Oh My God! No wonder Tikal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site!!

 September 3, 2023

We all assemble for breakfast and meet our guide for the day (because we will be in a National Park and they require that) and our driver for today and tomorrow.  We'll meet back up with Gregorio in Guatemala City tomorrow after our short flight.

Jan on our gorgeous back balcony!

Jan tells me this is called prosthecea orchid!

Should have taken this before we messed it up!  But look at that view!

We make a short stop by the shore of Lake Peten Itza to see the Crocodile Rock and stretch for a moment.  Then we stop at the Restaurante Gonzalez to place our orders to later in the day.  That should speed things along, we hope.

This sign says "You carry your purse, you carry your cell phone, carry your trash!

Juan never misses an opportunity to teach us!

Lickity split and we're at the park where Hugo takes our passports and get us registered so the government knows we aren't spending the night in Tikal.  I barely know how tto begin describing the site.  For starters it is four kilometers on a side, or sixteen square kilometers for those who've forgotten grade school math.  And that's just the center of town, where the rich folk work and play!  There are temples and houses and stellas and alters everywhere and the history of the town begins 200 years before the birth of Christ. It's really just too much to take in in only one visit!  And we are so lucky that there are only a few other people here today, even though it's Sunday! There's lots of walking and lots of climbing but you can't pass up the chance at another breath-taking view!  The temples all have nine layers, to bring you that much closer to the heavens.  And of course there's a ball court - probably more than one!  And as you look around you realize that all the hills you see are actually ruins that just haven't bee excavated yet!

(Prepare for a million photos, cause I can't choose!)

Entering the national park

The glyph for Tikal

Scale model of the site.

A HUGE Ceiba tree, the national tree of Guatemala

Hugo showing us how the sunshines through the astronomy building at the equinox.
It also lines up with the two solstices along either side.

Spider monkey

Notice how each stella has an altar in front of it.  It's always this way.

Termites in a pepper tree

See the coatimundi begging from the tourists!

The main plazas are simply immense!

The shelters are too protect the ruins from the elements

Four of our group climbed this one!

See the staircase?  This is what the whole place looked like.  And all the mounds you
can see as you drive around Meso-American are likely more Mayan structures.

The tree to the left of the pepper tree is a mahogany tree.

And this is its fruit.  It's not really edible, even though it looks like someone tried!

Juan and I went back to the meeting place while everyone else went on to Temple 5.
So I got a private lesson on interpreting this particular stella! The king, on the left, 
is quite fat and made no effort to hide it!

The Temple of the Masks.  If you carefully to the right of the vertical split, you can see one.

Tourists!

A small ball court

Juan knows the best photo ops at all the ruins!

When everyone is fully exhausted, even Suga who flew up the last pyramid in less than a minute, we ride the truck back to the entrance.  It's like a thrill ride at Disney and by the time we get back we've designed the whole thing with howler monkeys and a toucan and a coatimundi mascot.

We do travel in style!

I'n fascinated by the license plates with the country name on the letters!

Jicama and pineapple juice!  YUM

Chicken soup!  Another yum!

A quetzal and other birds made from tires.

Back to Gonzalez for a late lunch and then home for a short break.  Some choose to cool their feel in the pool and wait for sunset.  But it never really shows up.

We assemble for dinner and I was going to pass but Suga has a special surprise and I can't be so churlish and to stay away.  It turns out that she has made each of us a cup with the glyph for Tikal on it!!  I can't believe it!  What a sweetheart!!  I finish my lemonade and retire.  Tomorrow will come quickly!