The Lost Mayan city of Tikal

View from Tempel 4
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The ride from Coban to Flores was actually really nice. There was a nice change of landscape, from the high hills to a lower part of Guatemala and we met a fellow Amsterdammer, who travelled from Costa Rica to Coban and we got some good tips for our future trip. We arrived late afternoon in Flores and decided to drive directly to Tikal, the historical site of the Maya city. There we wanted to stay for the night and visit the park in the late afternoon and early morning. Tikal is surrounded by a swampy rainforest, and you can´t see the tempels untill you´re actually standing next to it. Hidden in the jungle it was ¨re-discovered¨ ,after the rainforest had engulfed the structures completely in the 19the century,  when archeologist becan uncovering what was lost for since the 10th century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki /Tikal

It's a long climb to the top of Tempel 5
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We checked in an expensive but luxerous hotel with a kingsize bed and clean room. We ate in a cheap local restaurant which had no electricity (the hotel had only elektricity between 6 and 9 pm) and used candels instead, which attracted lost of flies, big moths and beetles from the forest. At 5am we woke up to join the Sun-rise Tour. Unfortunately, the tour left at 4:45, and we had to pay an additional fee to get into the park with a park guard who took us to the Temple 4, where the tour would start. We rushed through the jungle to the temple stairs, when the sun was already up and monkees howled and mosquitos started to bite, and climbed the 50meter stairs to join the tour by Alberto. At 50meters high, the Temple 4 complex gives you a great view just above the jungle canopy.

A lost city rediscovered

Just watch your step out there
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Our guide Alberto gave us a great lecture about Mayan culture (from the time of Tikal) and told us how the once great culture and society lived and controlled the people, identical to a lot of the religious existing nowadays. I (kah-kin) am familiar with Buddhisme as a guide myself, I recognized many similarities in the symbols and traditions between the Mayan culture and Buddhist (After life, reincarnation, etc). Mayans used the calendar to control the people and used it accurately. The temples are lined up in such a way that it creates a giant calendar, pointing out the start and beginning of seasons and even predicting eclipses.

In between the massive complex of the old city of Tikal
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From temple 4 we went to temple 5 and then to temple 3 and 1 and 2. The setting is amazing, and Star Wars used the same view we had from Temple 4 (Yavin 4).

Archeologists are still restoring and reclaiming the massive site (not even 10% is probably restored/uncovered), some temples took 5000 men more than 30 years to build. Now I see 30 Quatemalans cutting away the grass and replacing bricks, one by one. A process which might take 5000 years.

I leave the rest up for the pictures (to come)

Oh ! we saw lots of Monkees and Tucans in the trees, some tucans, a tarantula and scorpions but fortunately no jaguars.