10: Flores (Tikal) - Guatemala

Day 41 (23th Nov): The Giant Tikal Ruins

Writen 29/11/12

 

Tikal was awesome and I got to see some ruins again! :D It was a rele lovely day, very pictuesque  and full of history with so much to see as its one of the biggest sites we've been to (it also happened to be mine and Liams 3yrs 10mths!)  

We'll admit we wussed out of the sunrise tour as we didn't fancy the 3am start (!!) but still got up at 7 and managed to organise local transport there early. The guidebook says you can spend 3/4 days at this site and still not see it all so that gives you an idea of the scale! It is/was a massive city and was once the hub of all Maya life throughout Meso-America. The main temple one of the Iconic images they use for the Maya too. We started in the museum where some of the more delicate carvings are, artifacts and a skeleton of a king found in one of the tooms! Its nice because it lets you see more of the life of the people not just the big temples.

The rest of the site is spread out through the dark jungle with long paths and climbs between the different sets of pyramids and palces, and it was so exciting to keep stumbling upon different things around corners. There is so much here that most of it is still unexcavated so you can just see giant mounds of jungle covered rubble like the one in the picture, and you just have to imagine what could be hidden inside!

 













 There were lots of very loud monkeys in the trees above and it was actually a job to make sure you didn't get knocked out by falling nuts lol.











There were some really interesting big temples, pyramids and stalea dedicated to the Gods, and we're still pretty struck by them even though we've seen so many. Still keep thinking about how old they are and what used to happen here!

 We decided to sit and eat our lunch next to the temples where several severed sacrifical heads were found lol :S and wandered around the maze of building ruins there. It was so lovely and quiet dispite it being the biggest of all the Maya Ruins you can visit (there is one bigger site but its a 6 day round trip hike through the jungle so we didn't fancy that lol) and it was full of pathways and hidden holes to go through. I'm so glad Liam likes history and cultural things as much as I do or we'd be so stuck lol. We wandered around for hours!




















Eventually we got the the main Grand Plaza and it was stunning.

The iconic Tikal pyramid was huge and imposing and must have been even more so back when it was built. Opposite was a second only slightly smaller pyramid for the queen, a complicated palace to the left and another multi-leveled plaza to the right (the Mayas had a habit of just building ontop of other structures lol). So we were surronded by ancient tombs. It was amazing. They all used to be coloured red too and even though the colour is long gone you could imagine the grandure of the place before. Here, like Chitchen Itza, you can't climb the main pyramid, but the acoustics make the same crazy bird noises when you clap infront of the stairs, and the views are great from the top of the plaza of all the other pyramids, (tho to climb that the steps are huge and you almost need a rope lol :P). We sat right in the middle of all of this for a while and after a bit a big group of weird small mammels with rele long tails came over, no idea what they were but they were quite funny to watch!

 
We then moved on to the other big temples, of which there are 5 in total, all over 55m tall. The stairs up the 5th temple were recently closed too (as someone fell down and died) but when we got there two local boys were climbing them... and there was no one around... so we went up too! It was very steep, rubbley, so tall and hard work but totally worth it and the veiws from the top were awesome. Did scrabble down quickly though just in case. We then kept wandering through other complexes and ruins, past sacbeob (causeways), plaza of the seven temples and mundo perdido (ceremonial complex) and looked at some more intrecate stucco reliefs. Liam tried to climb the rubble of a pyramid and all the lose stones fell out from under him and he slipped down, he was ok and it was quite funny :P

 We then went to the final temple, which is the biggest and over 70m tall.... its GINORMOUS, and many a dead king dude (such as Chak Tok Ich'aak I (Jaguar Paw) and Siyaj Chan K'awiil II (Stormy Sky)) has been found beneath!! We eventually climbed the million stairs and got all the way and stopped where the platform for the detailed top began. Here the views are the best I have ever seen. All the other temples were peaking out of the tops of the trees with their different shapes and it was late afternoon so the sun was setting and creating the best shadows, the jungle stretched as far as I could see and was completely untouched, it was beautiful, and quite romantic too! We stayed and watched the sun set over this magical veiw, there was hardly anyone there and it was so peaceful with just the jungle noises. We could see why they had built them this way and the show of power it made. We were quickly hurried out after that tho as we were told that after dark the tarantualrs and snakes come out!

 

 

We were really tired and achy after but it was a great day and we learnt loads and walked miles and saw some amazing things. We rounded off the day by the docks in Flores and a lovely meal. A really great monthiversary :)

We decided that it was about time to move on from Peten though and try something new, so are going to get an 8 hour bus ride 2moz up into the Guatemalan mountains to Lanquin, so goodbye jungles and hello pine forests, caves and waterfalls :)

(A Mayan Tree of Life that is meant to represent the levels to heaven)