Mayan Cities

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I have to say that so far this trip has been amazing. I have seen so many fabulous things in the last week I'm going into overload. The weekend was no exception. I visited three amazing sites of acient Mayan cities and all I can say is WOW. But I will start from the beginning.

I travelled with a fellow student from school, Regina who is from the USA. She was pretty cool and very interesting. We flew into to Flores which is in the north of Guatemala on Friday night. Basically nothing to really share with you for Friday. Pretty boring actually. Just went to hotel and slept. But up bright and early Saturday for a big day. We met up with our guide, Dieter at a small resturaunt then headed to our first. Dieter is an archietect who works on one of the Mayan sites so he was full of really good information about the process of excavation and what we are looking at. The first site we visited was quite small, La Blanca. It is a reasonably new excavation site with minimal work done. There wasn't to much uncovered at this stage but it was a good introduction to the beginning of the process. We then moved to Yaxha. Yaxha was only discovered 12 years ago so only a small amount has been uncovered but it is massive. We spent several hours walking around the site. Dieter showed us everything from the site to where the workers live. He explained how to recognise what the buildings are that are yet to be uncovered also how many doors they have without seeing the actual building. He explained the different stages and how to recognise the classic period building to the post classic. It was a really good learning experience. I am now an expert, ok I'll be honest I'm not really an expert but I feel that little bit more intelligent now.

In the afternoon we decided to cool down with a swim in Lago de Peten Itza which was so refreshing. Then dinner in Flores followed by a slide show about Mayan sites and civilisation by Dieter. That was very educational.

On Sunday we headed to Tikal. Tikal was first settled around 700 BC and was abandoned around 900 AD. No one actually knows why this happened but there are many theories, non of which have been proven. Tikal was rediscovered in 1848 and in 1881 the process of liberating it from the jungle began. To date only 30% has been uncovered but it is a slow process and the area is massive, approx. 550-sq-km. Following our very good introduction into Mayan building and given the information of what to look for we decided not to get a tour guide for Tikal and do it alone. I was really cool because Tikal is still in the Jungle and only part of the jungle has been cleared from the site. Walking along the paths to the various buildings you can see and hear many things. The best part was watching the spider monkeys swinging in the trees. There where many ruins and we climbed several of the temples. The view was amazing especially seeing several of the temples peak above the trees. I'm not going to describe everything, you can check out the photos for that. But I would highly recomend taking a visit and if you can make sure you do the tour the day before with Dieter because it makes it all the more interesting.

Anyway after several hours in Tikal we headed back to Flores, had a quick dip in the lake then caught the flight back to Antigua. It was an exhausting weekend but well worth it.

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Photos

View from the top of Temple 4
How cool is the buildings coming out of the jungle top?

The workers at Yaxha.
This is their kitchen and dining area.

Climbing the temple in El Mundo Perdido
El Mundo Perdido means The Lost World.

Hanging out in Central Acropolis
This place was massive. Really impressive