El Remate, Guatemala: The Mayan Temples of Tikal

Update on my laptop situation: Ok, I got really lucky and it turns out that my power supply was not fried after all. I think I may have just blown up the faulty outlet in my “shack” while I was staying on the beach in Belize. So I chilled out there for about 4 days and had an amazing experience there (post coming soon). Yesterday, I took a 6 hour bus ride back across the border to Flores, and then another 9 hours bus ride overnight back down here to Guatemala City as I’m heading into El Salvador tomorrow. Anyway, I got in at 4am and was so haggard that I just decided to check into the Holiday Inn (which was $140us…Ouch!) rather than looking for a cheap hostel in the middle of the night in one of the most dangerous cities in the world. I decided to try my power supply in one of the outlets in my room and low and behold and it worked! Whooo! So I’m stoked and my laptops back in action and well, here the post back from last week on Tikal…

After spending the last 10 weeks in Antigua learning Spanish, I decided to head about 9 hours up to Peten in Northern Guatemala to check out the Mayan Ruins of Tikal. The ruins date back to as early as 400BC, encompass more than 3,000 stone constructions, and are located in the midst of a dense jungle. Tikal was a massive city that supported as many as 90,000 inhabitants during the height of the Mayan civilization around 900AD.

Tikal has been featured in various motion pictures such as Star Wars among others, and really embodies a mythical quality that you cannot find anywhere else in the world. Walking trough the jungle along the various paths and causeways to the temples is as close to something straight out of an Indiana Jones movie as you’re going to get. There are all sorts of birds and monkeys, and just from the noise alone, you can really feel that the jungle itself is alive. It’s a bit strange too when you’re out there, because the Jungle has a really unusual smell. I want to say that it’s a crisp smell, kind of like the forest, but it’s really strange and very hard to describe.

So, as you make your way down the main causeway, you will have about a 20 minute walk to the entrance of the site where there are various paths that split off to each of the different temples throughout the ancient city. One great thing about Tikal is that it’s a “hands on” experience. Once you arrive at one of the massive temples you can actually climb up to the top! You’ll see in some of the pictures that I post below that I have some photos taken on top of temple IV, which is the tallest temple at the site, and it’s great because you can actually see temples I and II in the background and how high the temples rise above the jungle. The pictures also point out the density of the jungle itself as there is nothing that stands in between each of the temples but jungle. Tikal was a really amazing experience and something that I will never forget. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

I also wanted to mention a little bit about El Remate, which is where I stayed during my trip to Peten. It’s located a long the beautiful shores of lake Peten Itza about half way between Flores and Tikal. It was a really beautiful place with horses, wild turkeys, chickens, pigs, and all sorts of other animals running around along the beautiful countryside. I stayed at “La Casa de Don David” right along the lake, and I would like to sincerely thank my friend Kelsey and her family for the warm wonderful hospitality which made my stay something I will remember for a long time. I have included a link below to La Casa de Don David if you’re curious about the accommodations, El Remate, or would just like to see some beautiful pics… http://www.lacasadedondavid.com/