Exploring the Mayan city of Tikal

Temple of the Jaguar at sunrise
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22.01.06

An even earlier morning for our 4am shuttle to the airport for our flight up to Flores. Unfortunately we had to use a different airline as TAG we were told were not flying. This meant we had to pay for business class tickets for our 30 minute flight as there was no availability elsewhere! Mix up with hotel location and airport pickup meant we had to walk into Santa Elena after mass to get a chicken bus to our hotel, another 30K round the lake. Turns out tourists pay 5 times more than the locals but we did have front row seats on a ten seater minibus with about 15 people in it!

...and realising Damian may not like heights!

Temple of the masks...can you spot Damian?
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Spent the rest of the day relaxing in the hotel and by the lake.

23.01.06

Caught the 5.30am shuttle to Tikal, an ancient mayan city dating back to 400BC. We headed straight for the main plaza where we climbed Temple II, known as temple of the masks built in 700AD. We were the only people in there watching the sun come up over Temple I, known as temple of the jaguar. In the 6^th century Tikal sprawled over 30 sq. Km. And had a population of over 100,000. The site we explored contained approx 16 sq. Km. of excavated temples, pyramids and palaces. They are still excavating the rest of the city which is currently overgrown with secondary rainforest.

Temple of the Masks
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The pyramids were particularly impressive. Damian had one dizzy moment when we climbed temple V, 51m in height. We saw parakeetes, spider monkeys, foxes and possibly a howler monkey that was very vocal!

We just relaxed for the rest of the day back at our Hotel in El Remate.