Death by Ancient Stair Master!

Today we got up at the ass crack of dawn again, for the second day in a row, to catch a mini-bus to Tikal, the Mayan ruins about half and hour north of El Remate. At 5.30AM, we were already sweating in places we didn't know we could.

The storm from the previous made the ride a bit interesting, as there were many trees down on the road entering the park. Interesting animal crossing signs warned us as we were entering-monkeys, snakes, panthers, picotes-a raccoon like thing, a sign that appeared to look like a deer or something with antlers that we never saw. We got to the part at 6am before most of the tourists arrived and its wasn't too hot yet-don't get us wrong it was still damn hot!

We opted to go agaist the rope that indicated we shouldn't start our tour this way in the park, but we had our maps in our guidesbooks and the guy from Mass. with us, so we said whatever. Who can get lost in the jungle with a map? With 7 temples to see, time was wasting, so onto Temple 6 first. Here, we were greated by an unindefiable mammal, birds, and monkeys! I am pretty sure one peed on my guidebook. Nothing too special out Temple 6, so onto Temple 5. Temple 5 was CRAZY! With steep wooden stairs to climb, 58 meters high, for you not metric peeps, that about 150 feet maybe. Going up was the easy part and the view at the top was magnificent. Above the canopy, we could see Temples 1 and 2. If you know anything about Tikal, Temples 1 and 2 are the ones most often seen in photographs in books. So onto to Temples 1 and 2 and the Gran Plaza, where the human sacrifices happened, or so our books say. Another Temple to climb at Temple 2, but we couldn't climb Temple 1 because some dumb tourists fell off the damn thing a few years ago to their death.

So we opted to forgo the sun rise tour because some other travelers the day before said that the price for rising early and running 2 miles into the park to see the sunrise on Temple 4 wasn't worth it because it was so misty and hazing. Instead, we took our sweet time mastering the various Maya stair masters until we got the back of the park to Temple 4. Temple 4 was under "reconstruction", which really looked like they were rebuilding it with new stone blocks and mortar. So much for preservation. Temple 4 had a awesome view above the canopy and of Temples 1, 2, 3, and 5.

We were pretty much with the park 2 hours before our bus was scheduled to leave, but we all were hot, tired, and hungry after 6 hours in the park. Beer sounded really damn good at this point, as did a shower and a nap. Lisa went for a swim in the lake near our grass hut while I took a nap. Dinner at the hotel and back to bed for another early rise to head to the airport to return to Guatemala City and onto the western highlands.