Tucked away in Tikal (January 13 - 14 2010)

We loved Tikal, having heard so much about it and not being big fans of ancient ruins, we were half expecting to be disappointed, but it wasn’t so.

We left Belize in a shared shuttle, crossing the border was hassle free and it was good to be back in Guatemala. We had filled our belize in Belize with good food and whilst Guatemala is definitely our favourite country of the three, the one thing we weren’t looking forward to was the cuisine!. The landscape on the way here was bush that had been cleared for cattle ranching. Cowboy hats were present again, the road was rougher, hoses poorer, infinitely more dangerous but we both felt comfortable.  We were now in El Peten, north eastern Guatemala.

When we crossed into the park proper, we entered primary forest that had never been felled. The habitat of jaguar, snakes, monkeys, pumas, wild pigs, innumerable birds ( including the native oscillated turkey). It is the second largest oxygen producer in the America’s after the Amazon basin, so lots of fresh air was on the cards.

We had elected to stay at Tikal itself, most tourists come in for the day from the towns about 40 kilometres away, but we decided it would be much more fun, if not quite as comfortable! We were to overnight at the Jaguar Inn, right at the site and deep in the jungle. We knew that there was no electricity between 9pm and 6am, and hot water for only a few hours a day, but this didn’t prepare us for the darkness and the complete silence when the lights actually did go out and the generators stopped!

Our plan was to visit the site twice – once at dusk and again at dawn, so at 4pm we headed in, expecting a well laid out tourist friendly site probably a bit like Chitzen Itza. It was so much better than that, you walked along tracks in the deep jungle and it was only by accident that we stumbled across the Gran plaza after 45 minutes of hunting, it was a real adventure (yet again). There are all sorts of dire warnings of attacks when wandering round with few people about (yet another rule broken……). And the lack of other people was slightly unnerving, we couldn’t find any other people to stay close too even if we had wanted…. But we were both concerned and comforted finally by the sight of a couple of armed guards at the Gran Plaza casually dressed in jeans and baseball caps – well we assume they were official guards….. The trees were enormous, mahogany and ceiba with vines hanging down and monkeys playing high in the canopy. Then a second layer of palms and finally ground level bush. Our first visit then just centred around the Gran Plaza – the main central religious area with two huge pyramids facing each other and an acropolis on either side. We made the climb up Temple Two – there is a rickety staircase up the side – placed there after a couple of people fell to their deaths climbing them. The views were stunning, the pyramid tops poking up above the tree canopy. By now it was getting dark so we made our way back out of the heavy jungle back to our resting place. On our way we came across a family of Caoites, making their way home and also a large number of wild turkeys. Back at the Jaguar Inn we were the only people staying in the rooms but a couple of the tents they also provide were taken. So we had a rather surreal evening drinking reasonable wine, drinking the best hot chocolate (well the jungle can get chilly in the evening….) and eating reasonable food outside with these amazing jungle sounds going on in the background. The other tables were filled with tour guides who obviously sleep up there playing dominoes and cards for money…. We creep back to our rooms after 9pm so only had Ant’s torch and a candle to guide us on our way….. We giggled for a while in our hammocks and then went to bed when the noises got too scary!

Like true ruin troopers, we were up again at dawn (6am) in order to get into the site, before others arrived, This time we want to climb temple 4 and 5. Temple 4 is the 2nd highest pre-Columbian structure in the western hemisphere. Gill did well to conquer her fear of heights, edges and ladders to get to the top. It was used in Star Wars as a set for something, but as neither of us had ever seen the films, this was lost on us. The morning mist was still hanging in the canopy below us, the bird’s dawn chorus filled the air, spider monkeys swaying in the branches below, a magical time. Temple 5 defeated Gill, it is precipitous with just a swaying vertical wooden ladder to climb. It was all she could do to look at Ant through squinted eyes as he reached the top and looked like a real ant….! There were a number of people at the top clinging on for dear life. Again, the views were awesome.

We wandered around some of the remoter sites, feeling that we should, but by this time our hearts were more interested in breakfast. Right at this time we spotted Elliot and Emma, who we had first met 5 weeks ago in Pana, and again in San Cristobal, Palenque, Progreso, bus station at Chetumal, Belize City and now here! Amazing coincidences. It was great to see them and arrange to meet for a drink this evening.

As we said earlier, we really enjoyed Tikal, it was a special place and leaves other Mayan sites in the shade.