Day 74 - Tikal

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The day began on the bus up from Guatemala City that had been our bed for the night. Just before we reached our final destination of Flores, an island town in northern Guatemala, the bus stopped by a minibus parked at the side of the road who it turned out was offering free hotel drop-offs (the bus station isn't on the island). We took that offer, and also paid for a ride to Tikal from the same company, which was obviously the idea. But it all worked out extremely well - we had time to make ourselves feel human again after the overnight bus trip, and before we knew it we were heading to Tikal.

Tikal is a site of Mayan ruins, of what were once pretty magnificent temples and such like, in the middle of the jungle. Coming here was one of the top few things we absolutely HAD to do on our round-the-world trip, and so we were understandably excited. Seeing the place first hand was really, really amazing. It's another of those experiences that is impossible to do justice by writing about it or with a few photos. It's just so hard to believe that it was possible to build these things such a long time ago, and that they have survived so well. Some of it is over 2000 years old, and the massive temples are about 1500 years old.

Apparently, in the mid-nineteenth century the Guatemalan government decided to try and find the place, which they only knew about through stories handed down through the generations. So 2 diligent chaps headed off into the jungle and duly found them. This is impressive in itself when you can be 50ft away from a building and have no clue that it's there. The complex includes a lot of buildings, but the main ones are 6 temples, the tops of which are above the top of the jungle canopy. We found ourselves imagining these 2 explorers having their first 'wow' moment when they found an ancient temple in the undergrowth, and then having a second and much bigger 'wow' moment when they climbed it and immediately saw 5 more!

We climbed several of the temples and never felt bored or that we were repeating ourselves - each one is a very different experience. Hopefully some of the photos give an idea of what it was like. Another highly recommended place to visit.

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Comments

[Paul]

Places to go
I think I should add these ruins and this area to my list of places to go.