Day 2 in Tikal/Flores

Day 2, December 28th....

We had arranged the previous day for a driver to take us to Tikal, wait for us, and drive us back to our hotel again. Guess how much it cost? 350 Quetzales (Ket-sal-es)! Do the math, 8 quetzales is equal to 1 U.S. dollar... An hour drive and waiting however long it would take us to see the pyramids (which took 5 hours) and driving us the hour back, all 6 of us, cost $30 American dollars. Where in the U.S. could you find something like that?! 7 hours of service! It still amazes me at how cheap things are here.

Ok, back to Tikal. On our drive in we saw caution signs for different animals; turkeys, snakes, possums, and... jaguars!! A sign saying caution jaguar crossing. Can you believe it? Of course we didn’t see any jaguars, they tend to be night creatures and stay far away from humans. 

It's blurry because we grabbed the camera as quick as we could and took the picture inside the car. But you can clearly see the Jaguar sign!

Once we arrived at the entrance to the National Park I wasn’t allowed to speak English so we could get a native rate to enter the park. Not that I thought it would work, they only needed to take one look at me and know I’m not from here. Pale skin and red hair are dead giveaways! We also picked up a guide to walk with us through the park. Another travel tip? Get a guide! They know the park, where to walk and where not to, they know the stories, the names, and history so well. We learned so much about the place! It will always be worth the money for a guide, we got to see the place to its fullest, never getting lost, and always being told the amazing stories of the Mayan culture. 

At the entrance there is a small scale model of what Tikal would have looked like back when they were first built. When the Mayans built these temples they completely deforested the area. There were no trees after the Mayans finished their temples! To make one metric block of stone for the pyramids it took 20,000 trees! 600 square kilometers of forest completely gone. The size of most of Massachusetts I think. So the small scale model is almost exactly what Tikal would have looked like, all stone and no forest. 

Max made it to Tikal! The small replica of what Tikal would look like.

A bird in the midst of green.

We saw a few animals; toucan, spider monkeys, some other birds, red fire ants (I got bit by one), a huge termite mound, and 2 pizotes (pee-so-teh). They are kind of a cross between an anteater and a raccoon. One of the pizotes was furious at the other one and hissed and yelled at it when it got too close. 

Spider Monkey!

A Toucan!

The termite mound

The termites!

Red fire ants carrying leaves.

Another bird that looks similar to a Toucan.

Pizotes fighting!

One of the half uncovered pyramids.

It was amazing to walk around the Mayan ruins and temples. The feel of history was strong and the amazement you felt at such an old society building such magnificent structures hits you over and over. The sad part is that only 30% of the temples in Tikal are uncovered. They estimate that 70% still lies beneath the ground and trees! That doesn’t even count all the rest of Guatemala and how much is still uncovered. And you can believe it too when you walk by large mounds/hills that don’t really match the rest of the terrain. Our guide would point to those mounds and say there is another temple or pyramid, completely buried so you can’t see any of it. They don’t have the funding to uncover the rest. All the money that the park makes from the entrance fee is taken by the Sports and Culture Municipality. They don’t leave any for the restoration of Tikal which is so sad because Tikal is one of the most amazing historical places. The most famous pyramid that you see pictures of all the time is the Jaguar Temple. The picture we have of it you can see that one side is restored and the other isn’t. The scaffolding is still there from 20 years ago when they started to restore it and lost the funding. 

The largest pyramid in Tikal is actually almost completely covered, 70 meters or 230 feet tall. They only uncovered the very top and then built rickety wooden stairs, 190 of them, so you can climb to the top of the pyramid. That one is called the Two Headed Serpent Pyramid. Standing on top of it we could see 4 other temples/pyramids and endless rainforest. The view was gorgeous! On our way down the stairs it started to rain, typical for a rainforest, but it made the stairs so slippery! We made our way down and waited in a little pavilion with a straw-like roof for the worst of the rain to stop. As it didn’t seem to be slowing down our guide suggested we keep on walking. And for the rest of the day my clothes and hair stayed completely soaked because it rained on and off. It was also so humid there was no chance our clothes would get dry! 

We continued walking and climbed another pyramid (much smaller) only about 80 steps. I can’t remember how tall it actually was. The pyramid and the following structures in this section were called El Mundo Perdido (The Lost World). Some people living during this time started to build tunnels underneath the temples and painted the walls with pictures of naked men and women and would do “Unspeakable” things in the tunnels. Those people became so wicked that the others who weren’t, left and started calling it the world that was lost to them because of the wickedness of those people. That section also consisted of 3 temples and 2 pyramid structures dedicated to the solar equinoxes and solstices. This was another amazing example of Mayan ingenuity and knowledge. During the two equinoxes and solstices the sun rays travel directly above one of the temples and intersect the pyramid (which was over 1,000 feet away) perfectly in the center, to the millimeter. They used it to tell them which season they were in. After 2,000 years it is still completely accurate. The Prudential Building in Boston sinks an inch every year. So much for evolution! I’m thinking we went backwards, especially after seeing such precise structures still standing. 

The Solstice and Equinox Structures...

After seeing the Lost World we made our way to our first completely uncovered Pyramid. It was called Temple 5 (no Mayan name) but was dedicated to the God of Rain. This thing was massive! 

We are so small!

We weren’t allowed to climb it because it was too dangerous. The steps were too crumbly and old. Here’s another cool fact, almost every temple we saw had at least 3 our more layers underneath it. Most often, when the old King died and the Temples were passed to the new King, the new King would build on top of the old Pyramid. Sometimes they didn’t like it, wanted it bigger, or just change the structure entirely. One temple actually had 13 other layers underneath it! In some temples you could actually see the layers underneath. One we climbed had 3 sets of stairs visible! Also the most inner layers still had some paint on it. The temples and pyramids were usually painted white or red. Amazing! 

W finally made our way to the main Plaza. That’s where the famous Jaguar Temple is and the Temple of the Masks. It's the one that you see pictures of all the time. The picture we have of it you can see that one side is restored and the other isn’t. The scaffolding is still there from 20 years ago when they started to restore it and lost the funding.  

King of the time built the Temple of the Masks to honor his wife and built the Jaguar Temple for himself. It is amazing to know that these temples were built in a matter of months, and not the decades it would take us to build them now! The main plaza is surrounded by different structures. Some of them homes, offices, government buildings, a typical city! The floor between the pyramids was covered in grass but back in the Mayan time it was stone. If they were to dig down they would still find that stone floor, 3 layers of stone. Each stone floor 30 centimeters thick. The kings would not only redo the pyramids but the floor as well! 

Luis climbing down the narrow, wooden, slippery stairs of the Temple of Masks.

On the left is the Temple of Masks, in the middle are some houses and other stuff, and on the right is the Jaguar Temple. 

The Jaguar is actually a very revered and worshipped animal to the Mayan culture. And the Jaguar Temple once had a huge sculpted jaguar head on top of it. It was a wooden plaque that was taken from Guatemala to Switzerland of all places! So sad that such an amazing structure is no longer on top of the Jaguar Temple, where it should be. We walked around that area and were just struck with massive size of Tikal and the pyramids. I kept on wishing I could have seen this place when it was first built. It is beautiful today, I can’t imagine what it would have looked like! Well, probably not as nice since all the trees would be gone but still so amazing! 

Can you believe it! We're sitting on the step of the Jaguar Temple!

Luis, becoming very proud of his heritage.

We reluctantly made our way back to our driver and drove back to our hotel. We stopped at Pizza Hut on the way and enjoyed some good ol’ fashioned American Food :). Thus ended our foray into the Mayan world.


To read about Day 3 click here!