Tikal

Sunday morning was an early one as I woke up at 3:45 a.m. and got ready to head to Tikal. At 4:30 our group met in front of the church (our normal meeting spot for excursions) and headed to Guatemala City to catch our plane. We boarded our flight at 6 a.m. and flew out at 6:30. After we landed, we took another bus to Tikal before arriving at a little inn where we prepared for our 3 ½ hour hike.
[Our plane…much bigger than the ones we take in Alaska, but small enough to be enjoyable, though not quite as adventurous] We drenched ourselves in an aroma of bug spray and then headed out to see the temples and ruins. They were amazing! Our guide spoke in English and allowed us time to stop, look around, take pictures of wildlife, climb a temple every once in a while, and explore the ruins of the main center. We saw lots of amazing things including, little animals that looked like raccoons, but had longer noses, spider monkeys and howler monkeys! I tried to take pictures of some, but they didn’t all turn out.
[Little critters right on the side of the trail] [Spider monkey in the tree…look in the middle of the picture] Our treks up the temples were really cool. The tallest temple, Temple IV, had a massive amount of wooden stairs that took you up to the actual temple where you could climb about 10 more to get to the top. It was hot and tiring, but the view was worth it! It was really cool to just sit up there and see the tops of trees and other temples off in the distance and picture how life was back when those temples were in use. We climbed another temple too, but I forgot to bring my camera up it, so hopefully I’ll be able to snag some pictures from other people on that one.
[On top of Temple IV. You can see other temple peaks in the back ground.] At the end of the tour we got to the main center and had 40 minutes to wander around and explore on our own. It was so much fun! We wandered through tunnels not knowing where they’d lead and up steps that were over a foot tall each until we could see the entire landscape from the top. It was gorgeous! I really enjoyed the time with my friends, just climbing, exploring and having tons of fun together.
[The main center] [The temple that Tikal is most known for (and is on lots of postcards)…we couldn’t climb it though as it was recently struck by lightening and considered unsafe] After we finished exploring, we met up at 1 and headed back to the inn to eat lunch. We made it back and got our food a little before 2. I had steak- which was way better than I expected- rice, mixed veggies, beats (that I shared) and tortillas. It was a good meal! Then we loaded on the bus and headed back to the airport, waited at the airport for a little over an hour for our plane, then hopped on the plane to the City and then got on another bus back home to Antigua. We made it home before 8 last night then, showered and were in bed at 9. It was a long day, but good!