Ruined again.

Another day, another ancient ruin to see. Sounds awful, doesn't it? This time, we're headed to Tikal.

It was an early start for us, as the bus was scheduled to leave at 5 am. We had an alarm set for 4:30, and didn't hear it. We managed to rise at 4:40, and the bus was there at 4:50. As we were leaving the room, we could hear faint voices yelling in the street. TI-KAL! TI-KAL!

It was an hour ride to the park, and then we had a short stop at the restaurant in the park for people to buy a snack and have a coffee. They had sandwiches for sale as well, and we picked up an egg sandwich so we didnt go hungry all day. It was a bit pricey, but we had no choice. At least it was pretty substantial.

15 minutes went by, and our tour guide, Boris, began to round the troops to head on in. He was a fairly young guy, spoke English, and had many intersting facts of the park ready for us wherever we went.

The first temple that we got to gave us an idea of what the place looked like when it was discovered in the 1848. They have uncovered only the front half of this temple to give an idea of what the grounds looked like. By the time of discovery, the entire city was underground, and looked like the right side of this picture. Really, it's just a hill of dirt and rock. However, on the left, you can see a temple resides underneath.

Quick background on the park as a whole: At it's height, Tikal was more than 100 square km, and the population is estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people. The site was originally inhabited in 600 BC, but it's earliest buildings date to 300 BC. The main structures, which include the indcredibly large temples and shrines were constructed from 550 AD to 900 AD. Old School!

This is a picture of the first temple we saw from the front. The steps are very steep, and exhausting to climb up, but the views are definitely worth the trouble. In this picture, Boris is explaining what the small platforms were used for that are in front of the temple. They were for human sacrifice. The picture from above, shows them lined up. He explained there were nine platforms, that represented the nine levels of the underworld in Mayan beliefs.

As we were walking on to the next site, a park ranger(a guy who works on upkeep inside the park) brought over a fun little friend for us to see. Tarantula's are pretty creepy, yes, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to hold it. It's hairy, and felt very weird to have it crawling over my hands. After taking a closer look at its fangs, which were constantly moving, I handed him back. Check. Don't need to hold, or see, for that matter, another tarantula for quite some time.

As we turned to head on, all of the sudden, creatures began to fill the path in front of us. Initially, they looked like giant squirrels, and 30 to 40 of them crossed our path. This is the reason why we woke up so early to get to the park. The guide said that animals get scared into the jungle after visitors begin to fill the park. So by getting there early, you usually still find them running around. These animals are called coatimundis. As they were scurrying all around us and digging in the dirt hunting for food, Boris tried to relate them to us as similar to raccoons. We later found this to be quite true, as one was in the main square literally trying to get into a woman's purse. They are quite bold, and in search of food everywhere.

A little more walking and we got some more exciting wildlife. MONOS! (monkeys) In fact, Laura was the one in the group to spot them. As they are actually pretty small, the trick to spotting them is to look for rustling leaves as they move. There are two types of monkeys in Tikal. Spider monkeys(seen in this photo) and howler monkeys. As Laura mentionted earlier, the howler monkeys have their name for a very good reason.

Moving on, we arrived at the largest temple, Temple IV, the Temple of the Double Headed Serpent. At the top of this temple, you are able to see the tops of three of the main temples sprouting above the tree canopy. It should be noted, that the view from the top is much different now than hundreds of years ago. Apparently, there were no trees within the city during its reign. This is important because the temples were used as podiums for rulers and priests to address the masses, and without trees, their voices were able to carry far distances.

Our next stop was the sun temple. Here you can see Laura performing a sun salute from on top of the viewing platform directly in front of the temple. This temple gets its name from its position in relation to the viewing platform. Twice a year, the sun sets directly in line with the temple when standing on the platform. These dates represent the Spring and Autumnal equinoxes. There are also two more smaller temples built behind the sun temple, at 45 degree angles from the viewing platform. The sun set over one of the smaller temples one time a year each. For the Summer and Winter solstice. The main reason for this, was to be a guide for timing to plant crops. I forget what particular crops they were, but Boris said a different crop was planted at each interval. I do know one was corn. Beans were probably another.

Just in front of the sun temple, there was a small flock of turkeys. This being the day before Thanksgiving, they looked tasty. Boris even confirmed that this particular type of turkey was known for being quite good. More coatimundis in the background.

The next temple we visited, by this time I have forgotten what they are called, and I don't really care, was an extremely steep temple. The climb up was a bit scary, as we were essentially climbing up 55 meters(I'm sick of people explaining to me how far something is in meters, but I'm beginning to get it. 180 feet.) of ladders to get to the top. What is it they say, "don't look down"? Well I had to.

Well, after all that, we have finally made it to the Great Plaza. This is where the most well known temples in Tikal are. The two principle temples in the plaza are the Temple of the Great Jaguar, 44m in height, and the Temple of the Masks, 38m. They face directly toward each other and were ordered built by the ruler Ah Cacao who ruled in 682 AD to 720AD. An interesting fact on the construction of all of the temples in Tikal is that none of them were built using slave labor. Everyone who was looking for work, and people came from outlying areas, was paid with the currency used at that time, which was most likely cacao beans.

Laura and I in front of the Great Jaguar, from atop the Temple of the Masks.

Some more pictures in the Great Plaza.

After a very busy morning, our tour was finally over, and we decided to sit down to lunch. Our egg sandwich. Which was surprisingly delicious. After lunch, we did a little exploring on our own. Saw some ancient living quarters. More coatimundis. A machete sitting in the ground. Wait a second. We just had to.

After that, we decided to hunt for more monos. And we were rewarded!