Tikal, Guatemala

Today we went to the ruins of Tikal, where the Mayan people settled around 700 BC. Tikal is HUGE! Most of it is not excavated, they say only 25% is uncovered. There are a lot of pyramids and many of them hover above the tree canopy. Also, there is a ton of jungle wildlife. On the road to the ruins there are warning signs of Jaguar crossings. We were very lucky to have overcast skies, because otherwise it would have been more hot and humid than it already was.

We climbed up several of the pyramids. The first photo is at the grand plaza, where two 'twin temples' are located, we are on top of one, with the larger in the background. These are really steep, and the other was closed to the public because people have died falling down it in the past. They have some wooden stairs for you to walk up at the ones we climbed, instead of the original steep and long stairways.

The second one we climbed was the tallest temple at Tikal where we could see over the jungle and see the other temples poking through the trees. There were tons of howler monkeys near this temple, we could hear them roaring all around and as we were about to descend, we saw about 5 of them in a tree right next to the temple in the treetops (at the same elevation as us), including a mama and baby!

We also saw spider monkeys. They were hanging out in the trees as well, and chowing on palm dates which looked like little green grapes. It was difficult to get a photo because they are always moving around, this photo of a spider monkey was the best we could do.

We also saw alot of tropical birds, which was cool to see them in the wild. We saw two very large green parrots, with yellow and red on the head, and then we saw several toucans, as in the photo we took below. We also saw an owl, a falcon, and some other birds that we didn't really recognize. Luke especially is becoming a 'birder'!

Tikal is one of the oldest and largest ancient Mayan cities. There are a ton of Mayan sites in Guatemala and the Yucatan, and we are sure there are many ruins that are still undiscovered. It is amazing how much limestone they used to create these huge structures, without machinery, and supposedly without the use of the wheel.

On the left is a photo showing what most of Tikal looks like, covered in jungle. Interestingly, they built a pyramid, then built successive pyramids right over an old one, making it bigger and bigger. The archeaologists find interesting glyphs while digging through the many layers of pyramids.

Tomorrrow we catch a 5am bus through Belize to get to Chetumal, Mexico, on the Yucatan. We will overnight there and then catch a bus to Puerto Morelos, 20 minutes south of Cancun, to meet Luke's parents, his brother and sister in law, and their 3 kids. Should be a change to go back into Mexico, which will seem like Florida, compared to Guatemala.