Tikal, Day 1

Tikal. I'd heard about it for years, but had little interest until last year when our friend Jen went there and brought back pictures. Then after seeing the smaller Mayan ruins at Iximche, my interest grew. Old is not even the word for the ruins at Tikal. Ancient is more like it. Incredible. Massive. Strong and powerful. Tikal is called, by our Rough Guide Guatemala book, "possibly the most magnificent of all Maya sites." The site was discovered in 1848. The Mayan civilization dates from 800 BC until 900 AD (wow) and we are told that Tikal's impressive architecture took more than 1000 years to build..

We arrived in Tikal on Wednesday, June 7th, by shuttle, after a short propeller plane ride from Guatemala City to Flores, an hour from the park. Our guide, Carlos, met us at the airport. We had signed up and pre-paid for a tour package, which included airflight, shuttle to and from Tikal, a morning guided tour of the park, lunch, overnight lodging in the park itself, and breakfast.. the other meals were on us. We soon learned what the package did not include: a map of Tikal, any free information about Tikal (pamphlets, etc..), water, (except one small bottle in the hotel room), beverages at the free lunch. Thankfully the free breakfast did come with juice and coffee. But not water. Oh well.

At the Jungle Lodge, we dropped our bags in the room, piled on the chemicals, and set out for the morning tour. We, along with a retired couple from San Francisco-Mary and David-set out walking despite blazing heat and humidity. Within the first 15 steps we were dripping a fun mixture of sweat, sunscreen, and bugspray. We walked by the crocodile pond where we saw what I think was a crocodile back... and it moved. I'm not kidding.. and we think we may have seen some baby crocodiles. Hard to make out, but it seemed like the real thing. We stepped over leaf-cutter ants our whole time in Tikal. We heard and saw the howler monkeys with their screeching in the trees... and the spider monkeys leaping from tree branch to tree branch. Incredible. I love the monkeys! We were warned about the howlers, and told that we'd be annoyed by their noises. Not at all. We're in the jungle, after all! What does one expect? The howlers to behave for the tourists?

Carlos pointed out the massive ceiba tree, the national tree of Guatemala. I have known this tree as the kaypok, and it brought me back to my Zaire childhood, where we used the cotton-like kaypok as stuffing for making dolls, and other such things. So neat to see it in its grandeur again. It's been a long time since I've seen a kaypok tree. Before too long we made it to the various ruins, and there are all sorts of facts about them which I have now forgotten but can look up at some other time. Suffice it to say the ruins are incredible. The temples, the various monuments, the masks carved in stone, the inscriptions...

Walking on pyramids which have stood since around the 800's... indescribable. Though at the time I was too sweaty and hot to truly reflect on its meaning, afterwards I was awed at what I had done... what we had done.. what many tourists do everyday: climb the wooden stairs built to the sides of the temples, stand as high as we're allowed, and be part of this Mayan world. Temple IV, the hardest one to climb (again, wooden stairs) gives the view that everyone recognizes: the Star Wars scene. Pretty cool.

After lunch, during which we had a blast getting to know Mary and David, Jo Ann and I both took naps, while Jim went to explore the possibilities for afternoon coffee, (and tried to explain in English to Spanish speakers that no, he didn't want to order coffee now, but only wanted to see if they had coffee so that when his wife woke up she could buy some coffee) I slept, despite the wretched heat. Fans are provided in the rooms, but are only on when the generator is on--which is limited, due to the park trying to conserve energy. I appreciate that effort, but wow it's hot! Jim and I went swimming for a bit in the afternoon, and true to the promises we had heard, monkeys jumped through trees within pool view. So cool..

Late afternoon brought the real adventure. The park officially closes around 6:30 or 7, so we had limited time after naps and swimming. We grabbed our cameras, raingear, and purchased map, and head out into the jungle. We decided on the Inscription Temple, which was 20 minutes walk from the entrance. It started to sprinkle, and we kept going. It started to rain, and we kept going, though we talked about the possibility of turning back. I was about to say, "If we hear thunder or see lightening, let's turn back.." but when I heard thunder and saw a flash or two of lightening in the distance, I had no desire to turn back! At this point, it was a challenge.. We booked, walking to the Inscription Temple in probably 15 minutes, and by the time we got there it was really raining. We stood under a thatched roof shelter, took some pictures, readjusted our rain gear and backpacks, and headed back.. faster, this time. I had no umbrella with me, but did have a raincoat-but wow, did I get wet.. wow, did we get wet.. The water soaked through my raincoat, left puddles in my backpack, all of our shoes squeaked with water, but it was fun! At points we ran, jumped puddles, kept shaking our heads about us actually being dumb enough to pull this off. But we did it. We pulled it off... we made it back safely.

We were such the jungle adventurers..! Smelly, perhaps not the smartest, but adventurous nonetheless!