Central America 2000 - Towering temples at Tikal
From Worldtraveller
The next day, we went to a mountain town called Chichicastenango. Apart from having a fantastic name, Chichi is justifiably famous for its markets. Local people converge on the town from the surrounding countryside every Sunday and Thursday to buy and sell fruit and veg, and many stalls sell fantastic Guatemalan handicrafts, bought mainly by foreigners. We had found that it was very easy to live incredibly cheaply in Guatemala, and we had enough spare money to go on a bit of a souvenir binge. After four hours of intense haggling, I came away with three rugs, two hammocks, some painted pots and a huge blanket, all at very agreeable prices. It was enormous fun, and I was sad to leave. Laden with new belongings, we decided to pay the extra for a minibus direct back to Antigua.
And so with exactly a week to go, we found ourselves back in Antigua. There were two things left to do - climb the volcanoes, and visit the Mayan ruins at Tikal. The latter had not been on our original agenda, but we decided that if we had time, we would try and see it, as it is said by those in the know to be the most spectacular of the Mayan sites. Unfortunately, Moh had spent a little too lavishly at the market, and didn't have enough for the bus fare, so it was on my own that I got the overnight bus from Guatemala City to Flores, way up in the north of Guatemala on the Yucatán peninsula.
It was a very pleasant bus ride up there. A few years ago the road to Flores was notorious for (guess what?) armed robberies, but the road has recently been paved, which speeds up the journey enormously and has cut incidences of robbery to zero. I arrived in Flores safe and well after a nine-hour journey. Flores is about an hour's drive from Tikal itself, and I got the earliest bus to the ruins. I arrived there at 8.30am, and set off eagerly down the jungle path to the ruins.
What makes Tikal so spectacular is the fact that it is deep in the jungle. Every other major Mayan site has had its plazas and temples cleared of vegetation, but at Tikal the forest still covers much of the site. Also amazing are Tikal's enormous temples, the biggest of which, at 64m tall, was the tallest structure in the Americas until the Spanish arrived. I spent a most enjoyable day climbing all the temples and pyramids I could, and enjoying the awesome views over the jungle canopy from the top. The jungles of the Petén (as Guatemala's northern province is known) stretches for hundreds of miles around, covering the whole of the Yucatán peninsula, and from up the top of the 64m Temple IV the views are astonishing.
It was also nice to be back in fearsome heat. It was at least 30°, and this was some relief after two weeks of chilly weather in the highlands. I spent some time pondering the fact that I was going to return to England in just four days time, and came to the conclusion that I would die of flu within a month.
As well as the ruins, the jungle was enormously impressive. Many times during the trip I had heard monkeys, but had never seen them until now. They weren't exactly shy here, and the first one I saw was shamelessly throwing bits of twig at me. As well as the monkeys, there were plentiful racoons and foxes, parrots and toucans, and the huge, colourful Petén turkey, found only in this part of the world. All in all it was a fantastic day. I had walked for miles and seen a huge amount, and I slept well on my overnight journey back to Guatemala City.
