Tikal, Guatemala - March 14, 2008

Temple 1, Temple of the Jaguar

Cedar Tree

My very first tour while I was in Belize was actually out of Belize. Tikal is a Mayan site in the Guatemalan jungle. If you see any television shows about Mayan ruins, chances are the ruins you see are from Tikal. And if you see any large stone structures from those ruins, chances are you are seeing the Temple of the Jaguar (also known at Tikal as temple 1).

When I arrived in San Ignacio on Thursday, the 13th, Martha (the propriestress of the guest house at which I was staying) directed me to a local tour company, Pacz. I headed over there - they were only a few streets away (at most, about a quarter mile). The office was blissfully air conditioned - it was hot and muggy outside! I arranged the tour with Bob for the 14th and went back to Martha's to catch a nap. I was very tired - my flight left LAX at 2 in the morning and I don't sleep well on airplanes as it is.

There were four of us leaving from San Ignacio for the tour that day. We loaded into the van, went to pick up our tour guide from the western side of town (streets in that area no paved!) and settled in the for the 45-minute drive to the Guatemalan border.

The border crossing went fairly normally, I suppose. We had to change vans because the van we had driven in thus far was not allowed into Guatemala. The only reason our tour guide was allowed to continue is that he was born in Guatemala and was allowed to lead us on the tour; otherwise, we would have had to get a Guatemalan guide. The crossing itself took about 1/2 hour or so to get all of us through and we picked up some more members of the group. I don't have any pictures from the crossing but there were a lot of men carrying weapons - assault-type rifles. Hugo, the tour guide, later told us that various groups - the army, the local militia - were present.

The drive from the border to Tikal took another hour and a half to complete. Guatemala, at least this part of it, is very rural. Lots of fields and farms and farm animals. The road we were on was hard-packed dirt (this is a major road, people!). Eventually, we turned onto the National Park road for Tikal, a winding and paved road.

At Tikal, Hugo left us briefly to buy our tickets and then we were off. Right outside Tikal is a map of the site. I have also seen maps in various books. I will tell you now none of those maps come close to indicating how pervasive the surrounding jungle is and how much it has intruded onto the site. From the maps, you would get the idea that the site is open and all structures are visible from pretty much anywhere. Not true.

The maps also give one the idea the site is flat. Not so. Lots of hills. The maps do indicate the main roads, which were more or less the same roads used by the Mayans all those centuries ago. Those roads are enclosed by the jungle. The jungle also contains a lot of interested flora and fauna. Spider and Howler monkeys live at the site, and we saw several monkeys at various times throughout the day.

We took a short hike to actually get into the meat of the site. It was already hot and muggy - by the end of the day my clothes were soaked. The first major stop we made was at the Grand Square. That is the location of the Temple of the Jaguar and the Temple of the Masks. Visitors are not allowed to climb up the Temple of the Jaguar anymore; however, visitors are allowed to pretty much climb up, on, and around most other structures and there was a steady stream that chose to climb up the Temple of the Masks. Climbs up all of the temples (the very high structures) was not up the front steps but via wooden structures adjacent to the temples. Once at the top you were then allowed to stand on the actual temple and go inside (if there was an inside and it was open).

I did not choose to climb up the Temple of the Masks. I climb around on the lower structures at the Grand Plaza, specifically the Central Acropolis. There was also a North Acropolis (you can see it on the left in the picture at the right) but I did not climb on that.

At this point, I do remember being very hot and I found a vendor that was selling bottled water. Later, after climbing up and down Temple 4, I found another vendor selling Revive, a Gatorade product. If you are hot and tired and need an energy boost, I can say that Revive definitely does the trick.

From the Grand Plaza we walked by Temple 3 (in the distance and under repair) to Temple 4. Visitors are allowed to climb up a wooden staircase adjacent to the temple to the top of the temple - which I did - and then view the site and the surrounding jungle. This is the one temple I did climb up - the view was very impressive. At the bottom of this page is a picture I took from the top.

After Temple 4, we walked through the jungle some more through some areas with smaller structures - by the Grand Pyramid, the Lost World Complex, and some others of which I don't remember. Again, visitors were allowed to climb all over these structures and many were. These structures were on our way to last attraction of our tour, Temple 5.

Temple 5 is, I believe, the tallest temple at the site. It was so tall I could not get a good picture with the entire temple in it. For those hardy souls who chose to climb the temple, and you could, there was no adjacent wooden staircase. There was a two-way wooden "ladder" to the left of the central stairs which all temples have leading to the top. Once again, not allowed to climb using the stone steps.

Several members of our group went up the "ladder". I say "ladder" because although it contained steps, the ladder was not very deep. And it looked like seven or eight ladders were attached together, which had very small platforms in between.

The members who went to the top said it wasn't very wide at the top either.

All of this took about 45 minutes and it ended the tour. We hiked a short way out of the site over to where lunch was being served. Lunch was chicken and rice; I remember having a very refreshing carbonated pineapple soda.

After lunch, we were given the option of ziplining.

Let's get something clear - I do not like heights. However, I decided to participate in the ziplining. Not one of my better experiences - I did try to chicken out at the first platform but was not allowed. Eventually, though, I got the hang of it. There were 8 platforms; as a group we went from one to the other. We had to wait for everyone (which meant me) to finish before we could proceed to the next platform. Two members of the ziplining business went with us to assist us in exiting and entering the platforms.

I can say, proudly, I have experienced ziplining and never, ever have to do it again! Ever! Not going to do it.

The ziplining took about one and one half hours to complete. After that, we still had to drive back to San Ignacio via the border - I don't remember so many men with weapons this time around. We were all pretty tired on the return trip, so we were all pretty quiet.
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