I visited the ruins of Tikal today. I chose to do a “Sunrise Tour” which gives you exclusive access to the park before it officially opens to the public. We (a group of about 30) entered the park in the dark, and made our way to the top of Temple IV, where we sat silently and listened to the jungle come alive. The sounds of an awakening jungle are quite amazing! Birds chirping and squawking, frogs croaking, insects buzzing, monkeys roaring much louder than they look like they can roar, and the leaves and trees rustling and creaking in the wind.
The morning was misty, and as the sun came up and cleared the morning mist off the jungle canopy, it revealed several of the towering temples of Tikal in the near distance. Very spectacular when combined with the awesome soundscape.
The ruins are really nice. There are quite a few big temples, which seems different from other Mayan ruin sites where there was one or two big temples along with many smaller buildings. Here, there are five (or more?) big temples. VERY steep and tall. Fun to climb, and even more fun watching people who climbed up realize that it is much harder to come down, and shitting their pants when they look over the edge of the stairs!
In addition to the spectacular ruins, we saw incredible wildlife. My favorites were the Toucans and Parrots, but we also saw spider monkeys, a crazy turkey that looked more like a peacock than a turkey, a long tailed tall racoon, a couple tarantulas, and more which I can’t recall right now.
Pictures coming soon…
Update: I must have been listening to our guide more than thinking about taking photos, because I don’t have a stack of good photos here. Anyways, here are a couple for you…
