This day would fulfill the second big bucket list item for me...Tikal. A real Mayan ruin. I was so very happy about this day.
I would begin with a plane ride to Flores, Guatemala.
There we found two buses waiting for our group. We got on those buses and went to Tikal. There is a great diorama of the layout of Tikal. They know where all the buildings are however only about 25% of them are uncovered. The rest remain under jungle growth. Once you understand this you will see a hill of dirt covered with trees and plants and you know that under all of that is another ruin waiting to be uncovered.
We were warned to bring bug spray for this day in addition to our sun screen. I plotted a white blouse and light khaki long pants with white socks. My hope was this would reflect the sun and not invite insects. We covered ourselves in bug spray before our hike and right off the bat I was stung in front and below my left should and on the back of my left shoulder. I had not put bug spray under my clothing. I don't think Claude was bit at all. I was grateful at that point for the yellow fever shots prior to this trip.
I wondered what it would be like to hike through the jungle. You see in the movies people hacking their way through dense vegetation with a machete. Well, we had nice paths to walk on unless our guide opted to take a short cut. The first picture is the nice paths. The second picture is the short cut path. You can't see it here but the danger of the short cut was all the roots crossing it. Would be very easy to stumble and fall on those paths.
In most places the growth was no more dense than what we get for undergrowth in Louisiana where I grew up or in the back woods in Kentucky. However the vegetation was amazing. First, there were lots of kinds of plants that live off another plant. We would see interesting kinds of moss growing and hanging from a branch with an orchid growing on the moss. There was one particular kind of tree with a massive above ground root. Watching the kinds of vegetation was an interesting part of Tikal in itself.
This is my first view of Temple I Gran Jaguar as it appeared through the jungle.
We visited this main Great Plaza area first. It is really rectangular in shape. One one side is Temple I. To the left of that is Maler's Palace. Across from Temple I is Temple II. This one had wooden steps up the back so that you could get to a top level on it. Across from Maler's Palace and between Temple I and II was the North Acropolis. We started out with instruction from our guide. Then we were given free time to hike up on whatever we chose. The only building we could not hike on or around was Temple II. Claude and I sized up the situation and decided to climb the North Acropolis to get pictures of all the buildings around the Great Plaza. I will group my pictures by building instead of in the order in which I took them.
First side of the rectangle, Temple I Gran Jaguar.
Second side of the rectangle, Maler's Palace.
Third side of the rectangle, Temple II.
Fourth side of the rectangle, the North Acropolis.
Our tour group gathered again and we continued our walk through the jungle. Our guide told us we needed to remember that when this was an active Mayan city, all the jungle would have been cleared and there were great open roads between these temples. All the hills we saw covered in growth would have been buildings. These buildings would have all had brightly colored pain over them. It would have looked a lot different that what we saw on our tour.
We were led to Temple III. The temple had a cloth covering a corner of the very top. When preparing to make it so people could see more of it, Temple III was struck by lightning leaving a crack in this portion. The cloth is to protect it until funds are made ready to repair the damage. The is the back side of this temple.
The next temple in our journey was Temple IV.
If you recognize this one it is because the view from the top of Temple I, II & III is a scene from a Star Wars movie.
We would begin our hike back to 'Temple of the Tortilla' as our guide called it. They were really good on this trip to offer a couple of choices for lunch. We would place our order and it would be called ahead so it was ready to eat when we arrived. This happened several times and was an excellent way to get forty four people fed quickly when they were really ready to eat.
Anyway, along our hike back to lunch we saw these things. The animal is a Coatimundi. It is related to the racoon. Eats just about anything. It was completely indifferent to us.
We took our bus back to Flores where we would stay in a little hotel on the Isle of Flores. Claude and I walked the two blocks back to the water and walked along the waters edge to find something to eat. We weren't really hungry and were looking for something a little lighter. We found a cute little place that sold us quesadillas for dinner. Then we strolled down to an ice cream store and had ice cream cones. It was a delightful evening. However, in my diligence to get our suitcases rearranged in Antigua the night before and get our overnight bags ready, I failed to put clean clothes in my overnight bag. Hmmmm...I found a solution by purchasing a blouse when we stopped at a shop for a break that was owned by our guides school teacher. I at least had a clean blouse for the next morning.
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