TIKAL

We woke up at 3AM for the sunrise tour. We took an hour bus ride where I got to see a sky full of stars and lightning that streaked through the whole sky. When we arrived to the park we were in the middle of the jungle racing through dark paths to who knows what. We couldn't see anything and I have not even started talking about the noises we heard....

The most alarming was a cross between Darth Vader and a dying mule. And it would not stop. Screetching, squaking, and constant moaning booming throughout the jungle! We reached an infinite amount of stairs and began the climb. We got lucky, because we were able to see the sunrise, a lot of times the clouds do not break. Pictures will never do it justice but here goes..

TIKAL is one of the biggest archaeological sights for any ancient tribal civilization. The Mayans lived throughout a lot of Central America, but this was their booming metropolis!

I got to hold the scorpion as well! Since scorpions are nocturnal and it was the middle of the day, the guides could make it fall asleep in seconds by just covering it with their hands.

The ants are so different than any of the ones we see in the states. I love this picture because one ant had stopped to clean its legs

and another one came to help it out!

This was king Cacoa's bedroom. He was the most powerful & important king of their whole history (and the only one ever to have a window in his bedroom!) He was over 6 ft tall when most of them at that time were averaging 4ft. 

Our tour guide was showing us how the Mayans produced chewing gum from this piece of fruit. (You can also slit the trunk & take the sap to produce gum!) Other major products they cultivated were corn, avocados, & squash. 

Our guide Carlos, said that while the Mayans lived here they were not surrounded by forrest because they used the trees to burn the limestone to make the mortar to build their temples. 

These were the 3 chambers the superiors came from. Only the wealthy played their sports and interestingly enough they would kill the winners because they wanted to offer the best gifts to all their different Gods. 

This was their BUSTLING DOWNTOWN!

We were delirious at this point & just joking around. We had a nice picnic & took the 11 o'clock bus home. Hard to believe we were finished with our day at 1. But we had been up since 2:45 AM! We did manage to take a nice DIP in the LAKE though!