Taking on Tikal Temples

This post will conclude the Kenny 2008 visit! We could not have ended it any better or more exciting than a trip into the Peten region of Guatemala (a low, flat state that is mainly jungle) to visit the ancient Mayan civilization ruins of Tikal.

This was also Easter Sunday, and what better way to celebrate and connect with God's kingdom? In the quiet time we waited for the sun to peek over the horizon, we had time to thank God for sending his son to die on the cross, and be resurrected from the dead. The symbolism of the rising sun was not lost on us! Creation is too beautiful for words sometimes.

Tikal is the largest excavated site in the entire American continent, and yet 80% of the ruins are STILL not excavated! wow! Tikal Park is 222 square miles, and less than 10 miles have been mapped. Over 3,000 separate buildings have been revealed: temples, shrines, ceremonial platforms, residences, ball courts, terraces, causeways and plazas.

Not to forget, we were thinking of Mom the entire time we were there. She didn't come with us due to her spell in Pana the day before, but she was sorely missed both for her fun presence and her knowledge about Tikal and the Maya civilization! She's a high school (and German) Spanish teacher in Neosho, and she's very passionate about studying the Mayans. We kept her in our prayers and thoughts the entire time we were there.

History (from this website):

Archaeologists tell us Tikal was the largest capitol of Maya Cities and at its height during its Classic period from 500AD and had a population of 50,000 to 100,000 persons. For reasons not yet clear Archaeologist believe that around 870AD, construction slowed and the city began to decline. It was completely deserted by the end of 900AD. Tikal has an estimated 3000 structures. The partially restored area consists of nine groups of courts and plazas. There are 5 large temples. One of the most impressive and tallest structures, Temple IV, is 229 ft. Tikal’s was a governing and religious center of the ruins and covers about 222 square miles. The Maya civilization is considered one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known.

....a bit more from this website...

While Europe still languished in the Dark Ages, the Maya Astronomers evolved a Solar calendar more accurate than that of today, also had a Ceremonial Calendar of 260 days, (They used at least 18 different calendars, based in movements of the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and several more celestial movements) its chronology was divided in Baktúns (20 years) they fully comprehended the theory of mathematics and developed the concept of zero, that allowed them to make difficult calculations, but its system was vigesimal (Based on 20), not decimal as ours. Maya astronomers accurately traced the path of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and other planets, and also predicted solar and lunar eclipses.

The Mayan-built temple stairs were extremely tall and uncomfortable to climb, even more difficult to get down. At least 2 people have died falling down temple stairs in recent years. Proceed with caution!

Lodging:

We stayed at the Hotel Tikal Inn, located inside of the national park, just a few minutes' walk to the park entrance. My only requirement for the hotel room in the jungle was that it be bug-free. I can handle heat, crappy beds, and a little bit of noice, but I have found that I have a touch of arachnophobia, and any spider larger than my fist incites a major dose of fear! The rooms were excellent: quiet, spacious, and comfortable. Our hotel also had a pool and some smaller, thatch-roof bungalows, but they were more expensive, so we opted out. We also never had time to swim, but the pool looked definitely looked inviting!

One of the great things about Tikal Park is that the entire park only has electricity from 6:00-10:00 pm. Therefore, we brought our handy dandy headlamps for getting up at night, getting ready early in the morning for the sunrise tour, and on the tour itself. The basic lodgings and lack of power really added to your experience that we were in the jungle!

We ate our meals at a less expensive but nice place next door, the Hotel Jaguar Inn. Because we flew in late, we didn't need to eat dinner, but we had guacamole, tortillas, and beer to pass the evening while we played cards. This may be a good time to share that I LOVE to play cards, and thank goodness my Dad and James both do as well! We got some great rounds of Hearts and Spades in while we were there.

Weather

Much to our delightful surprise and my total shock, it was neither hot nor humid at Tikal! When I visited Tikal back in June of 2003, it was a sweltering, humid mess of a trip. I warned James and Dad to only bring the lighest weight clothing and plenty of mosquito repellent. But, this was one of the 3 months a year it doesn't rain there, so we definitely lucked out! It was a temperate 70 the entire time, and nothing to make you wish you were in A/C.

Tikal Sunrise Tour

The tour started well before sunrise, and we walked (with a group of about 50 other people) for roughly 20 minutes to Temple IV, climbed up its rickety wood makeshift steps, and sat to watch the sun rise, and to watch and listen to the jungle itself wake up. It was REALLY great!For the tour, I think it's important to separate it into buildings and nature, because both were equally impressive!

We started the tour at 4:45 a.m. and went through Little Ceasar's Tours and Caesar himself gave the tour. It was great for Dad because Caesar was actually raised in NYC, so his English was excellent, and the tour was in English, so there was no need to try to translate the whole time. Overall, he did a decent job of explaining the monuments and wildlife, and giving us enough time to explore, but based on our own knowledge of the Maya, I'd say he missed some really interesting facts about the Maya that could/should have been shared. (He was long on conspiracy theories for their decline, though!)

Temples

(factual information from this website)

Rather than explain too much about each temple, I'll just speak generally to the experience of seeing and climbing them. The pictures do not do justice to how incredibly steep and HUGE the temples were, extending above the jungle itself! One temple we climbed was clearly a verticle ladder climb, and really pretty scary if you are scared of heights! Dad opted out of that one....It is hard to imagine climbing these if they are in any way wet, therefore slippery. Most of the temples were hidden throughout the jungle, reached only by path, and often you were upon a half-covered or completely jungle-covered temple before you even realized it. They just don't have the funding or support in the country to uncover the other buildings. The University of Pennsylvania was the main funding and archaeological team that uncovered the ones you can see and climb today.

The more grandeur set of temples were in the Grand Plaza, the Temple of the Grand Jaguar and Temple II. These two are facing each other, as many other temples the Maya built do as well. Even though the Temple of the Grand Jaguar looks gigantic (143 feet) it's not the tallest temple at Tikal. Temple III, which is still unexcavated, is 179 feet, Temple V is 189 feet and Temple IV is 208 feet (the one we climbed to watch the sunrise).

Interesting Facts:

The temples at Tikal were used in the Star Wars movies as the rebel base!

As in Egypt, these temples were all built to commemorate a king buried underneath them....without the use of the wheel!

The temples were also built to line up with astronomical events...some within less than a fraction of a percent!

On the Northern Acropolis (lots of stairs and living spaces) there was a 10 foot high giant mask of their rain god.

Nature

The wildlife and plant life we got to see at Tikal was awesome. We saw tarantulas scurrying about, toucans hanging out in the trees, giant pheasant-like birds, a pack of coatimundis, and plenty of other creatures flying or running about. One of the major highlights was to hear the howler monkeys really howling and growling in the dark on the way to watch the sunrise. They sounded like hungry and agitated jaguars, not like monkeys at all! It was kind of frightening, and definitely added to the mystique of the jungle before dawn!

The Long Wait Home

Because we did the Early Bird tour, we were wiped out by 10:00 a.m., and had to check out of our hotel room by 11:00 a.m. anyway. Unfortunately, because we didn't know how long we would need at Tikal, we had booked the last possible flight home which wasn't until 6:00 p.m. This left of 7 hours to kill. We spent a few unhurried hours eating an early lunch and playing more cards, and it took roughly an hour to return to the city of Flores where our flight was. We asked our airline, TACA (which we refer to as "Take A Chance Airlines" due to their propensity to lose luggage, cancel, and delay flights regularly), if we could take an earlier flight out. We were told it was booked, and we'd have to be on standby. Well, knowing airlines and the ability to squeeze 3 people in via standby, we decided to go find a place that would show the NCAA basketball games instead (which we never found). It turned out that there were, in fact, 3 open seats on the earlier flight, and we should have hung around after all. Then, after waiting for what seemed like an eternity (the entire weight of the week's worth of traveling was catching up to us all by now), we got to the airport only to find out our flight was delayed by another three hours. It was a death sentence! So, we returned to the air conditioned hotel lounge we had taken over all day and watched another movie and had another round of beers to drown our sleepy sorrows.

However, the trip was definitely, definitely worth it! What a great adventure. Tikal is one of our favorite places in Guatemala, and certainly worth the time and money it takes to experience it.