Lions, Tigers and Bears...Oh my!

Made it out of Amatique Bay. Too much time on my hands, I'd been psyching myself out of getting from the resort to Flores, where I am now, about 6 hours north of Puerto Barrios. It was actually pretty easy. The ride north was nice. Lots and lots of green, tropical vegetation. Both buses would stop along the way to pick up people along side of the road. I was surprised by this on the second bus since I paid for a ticket from an actual bus company. I'd been really concerned about changing buses at a crossroads where you just get off from one bus and wait there for the next one, but it turned out just fine. Unfortunately, I didn't get here yesterday until about 6pm which didn't leave me a whole lot of time to have day light to look around. Flores is on Lago de Peten Itza in the El Peten area of Guatemala. It's an island or possibly peninsula depending on how you look at it (it's connected by a bridge to Santa Elena). It's a really small town/isla and can be walked in 10mins. Cobblestone streets and a church in the center at the top of a hill. It's all set up for tourists and backpackers were everywhere. I was expecting more of this when I was in PB (even though PB is not a suggested destination in many of the guidebooks). It was a very nice change and I was already feeling better about moving on.

I'd wanted to reserve a sunrise tour of Tikal and finally did so at ~10pm that night. Lack of confidence speaking Spanish had a role in this. Next morning I was up at 3am outside my hostel waiting for a shuttle to take me to Tikal. I met Elisa here on the steps of the hostel. She was also going on a sunrise tour, through a different company. We started talking and found our travel plans to be the same for the coming days. She's from Santa Barbara. Her shuttle came before mine, but we ended up being on the same tour at Tikal. We´ve decided to travel around together for a piece.

At 3:30am the shuttle showed up and took us through the pitch black to Tikal. The shuttles/microbuses are all Toyota minivans. Not the ones they sell in the states now, smaller (I don't remember what they were called back in the early 90's but that's what they look like), but with capacity for 12-21 (although they're almost always filled way beyond capacity). Tikal is one of the largest, if not the largest, ancient Mayan city. I can't remember exactly how many acres, but it's massive. The Mayans built this city and all the other ones in locations around Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras in such a way so that Tikal was in the center. They form a shaped when looked at on a map that's important to they're calendar (I'm pretty sure of this although not positive). All of the cities they built were also designed around the cycles of the sun and moon. Some pretty amazing things happen (entire temples turn gold from the sun) during the solstices and the equinoxes.

Back to the tour....We hiked in the darkness to the base of one of the largest temples at this site, Templo IV. Not the easiest hike in the dark and about 30mins. There, we climbed (on wooden stairs) up to the top of the temple. By now it was ~5:30am and still incredibly dark. I'd been sold a sunrise tour, but hardly anyone gets to see the sun rise....ever. I was really there that early to hear the jungle wake up below me. The guides said we were to sit in silence and possibly meditate as we waited for this to happen. What I hadn't anticipated (Alyssa, you left this part out or maybe you didn't experience it) was the 30-40 other people there with me rummaging through their things and talking in not so hushed voices. Imagine trying to enjoy natural silence with plastic wrappers being opened, zippers being zipped, and velcro being velcroed. Not exactly silent. But anyway, it was still really amazing. At about 5:45, a howler monkey started howling. They sound like big cats (lions, tigers, etc.) roaring. About 10mins later the other howlers woke up and we were being serenaded by 5-6 of them. These monkeys dominate the show although we did get to hear birds and what not. It was great!

The visual is also pretty amazing, even without the sun rising. The mist would roll back and forth revealing the tops of other temples in the distance and then covering them back up again. At about 6:15, the guides came back and told us about our morning (English and Spanish speaking tours in case you're wondering). Massive amts. of info came out of my guide's mouth all at once. A lot too absorb before 7am. Fortunately, he repeated a lot of it as we went along.

I'd go into a lot more detail about the place, but this is pretty long already. I'll try to sum it up a bit though. Tikal was first discovered by chicleros (sp). They're guys that would, and still do, go into the forests here for weeks on end collecting sap from the chicle trees (is that the right name?). This sap would then be sold to, anyone, anyone? Wrigley's and some other gum manufacturers. When Tikal was first discovered, it was overgrown with forest (tropical forest, not deciduous trees). Even now, forest dominates the park. At the time of use, this entire city was cleared of forest, and set as well, a city. Everything is built out of limestone. Not only did they build massive temples, they built central plazas, roads, and palaces. All from limestone. Under the temples and central plazas (and roads I think), archaeologists think there are 6-7 layers of limestone blocks making flat spaces on which other things could be built. The temples are absolutely massive-possibly 5-7 stories tall and there are 5-6, maybe 7 of them. The temples would have been painted in various colors, brilliant reds, blues, greens, yellows, golds, etc. The guide claimed that the Mayans did all of this work without the use of slaves. I find this hard to believe though. All of it is absolutely awesome! It's hard to imagine such an advanced civilization being over taken, especially in their own backyard. But then I remember that foreign microbes were also participants in the conquest. Anyway, I'd highly recommend coming to Tikal if you ever have the chance.

We´re leaving to Semuc Champey tomorrow.
Mwah!