Tikal

So, a couple of locals didn't recommend going to Tikal (Mayan Ruins) due to the rainy weather and the safety of flying there but I was thinking planes fly through rain all the time, what's the big deal?! Apparently, it was common for people to take little planes up to Tikal a few years back and there were a lot of plane crashes so I understood their concern now! However, as long as I took a jet, I was good to go. I first went to this place called Spaces, which is a little hard to find but they were recommended by the school. The price she gave me was $330 US plus a 7% charge to pay by credit card. This included a shuttle from Antigua to the Guatemala City airport, shuttle from Flores (town near Tikal) to Tikal, tour guide, lunch and return. Well, I didn't end up booking through Space because I went to another travel agent (LAX Travel) and it was a little cheaper ($10).

My shuttle was to pick me up at 4am which meant I had to be up around 3:30am, yikes! The shuttle (or car) arrives right on time and I make it to the airport around 4:45am. Plenty of time for my 7am flight to Flores which is where you fly into for all Tikal ventures. I must admit the line for Taca Airlines did NOT move fast despite there only being a handful of people in line! However, I make it up to the counter and give the guy my info and he types something into the computer and says, "Okay, that will be $268 dollars." Ummm, I tell him I already paid and he says, you did, I don't have a reservation for you. WHAT?!! Luckily the travel agent gave me his number so we were able to call him and after about 45 minutes everything was sorted out. So, it was a bit of a pain at first and not worth the $10 discount but hey, I'm sure this sort of thing happens all the time, right???

I arrive into Flores and there's a guy with a sign and my name on it. Piece of cake. He leads me to the shuttle bus where we wait for some other passengers to arrive. It total there were about 11 on the tour. All Americans and everyone was soooo nice. I made the mistake of turning around all the time trying to talk to people about what they had done on their trip so far that I got really car sick. I managed to not throw-up but barely!! I think it was about an hour ride into Tikal which wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't felt so sick.

Here is a model of all of Tikal. Only about 12% of it has actually been excavated! A total of about 12,000 Mayan people that once lived in the Tikal area.




Worlds largest caterpillar:


Here is the back of one of the main temples in the central plaza:


You can see me in the bottom, right. These towers are HUGE!


You were able to climb the tower across from the one above and here are the stairs on the side to get to the top. It was only this building and the very last one that had stairs, all the rest you had to climb the actual building to get to the top. :)


View from the top:


Here is a view to the left:


Some of these are sacrificial stones. Apparently, if you were selected to be sacrificed it was a big honor!


Stone carvings:


Gorilla Pod shot:


To the right of the main plaza was the huge village of buildings. Apparently this is where Mayan royalty lived.


Carving into the side of one of the buildings:




We got to see a lot of spider monkeys or rather hear them since they are fast little buggers! I sort of got a pic of one here. :)


Another temple slightly uncovered:


This is a pic of temple 3. You can see it in the background. It basically just looks like a big hill since only the top of this tower is currently excavated:


This is the view from the big temple that over looks all the other ones. You can see the tops of them sticking out of the jungle. Pretty nice view!




It started to pour down rain when I was on the top of the temple and by the time I actually got my rain poncho on it stopped raining! I look like a big dork but I had to post it. :)