Visiting Tikal, the City of Voices
Trip Start
Feb 08, 2008
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48
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Trip End
Aug 2008
Tikal National Park, Guatemala
Monday, July 21, 2008
After a frantic few days of travelling across Guatemala we decided to have a day of rest before embarking on any more adventures, enjoying a good sleep in, a very leisurely breakfast at Cool Beans restaurant, checking emails and, most importantly, trying to get the best deal for our sunrise tour of Tikal the next day. Aware that we would be waking in the middle of the night, we had an early dinner and headed straight for bed. But, as always when under pressure to get precious few hours of sleep, we both tossed and turned in frustration. As the alarm went off at 2:50am, we both agreed that we had managed a mere 2 or 3 hours and our eyes were barely open as we left our hotel and boarded the minibus at 3:30am. Zipping along through the night Joīs head started to nod and she managed a decent 10 minutes extra rest on Ianīs shoulder. And she wasnīt the only one. Much to Ianīs discomfort, the man sat on his right also decided to use his shoulder as a headrest- poor Ian completely stuck in the middle!
Stumbling out of the minibus at about 4:45am we gathered around the entrance and met our guides. Noticing the abundance of insects hovering near our torches, we liberally doused ourselves in enough repellent to take down an army of mozzies.
And so we trudged out solemnly into the darkness of the jungle, greeted to the sounds of animals and birds beginning to wake. After about 20 minutes we made it to the first temple. By now it was quite light and we immediately headed up a long and steep stairway to the top of the famous Temple IV, with its spectacular panoramic view across the jungle where other temples of this ancient city rise above the canopy. At this point Ian reminded me of the iconic shot in the film Star Wars: Return of the Jedi of the planet where the Ewoks live. This exact view is that shot.
Unfortunately misty cloud prevented a true sunrise and clear views across to the other temples. But, in silence, we sat on the steps above the canopy and watched as the neighbouring temples emerged and disappeared as the mists rolled in. It was a very impressive view to behold and well worth the very early start.
After some time we descended the stairs and began our tour of Tikal. In brief, the Mayan people settled in Tikal in around 700BC due to the swampy surrounding land and abundance of flint (for making tools and weapons). By AD250 the city was an important and heavily populated religious, cultural and commercial settlement, and a complex of stone buildings, including high ceremonial structures had been constructed. It is thought that the influence of Tikal began to wane in around 900BC, due to a number of seasons of drought that caused the cityīs population to migrate to more reliable water sources.
Rather unfortunately our guide very rapidly in heavily accented English, such that it was quite a challenge to keep up with his dialogue. But nonetheless the impressiveness of this ancient city spoke for itself as we emerged through the dense forest to be greeted by soaring temples.
Whilst a number of structures were out of bounds, we were able to climb up a few. Ascending Temple V (close to 190 feet/60 metres high) required us to climb near vertical ladders to the top, definitely a difficult one for those prone to vertigo (like Antwin and myself- hence the slightly nervous look on our faces in photos taken at the top). Luckily the climb rewarded us with amazing views across to the central Acropolis and Gran Plaza.
Despite having day passes by 11am, having trekked through the park for some 6 hours, we were ready to head back to Flores. All four of us fell asleep immediately on the return journey. On arriving back we headed for breakfast, the first proper meal we had eaten that day, despite having been up for 10 hours. Afterwards we joined a couple of English girls who were the film Anger Management, the perfect tonic after our adventurous morning- not too complicated or clever!
Despite the early rise we managed to make it through to 10pm. eating our last meal with Anne and Antwin who were headed for Mexico in the morning, whilst we would venture to Belize. We were both very sad to leave the pair, as we had really enjoyed their company over the past week. They were not only great fun but very easy to travel with.
But now our time in Guatemala was at an end, and preparing for another early start, we crashed out, very much looking forward to chilling out on some Belizean beaches.
