side of the tree to about 30m above the ground. Then your harness was clipped onto the tree whilst you waited for the others to climb up. Then it was off - hands free, legs free, just you, the wind and the jungle canopy. As we flew through the air, howler monkeys called out to you and the undergrowth rumbled with all sorts of hidden wildlife. It was a really intense, exciting experience, never to be forgotten.
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