Tikal!

This weekend I took a quick two day trip up to Tikal Guatemala, the ancient ruins in the northern jungle here. The jungle was so incredible and full of sounds, smells, animals, and sights new to me. I was basically in total awe the whole weekend.. as well as pretty sticky from the humidity. My friend Lauren and I took the bus overnight Friday night, stayed in a ¨nice¨ hotel right next to the park, then went home Sunday overnight on the bus again.

The night bus experience was not something I ever hope to repeat if I can help it. I thought it was expecially funny that they showed the movie Anaconda as we made our way into the jungle... love the Guate sense of humor!

Before we entered the actual park, we checked into our hotel and hung out by the pool for a few hours to wait so our tickets would last two days. Very nice, but in the duration of those few hours I was pooped on by a tucan (we think) and had a huge leaf fall right on me from the tree above. Lovely.

The ruins in the park are a bit of a hike to get to. So after 20 minutes or so of hiking Friday afternoon we came upon our first temple, Temple 1 from the back side. It is so stunning to see these huge structures piercing the jungle background. There is no comparison. That day we explored the Gran Plaza which is the most incredible grouping of ruins in the park then made our way over to Temple 4 to get a good view of the tops of some of the other temples through the jungle. From the top you can see nothing but hundreds of miles of jungle.. plus the few temple tops poking out.

The next morning we got up early to enter the park at 6 in hopes of seeing the sunrise from Temple 4.. But unfortunately it was pretty cloudy. We did get to see the fog moving slowly over the jungle though which was pretty amazing.. I´m telling you.. NOTHING BUT JUNGLE.

The rest of the morning Sunday we finished visiting some of the other temples and ruin groups. We climbed up Temple 5 which was terrifying.. Very steep dangerous ladder up so high and then we sat on a ledge at the top and took in the sights.. Unfortunately I forgot to charge my battery Saturday night so most of my pictures are from the first day.. But I´m planning to get some from Lauren for the second day. I´ve put a few of the pictures online in an album you can look at.

i´ll complete all these pictures when i get home.. for now.. this is all i can do!