The Terrible Catsafterme

For the most part, everything that I was experiencing during my Guatemala trip was a complete surprise as I had gone into the trip without any research or preconceived notions about what I would be seeing. The Mayan ruins of Tikal, however, were a bit of an exception as this was a landmark I had actually heard of and took the liberty of seeking out some info about before I left for the trip. Of all of the locations in Guatemala, this was  probably the most famous and the one that I was most looking forward to.

Originally, we were scheduled to depart the hotel at the ungodly hour of 5am to go on this venture. However, our ACT representative Steve despised waking up so early, so he somehow managed to change the schedule so that we didn’t have to leave until 7:30am. So on Wednesday, April 1, Bob and I got up, had our breakfast, I wished him a Happy Birthday (to correlate to the events of exactly one year ago this day in Texas), and we boarded our bus for the short jaunt to the La Aurora International Airport.

There we picked up our boarding passes and paid the $35 fuel surcharge. There was a bit of rigmarole because we were told to bring a different amount and no one had any change, but it all worked out somehow. There was absolutely no security getting on this charter flight, but we were all weighed to make sure that the plane could support us! Traveling along with our group was a Canadian youth group on an elaborate field trip.

Waiting with my plane ticket at the airport for our departure time

Our little Guatemalan plane

The plane left at 8:30 and we arrived at the Santa Elena International Airport located in Flores around 10. The Tikal Mayan ruins were located way up in the northern portion of the country in the department of Petén, which accounts land-wise for one-third of the country. Flores in the capital of Petén. After de-boarding the plane, we then caught a bus run by another local tour group and met up with our host Edyn. The bus ride from Flores to Tikal took another 45 minutes.

Upon our arrival at the Tikal National Park, the first thing we did was to visit two of the museums on site: the first being the outdoor Morley Museum specializing mostly in the ceramic and other artifacts recovered from the site and the second displaying mostly large ancient stelae found in the region, which are large stone slabs that had once been erected to commemorate Mayan leaders and such. There was also a nice scale model showing the unearthed ten square miles of Tikal. This currently leaves about 212 square miles of unexcavated jungle.

Outside the Morley Museum which contained mostly ceramic artifacts

The swamp outside the Visitors Center and museum apparently housed a big croc

Model of the unexcavated portions of Tikal

After visiting the museums, we took a long walk outdoors in the blazing heat (this portion of Guatemala was not in the highlands, so it got much warmer up north) to the outdoor El Mesón restaurant. There we had steak cooked on the grill. I knew we were in for some extensive walking so I didn’t eat too much.

During the walk to the restaurant, I happend upon this giant termite nest…

…and this even more giant Ceiba tree

Charles, Charles, Randy, and Sharon are the first four on the left. Me, Sid, Ingrid, and Julie are the first four on the right.

We had a tremendous walk in the heat ahead of us to get to the most impressive temple ruins. Fortunately, there was a utility vehicle available to drive some us. Unfortunately, not all of us would fit in it. I volunteered my seat to my elders (which was everyone), but I had no takers so I rode in style to our first stop at Temple IV.

Charles, Mary, Bob, and me ride in luxury through through the jungle

Tikal was inhabited by the Mayan people from roughly 400 B.C. to 900 A.D., before it was conquered and/or abandoned. It had been one of the cultural, political, and military centers of the Mayan people. The area is now one of the largest archaeological sites in the Americas and certainly the largest of Pre-Columbian Mayan history. Before 1951, the area could only be reached after several days journey on foot or by mule through the jungle.

So basically for the next two and a half hours, we explored the area. Everyone climbed to the top of Temple IV, the highest of the pyramids at 230 feet, which offered the most stunning view of the area – so our group just kicked back up there for about a half-hour. Scenes from the original Star Wars were filmed from this temple as an overview of the Rebel base Yavin 4.

On top of ol’ Temple IV

The view from the top of Temple IV. Temple III is seen on the right with Temples I and II between III and my head.

Bob descends Temple IV, located right on top of this stoop

With Temple IV in the background, where we had just been

After we descended Temple IV, we made the lengthy journey to the social center and acropolis of the former Tikal inhabitants, along the way stopping at Complex N to admire Stele 16, and then passing by the impressive Temple III, the last large pyramid built at Tikal – which was constructed in 869 not long before the fall of the city.

Stele 16

Temple III

Visually, the most impressive pyramid temples were Temples I and II. These two temples faced one another in the Grand Plaza of the acropolis. Many of us climbed up a little over midway up Temple II. All of the ruins in this area were fun to explore and included the residential and administrative palaces, burial ground of the Tikal rulers, ceremonial areas, and ball courts. The ball games played were similar to basketball and occasionally the winners would be sacrificed to the gods. Geez, what an honor.

In the Central Plaza, at the base of Temple II

Atop Temple II

Temple I in the background, taken from my position on Temple II

On the palace steps. Apparently this is a common bored-looking pose when on Guatemalan steps

Cheering from the spectator stands of the ball court. Basketball may or may not have been invented right here.

A very interesting optical illusion. This temple that looks about twice as tall as me is actually Temple I (seen at the top of the posting). My positioning at the elevated palace is actually some distance from the temple and helps create the unintended effect

I didn’t get quite so lucky this time in catching the transport back to our bus, so I walked the whole way. This was perfectly fine with me as I always enjoy a good walk and got the opportunity to talk to our guide Edyn and get more of an insight into the Mayan history. He also told me that Mel Gibson’s film Apocalypto, which, although the Mayan tribe in the film was based on a conglomerate of tribes, was very accurate in its portrayal of life in the Mayan age. Incidentally, scenes from that film were shot in Tikal as well. I also saw some spider monkeys along the way.

Bob leads the way as many members of our group get a ride back to the bus

With our guide Edyn at a map near the entrance to Tikal

We got back to the bus and departed at about 4:15pm, made a pit stop along the way to the airport, and caught the flight back at 6pm. The rules were a little more stringent going from Flores to Guatemala City as they didn’t want anything contaminated brought back to the city. Bob had to ditch his sunscreen.

Our day in Tikal comes to an end

It had been a long, hot, and exhausting day. There would be more to come.

The Guatemala trip will continue…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 6:02 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Film Locations, Historical Locations, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.