Tikal, Day 2, Part 1...Thursday, June 8th

Early mornings seemed to be a theme for us in Guatemala. After a bad night’s sleep in our fairly nice, though extremely hot, accommodations at the Jungle Lodge, we got up around 4 am to go on a sunrise hike… We had paid a guide (Cesar) the day before, to take us through the jungle in the dark, guide us up Temple IV (or point out the stairway in the darkness) so we could view the sun rise over the temples in a distance. Fortunately, we were warned that we’d be lucky to see the sunrise. She was right. No sunrise. But back to the hike… About 19 college kids were on the same hike.. oh well. We hiked in total darkness except for flashlights. Sweat and bugspray dripped down our bodies, as it had the day before. At least there was no sunscreen this time.

We hiked quickly, and finally made it to the base of the 64 meter Temple IV, and then, the steps.. Wow. The steps were hard enough on Wednesday, but walking quickly through the jungle in the dark, feeling out of breath… it was about all the workout my 5:00 am body could take. Up we went. Climbing higher and higher on the wooden, sometimes-lopsided steps, until we made it to the top. We slowly made our way to the base of the stone steps—part of the pyramid—then felt our way to the top of those.. where we sat and waited. Waited for college kids to be quiet, waited for the sun to rise, and waited for the jungle to wake up. Most of the college kids quieted down, we never saw the sun rise but we certainly saw it get light, and the jungle did wake up. A bird here, a different bird call there… a toucan, other tropical wild birds whose names I cannot remember… one that Cesar pointed out right before 6 am, as it still sat in its nest inside the temple wall. This bird, he said, leaves its nest at 6 every morning on the dot. Sure enough… the bird flew out of its nest around 6… beautiful. It didn’t even seem to mind Cesar’s flashlight beam showing it off. We continued to listen for birds, for rain falling in the jungle, and to the howler monkeys in the distance. There weren’t as many howling monkeys as we had hoped for, but enough to get the feeling. We had heard many the day before, too. And lots of movement in tree tops… pretty cool. It’s not everyday that one gets to sit atop a temple built in the 700’s, and listen to the jungle wake up. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, now that my legs are rested!

Around 6:45 or so, we headed back down the temple, down the wooden steps, and towards the Grand Plaza, the plaza where several of the temples and ruins sit together. There we explored on our own, without guides, without other tourists… just us, a couple of guards sitting around a tree, the multitude of birds in trees and in the air. There we walked, surrounded by Mayan history. Incredible.The mist prevented a clear view of everything, but also gave a little cool mystique to the morning.