We stayed at the Hotel Tikal Inn, set within the Tikal National Park, the temples were just a 10 minute walk away from the Grand Plaza, the centre of the Mayan ruins, perfect as we wanted to make the most of our time here. We chose a thatched roof bungalow in the gardens, at night we could hear the occasional jaguar roaring in the night, howler monkeys night and day, plenty of birds, including the stunning Golden Oriole, and toucans, delightful coatis would wander past our door! The hotel is run by Roxy, a retired archeologist, so she was able to provide a wealth of information about Tikal, the Manager Ricardo is excellent, spoke perfect English, they both worked so hard to make everything a really good stay.
The room was spotless and basic but plenty of space, plenty of open windows thankfully covered with mesh to keep the mozzies out. Of course we are in the middle of the jungle, electricity provided by a generator, a handful of hours in the day, then from 6m to 9pm, then off all night in order to reduce the detrimental effect of generator noise on the wildlife, we had a battery light in the room which was fine.
Wifi was intermittant and only available if at all in the hotel, actually it was bliss to totally disconnect from the world. Lots of hot water for showers, no air con at all, which despite the ceiling fan (which of course only works when there’s electricity!) did make for a sweaty night. The beds are covered with a heavy coverlet, which, I found kept the humid heat in the bed, so to be honest, getting between the sheets was like sliding between 2 steamed Chinese pancakes….blegh…..but…. that’s all part of the experience and we found that if we removed the coverlet as soon as the bed was made, then the bed could air and though we were still hot all night at least we didn’t have the Fungus the Bogeyman style bed! The food and staff were superb, nothing was too much trouble and the good sized clean pool was an absolute blessing in between visits to the temples and in the late afternoon where we would watched toucans fly overhead, be observed by nearby Howler monkeys and share the pool with Martins swooping & dipping into the pool for drinking water!
The beauty of staying in the Park means we could go in and out to visit the temples early in the morning before people arrived by coaches and stay on in the Park late evening. These were the most incredible times, we really had the entire park to ourselves, barring any jaguars……
Some facts….Tikal is in the Peten district of Guatemala, within one of Central America’s largest rainforests. Tikal National Park was created in 1966 and became a UNESCO world heritage site in 1979, it’s also a Human Heritage site. Tikal was the Mayan capital, was inhabited from the 6th century BC to 10th century AD, It’s population during this time was estimated at 100,000, though it’s believed now to have been a million.
It’s ecosystem and habitat is diverse, five cats, including Jaguar and Puma, several species of monkeys and anteaters and more than 300 species of birds live amongst the 200 tree species and 2,000 plants. Tikal National Park encompasses 575 square kilometres of jungle containing thousands of monumental architectures and monuments, including palaces, temples, ceremonial platforms, small and medium size residences, ball game courts, terraces, roads, large and small squares. The central part of the ancient city alone contains 3,000 buildings and covers approx 16 sq kilometres. Of course the people needed water to survive and we saw the large water reservoirs, known as aguadas, around the periphery were 25 further smaller sites, serving as protection and check points for routes, also for agriculture production for the densely populated centre.
All, that, plus immense carved monuments, which show the highly sophisticated technical, intellectual and artistic achievements of these Mayan people, and of course let’s not forget the cosmological element of their lives. We still don’t know why Tikal fell into decline at the end of the 9th century AD and collapsed, theories cover war, famine, overpopulation and resource depletion.
The jungle claimed Tikal, even in 1525, Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico marched through Tikal, and missed seeing these incredible temples, concealed by 40 metre tall trees! Silk, cotton, cedar and mahogany trees still shroud many, many temples. Through the 1950’s, 1960’s The Museum of the University of Pennsylvania and the Guatemalan Inst of Anthropolgy and History restored many of Tikals structures, this work continues, goodness knows how many uncovered buildings Terry and I walked over, there is so much work to be done, it’s definitely a job for life!
I could write endlessly about this place, it’s unbelievable, I suggest if you have a bucket list, add Tikal, and visit!
Jose was our guide, and we arranged to meet just before sunset, Jose would lead us through the temples as the sun set. Jose was full of information, on the Mayan temples and wildlife. At 4pm, the park closes to all but those who stay in the four hotels within the park. We had the entire site virtually to ourselves! Jose led us through the jungle pathways, and told us to listen….. did you know toucans make a rasping, croaking “kkreekk” “arkk-rk” call, a bit like a grasshopper rubbing its legs, a sound we would never have attributed to a toucan! Little had we known, that until Jose told us, we had had toucans overhead in the jungle canopy and we never knew! I thought about our time berthed at Shelter Bay, Panama, where toucans lived in the jungle there, how many toucans watched us, and we missed them completely because we didn’t know their call!
We were fortunate to have a still, calm evening, we walked into the middle of the Great Plaza, set in the centre of the site, and bordered by two temple pyramids East and West. East is Temple I is known as the Temple of the Jaguar, at a height of 47 meters. Ah Cacao ( Lord Chocolate) one of Tikal’s greatest rulers is buried here. Temple II, West, The Temple of the Masks, is one of the best restored temples, standing at 38 meters. North and South stand Acropolis Norte and Acropolis Central, Jose stood us in the middle of the Plaza surrounded by the 2 temples and 2 Acropolis buildings, then he began to rhythmically clapping his hands in a steady beat……. under a red sky from the approaching sunset, the effect was spine tingling… his claps echoed between the two temples, at their top were chambers, making an echo chamber, bouncing back his clapping. Jose advised us the noise was exactly the call of the beautiful Quetzale bird, how on earth the the Mayans achieve this? I can hear the sound now in my memory banks, and even now the hairs stand up on my neck!!
Jose took us to Temple IV, thought to be the tallest Mayan edifice at 65 metres. Fortunately we now have a staircase to the top, visitors used to scramble to the top holding onto roots and branches to scale the partially restored temple!! Up here the sight was breathtaking, the sun slowly set over the jungle canopy, through which, the other temples rose above the trees. Though there were a handful of tourists, apart from a couple of noisy ones, who were told to shut up, and they finally did, we were all silent, the only sound being bird song. We have experienced many things, but this was definitely up there as the most memorable. The sheer vastness of Tikal cannot be described, go and see it for yourselves if you can. Have I mentioned go and see Tikal?!
Jose guided us over and through the Plaza, we climbed up an Acropylis, our hands against the walls as we felt our way along the narrow walkways, I simply couldn’t believe we were doing this, as we picked our way along the walkway, up and up, we could sense the path of Mayans who also walked along it centuries ago, a Priest? A workman? Perhaps a mother? Here, under the stars of the vast galaxy above us, we stared up, caught in the moment….The Mayan Priests were expert astronomers, meticulously charting the movements of celestial objects and thought them to be Gods, their movements an interaction between the heavens, earth and the underworld. They could accurately predict solar phenomenon, equinoxes and eclipses, and able to predict the seasons and agricultural cycles. All this information was recorded in Chronicles or codices from which calendars emerged, tracking and forecasting the passage of time. Again, information regarding the Mayan calendars is fascinating and worth reading more about.
We had to stir ourselves from the time travelling and back to the present, the sounds of the jungle, howler monkeys made their ungodly howl over our heads, it’s no surprise to learn from Jose that the dinosaurs “vocabulary” in the Jurassic Park films are that of howler monkeys!
Terry and I followed with some slight trepidation behind Jose, he strode confidently through the jungle paths, avoiding the trees roots which we did our best not to trip over. Suddenly he stopped, and shone his torch at an upstanding tree root….. “Tarantula!” Sweet Jesus……….Terry and I stopped breathing….. Jose shone his torch into the bowel of the tree stump, there, curled up like your cuddliest soft toy, and appearing not in the least bit scary (a bite apparently feels like a bee sting, & only deadly to insects and small animals, we didn’t wish to find out!) was a furry legged Tarantula….
We left him, (or her, whichever he/she was definitely identifying as a tarantula) comfortably settled within the stump and walked on through the darkness, our path lit only by the light of our torches ….. to each side of us we were accompanied by strange noises, it’s easy to let your imagination run wild, what about the Jaguars which roam at night, they could be walking alongside us!
Jose was completely unperturbed, walking in his familiar territory, filling our heads with his quietly spoken nuggets of information, we listened, hoping to the Mayan Gods that we would soon be out of the jungle! I swear, when we parted company with Jose at the end of his amazing tour that we literally scampered back into the hotel and sought safety at the bar! It’s a testimony to his skill at guiding and storytelling that we can still feel even now the raw sense of emotion of that tour.
The following day we met up once again with Jose, who took us through much of the site. The Maya were an incredible race, mathematical geniuses, devising calendars of great precision, engineering, and design, including the construction of large water reservoirs which could hold up to several million gallons of water. The Maya astronomers understood the galaxies above them including Venus’s precise orbit around the sun.
Looking at the many stelae monuments, tall, sculpted stone shafts plus the low circular stone altars Terry and I looked upon the carved figures often with hieroglyphic text.
These stelae depicted kings, recording deeds and mythological scenes. We had both read Eric Von Daniken’s books, (eg Chariots of the Gods, Odyssey of the Gods) in which he makes claims about extraterrestrial influences upon early human cultures including the Mayans, and seeing actual carvings from hundreds of years ago, figures wearing what really looks like a present day astronaut helmet, sat inside what appears to be a space craft. Once again, the hairs on our necks stood up. We visited both on site museums, the Stelae museum featuring a reproduction of a rather haunting carving, the bound captive. We could clearly see the powerful warrior, standing in profile, looking down with chagrin upon his bound wrists. The other museum held a reproduction of the tomb and burial goods of He Sawa Chaan K’awil, one of Tikal’s great builders. As we studied the intricate painting on vases of kings riding on chariots across the skies, was it a leap too far to consider that aliens had visited? Maybe we’ll never know, but I can tell you it was really spine tingling to open our minds and gaze upon these images!
Tikal as you may have gathered has left quite an imprint upon our time in Guatemala.
We were sorry to leave, if you do visit then book into one of the three hotels within the park, wandering around in the early morning before the park opens and again at sunset embracing the sheer energy of the temples without another soul in the park was without doubt one of the most incredible experiences.
We can highly recommend our guide Jose Luis “Guatemala Tikal Jose”. Jose has been coming to Tikal since he was 5 year old, has excellent English, he has extensive knowledge of the flora, fauna, wildlife, Tikal, ancient culture and traditions, he also has a great sense of humour! Gracias Jose! If you would like contact details for Jose Luis, drop me or Terry an email, he will make your time at Tikal memorable.
sisu journey 