Tikal - A Maya ruin surrounded by jungle :O (Day 186 of the world tour)

08.03.2020

The first night here in the hostel was so-so^^ First, two roommates were talking loudly in Swiss German, and then when they went to sleep, the music started outside… :D :D

Normally, that wouldn't be a big deal, but since the alarm clock would ring at 3:50 am, it was a bit unfortunate :p :D

At 3:00 am, I was finally wide awake and waiting for the alarm clock to ring, and then I had to wake up Jonas and we got ready as quietly as possible.

Just as we were about to leave, it started raining, so we went back and quickly changed our fleece jackets for rain jackets :( Oh well! According to the weather forecast, it should be nice in Tikal in the morning, so we remained optimistic :)

There were already a few people in the van at the meeting point, and we joined them to wait for the rest of the group. At around 4:40 am, we finally set off with a full group, and after a good hour, we picked up our tour guide - Luis.

Usually, Jonas and I like to do tours on our own, but just like in Angkor Wat, we didn't want to just casually walk past the ruins and take pictures, but rather learn more about the background. So, we booked the tour guide in advance, which turned out to be clever today, as he actually cost more "live" than what we had paid in advance :O

And we have to say: Luis was probably the best thing that could have happened to us :D :D

He was born and raised in Tikal and speaks English because he picked it up from the archaeologists and students working on the excavation of the Maya ruin. As a result, he sometimes has a slight American or Australian accent, which sounds pretty cool^^

Although it wasn't even 6:00 am yet, Luis was already super motivated and enthusiastic, telling us what to expect on the tour, as well as some special facts, such as a group actually seeing a jaguar last week!

It's currently mating season, which increases the likelihood of seeing some animals in the jungle because they are moving around a lot. How amazing!

He also told a story about a family that was in the national park a few years ago. One of the family members had walked alone off the main path and didn't come back in the afternoon :O

After three days, the family had given up and went home to prepare for the funeral, but then they spoke with a "special" villager who helped the search team because he knows the jungle very well. With the help of this villager, they found the missing person at the end of day 3, and he was dehydrated but survived the ordeal!

(I don't know if that was just a spooky story, but you can imagine it. Especially if you've seen how many paths there are, and how many of them are not marked but look like normal paths!!!)

Well. Since we were a bit too fast, we had to wait for another 15 minutes at the park entrance because the ticket office only opens at 6:00 am. After that, we drove another 17 km into the 500-acre park, where the trails start to explore the 15% of the uncovered ruins/buildings.

There are thousands of ruins under the hills, but as Luis said, only 15% of them have been uncovered, and since Tikal is a UNESCO World Heritage site (which is positive in itself), the excavation is progressing even slower than it already was ;-)

On the way to the start of the trails, we already saw some very colorful turkeys that were much bigger than I expected :O

After a short stop for coffee, breakfast, and the toilet, the actual tour began. Our group only had 7 people, including Luis, which was perfect because we could stay close and see everything well!

While giving us an overview of the layout of the complex and explaining how much astronomy the Maya put into the construction of the site to predict the solstices, he suddenly interrupted himself and pointed to a toucan sitting in a nearby tree!!!

Of course, we all immediately grabbed our cameras. Luis mentioned that yesterday, towards the end of the tour, he was glad that they had seen at least ONE toucan, but as it turned out, we would see four or five more today <333

We started walking, and he showed us how to make our own gum from a rubber tree, which was pretty cool and something he had learned from his grandmother^^

Even these first ten minutes were already very informative, and thanks to Luis' dramatic, playful, and funny style, it was so entertaining!! I felt like a little child watching some TV show and not wanting to stop, even when being called for dinner or something :D :D

At the ticket control, there was another highlight: As a UNESCO World Heritage site, Tikal is allowed to stamp official stamps in passports!!! (like at Machu Pichu) So, we got another stamp - yay! Of course, we didn't want to miss that :D

While standing there to get the stamp, a white-nosed coati strolled by us at a leisurely pace, only about 2-3 meters away! How cool is that?? :p

The following hours were just as amazing. Luis' tour was truly captivating, and Jonas and I were completely overwhelmed by seeing so many different wild animals! And what Luis explained about the plants was also really fascinating!

I thought it would be like Palenque: you look at the ruins, take pictures, and that's it. It could be expected that they would be big and impressive, but it was actually surprising to be right in the jungle with such biodiversity!

One thing that I found particularly fascinating was the acoustics. When you stand in the middle of a temple complex and clap loudly, there is an echo that supposedly sounds like a quetzal. Depending on where the clapper and the listener stand, they can communicate with each other.

The knowledge behind this is so incomprehensible :D :D Who came up with the idea of designing a site in such a way that this special acoustic phenomenon occurs? That's crazy :p

On the main square, there were several "buildings" that you could partly climb (or rather ascend using a constructed wooden staircase), and the highlight was the tallest temple at 64 meters - Temple Number 4.

From up there, you can have a great view of the surrounding jungle, and that was also super super cool!!!

I feel like the word "super" is in every sentence, but we were just so impressed^^

At the end of the tour, you could either go back to Flores directly or take a later shuttle. It was only 11:00 am, but we had been up since 4:30 am, so it was enough for Jonas and me for today^^

Back in Flores, we had lunch, relaxed, and made some changes to our travel plans (as always :p :D). Finally, we went to the supermarket, and now, at 17:17 pm, we are almost done with the day :D

Tomorrow, we still have the whole day in Flores, and then we will probably continue by night bus to the southern part of the country. That means there might not be a blog post directly tomorrow, depending on the Wi-Fi situation, but we'll see :)

We can definitely recommend Flores itself and the visit to Tikal - especially with Luis as a guide!! ;-)