Tikal

After crossing the border from Belize (which went without fuss) we had a long and windy journey to Tikal, our first stop in Guatemala. Tikal is the site of ancient Mayan ruins, and they are magnificent! On arrival we organised a sunset tour with a private guide of the site, you’re not allowed to enter the site at sunset without a guide and we can see why. It’s easy to get lost in the day, at night it would be easy to become disorientated – plus it’s full of creepy crawlies including tarantulas (we spotted a few on the way out), snakes and jaguars! The sunset tour was well worth the effort, despite the sky not being the clearest we were treated to a wonderful sunset from the top of one of the tallest pyramids (only 144 steps, viewing platform on the top), the site was quiet and less-crowded too (even the children remained relatively quiet courtesy of snacks), and we got to watch a vast array of birds settle for the night (including lots of toucans). After sunset we made our way to the main square to take in another pyramid lit-up in the dark.

The following morning, whilst it was still cool, we headed back into the site to walk up the tallest pyramid (Temple IV) - 214 steps! It was worth it for the extensive views though. As mentioned in previous blog posts there is a lot of commonality between sites but they all have their own story. Compared to other sites we have visited the pyramids appear less molested, of course there has been some restoration otherwise we’d only get to look at a vegetated hill! However they don’t tend to replace missing bits with new, they use what they’ve got and leave the pyramid partially unrestored to demonstrate how it was found. Tikal is absolutely huge and we only had time to visit the main areas, we’d need several days to explore the entirety of the site. But alas, following a dip in the pool, we were heading off to our next stop.Read more