Because this past weekend was my last in Guatemala, I knew I had to travel somewhere. That somewhere ended up being a 10-hour bus ride to visit some amazing Mayan ruins called Tikal. As always, here's a little glimpse/short history of Tikal.
Tikal is located in the Northern department/region of El Peten. It's a really lush and tropical region, definitely a change from the mountainous Xela. Tikal, itself, is one of the larger sites for Mayan ruins and certainly the biggest in Guatemala. Most of the structures date from around 700 AD and it's estimated that about 90,000 Mayans used to live at the site. Tikal became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979.
Now for the fun stuff. Probably the coolest thing about Tikal is it's in the heart of the jungle. My friend, Emily, and I were climbing and maneuvering. We heard lots of animals cries, some awesome and some pretty scary. I wish I could report seeing some amazing animals, but, sadly, that's just not so. When we were driving into Tikal, there were all these signs for jaguar, snake, and turkey crossings (and may more). There were also signs for this animal I had never heard of called a pizote. I put a picture of the sign below so you could see what it was suppose to look like. While we didn't see any pizote, I can report seeing howler monkeys!! We saw about 4-5 of them in a tree after we climbed some of the ruins. AWESOME! We also saw these really interesting bright orange caterpillars. They were everywhere. I think the best way to describe our experience is to share some pictures.
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| Pizote: a white-nosed coati (according to wikipedia), active during the day except when we were visiting the park :( |
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| Me in a tunnel at El Palacio (this is right before I stuck my hand in a giant spiderweb and freaked out!) |
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| Templo V after a short rainstorm...beautiful |
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| The Gran Plaza pictured after we climbed some ruins |
Following our jungle trek, we headed back to Flores, which is the closest big town to Tikal. We decided to continue our journey through the Mayan culture with a traditional Mayan meal. YUM! Then we had about 7 hours to kill before heading back to Guate on the overnight bus. So what did we do? Enjoyed the lake view with a margarita. It was absolutely perfect! I arrived back in Guate on Monday morning to begin my last week at work/Guatemala. Where did my summer go!?!
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| Traditional Mayan food to refuel after Tikal: yucca, some interesting green veggie, rice, and chicken with sun dried tomatoes and peppers |
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| In Flores on the lago, waiting for our bus back to Guate (not pictured: our amazing margaritas that followed) |
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