Honeymoon Review – Tikal

Temple 1 at Tikal

*Preface*  – None of these pictures are ‘borrowed’. These are all pictures that the Engineer and I took in Tikal, so if you want to use them for other purposes, please give us credit.   Thanks!

Tikal wasn’t really one of the places on our ‘must do’ list for Belize until we found out that the tour was included (with the exclusion of border fees, guide fees, and park fees) with our all inclusive package at Mopan River Resort.   Anyhoo, being the passport stamp greedy people we are, we knew that going to Guatemala would give us another stamp, and we had heard great things about Tikal so we thought, “Why Not?”.  Plus, there is some super famous scene from one of the Star Wars movies that was shot from one of the temples and the Engineer really wanted to say we had been there.   

So, this is the point where I could take up alot of space and time telling you all about Tikal and it’s history, but the truth is.. well… I really didn’t pay much attention to what our guide was saying.  I was more interested in looking wandering around and exploring.  What I can tell you is that Tikal is located in the Northwest region of Guatemala and it’s the largest found ancient ruin city of the Mayan civilization.  If you’re really interested in what kind of city Tikal was before the Mayans vacated, buy a book or click here.  

We started our morning, on May 14, 2008, bright and early. We had to be on the mini-bus to Tikal no later than 7 am in order make the 2 hour drive to Tikal and still have enough ‘roaming around’ time in order to be home before dark.  Trust me, the road to Belize from Guatemala is the last place you want to be after the sun goes down.  On the way to Tikal, we stopped and picked up our guide Ruben.   Ruben was, without a doubt, the best guide we had on our entire trip.   He is extremely knowledgeable about Tikal and the Mayan people (he has Mayan ancestry) and knows all the short cuts through the jungle to get you from one temple to the other without getting stuck behind slow moving tourist groups.   He kept us completely entertained with floral and fauna facts and seemed to know just when we needed to stop for breaks.   If you can find him (we got him through our resort, but there are days where he’s at the park soliciting, if you will, for guide work), he’s well worth his fee!

After paying our park fee, Ruben took us to the entrance to Tikal.

Now, I really, really don’t like to hike.   I don’t know why, maybe I hiked myself out as a child.   Maybe I’ve become too adjusted to city life.  Whatever has happened since my youth to cause this dislike for hiking isn’t relevant.  Hiking is just not my ‘go-to’ activity.  That being said, I knew that the first few days of the honeymoon would involve hiking, and I was mildly OK with that.   The best part about Tikal was that the only part of the hike that I felt was killer was the initial hike in.  There was a fairly steep hill that we had to climb, but once we got past that, the rest of the hike was mostly flat.

There were tons of rules at Tikal.  I think we followed most of them….

This was the first ruin we came to.  We could have climbed it, but we were all saving our energy for Temple 4.

An infamous “Ruben shortcut”.  Sometimes the short cuts were logical and saved us tons of time.  Other times, I could have sworn we were going to stumble upon where the Mayans actually went after deserting Tikal (read: we were blazing our own trails here).  This picture is of a logical shortcut.  Notice me… bringing up the rear (have I mentioned I don’t really like to hike).

One of the cool things about our guide was that he knew where to find the wildlife.  We saw monkeys and a bazillion birds.  We also got to get ‘up close and personal’ with a tarantula.

Yeah.. that’s me, holding a ginormous spider, on my honeymoon.  It was awesome!

Temple 4 (seen here through the trees) is the largest temple and was one of the main stops for our tour.  

In Tikal, almost all of the temples can be climbed (Temple 1 is off limits); however, at many of the larger temples you aren’t allowed to climb the actual temple.  There are wooden steps that have been built for visitors to climb.  It saves the wear and tear on the temples and also is much safer than climbing the temple itself (which at times can be slippery).

I wish I had counted how many stairs we had to climb to get to the top of Temple 4.

But the view from the top was so worth it.

What you don’t see here is the 3.5 ft high metal bar behind us. That’s all there was to keep us from tumbling over the top of Temple 4.   NOT the place to be if you’re afraid of heights or edges.  Thankfully, we aren’t. 

After the climb down from Temple 4, we took a break for lunch.  The temperature was already in the high 90’s and the humidity wasn’t too far behind that. 

After lunch, we headed toward Temple 5, the second highest temple in Tikal.   Now, Temple 5 is climbable also.  So here the Engineer is, thinking “I can climb this… no problem.  It’s just alot of stone stairs”.

Yeah….. riiiiiiight.  Notice in the picture that there is a rope with the sign that says (in Spanish) “No Climbing”.  That’s because, while you can climb Temple 5, you can’t climb the actual temple.  Instead you climb this:

So basically, it’s a glorified ladder.  You go straight up for about 15-20 feet to a small platform to ‘rest’ on, then there’s another section of ladder.   This is where I drew the line.   I wasn’t climbing a 180+ foot temple via a wooden ladder.

The Engineer; however, did.   And the view he had of the Gran Plaza was amazing.

The Gran Plaza consists of two temples that face each other, along with two sets of other structures that run along the sides of the temples.  In the picture above, you see Temple 1 and the structures to the left of Temple 1. 

Temple 1, which is no longer climbable.

These are the structures to the left of Temple 1.   Some of the stones were used for sacrificing animals and/or for giving gifts of grain and vegetables to the gods.   There were also living quarters at the top of the structure.

Temple 2 – which is opposite of Temple 1.   You can climb Temple 2; however, at this point in the tour, it must have been 1000 degrees outside (or maybe 99).  We were more concerned about staying in the shade (the sun at Tikal was harsh) than we were about climbing another temple.   I know.. we are “so no fun”. 

These are the structures to the right side of Temple 1 (or to the left of Temple 2.. your choice).  We were told that they were used primarily as housing for the King’s family and staff.   Again, we really didn’t spend too much time exploring them, as they didn’t provide much shade (I’m telling you.. shade was a hot commodity at this point in the day.. no pun intended). 

After the Gran Plaza, Ruben guided us out of the park.  We had seen many little structures between the major Temples and the Gran Plaza, and we all really didn’t feel the need to duck down to the southern end of the park to see Temple 3.   Plus, it was UBER hot.   The only breeze you got in the whole place was when you were on top of one of the temples (no wonder the Mayans built them.  It wasn’t to get closer to the gods, but to get a little heat relief!). 

All in all, it was a fantastic trip.   Not including the trips up and down the temples, we walked about 5-6 miles that day, and we only saw 2/3 of the park.   We stopped at two little stores before we left Guatemala to do a little souvenir shopping.   We picked up some lovely hand woven table runners, place mats, and napkins for ourselves and our parents.  The workmanship is outstanding and it left us with some very lovey reminders of the trip.  

After a long day of hiking and a super small (but well-deserved) shopping expedition, we were all dead tired.  I believe everyone napped in the mini-bus on the way back to the resort.  It was a day that gets a “medium” on my scale of “energy exertion”, but it was well worth every step.

 

Up next:  Self-induced cardiac arrest at Che Chem Ha and San Pedro -  Part 1