Flores and the Mayan Ruins of Tikal

Trip Start Aug 20, 2011
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Trip End Dec 29, 2011


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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Our last epic travel day - thank god! Another bum-numbing 10 hours - we arrived in the island town of Flores just as they were celebrating their "chasing out the devil" ceremony, which seemed to involve setting off fireworks outside houses and shops, and burning effigies of Lucifer as a cleansing ritual in advance of Christmas. And apparently a bloody good excuse for a street party! :-)

After our Antiguan adventures we had a quiet day here catching up with ourselves, in anticpation of our next Mayan site, Tikal.

A very early start meant we got there for sunrise, and had breakfast on the top of the second largest temple, looking out over the site - quite spectacular, as you could hear the jungle coming alive and the howler monkeys barking away at the same time.

Tikal is famous for having the biggest restored temples in the Mayan world, with many more as yet unexcavated, and is another huge site which was completely taken over by the jungle after the site was abandoned. Impressive!

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