We will be posting our thoughts on Tikal park and the Tikal Mayan ruins very soon…
For now, we’re just posting some of our favorite pictures.
In 2 days, we took over 130 photos of the amazing ruins at Tikal.
Suffice it to say that we loved our visit to the Mayan Ruins in Tikal, Guatemala and will have more to say (in this post) soon.
For now, we hope you enjoy the visuals from a place that is being restored… a city that is over 1,000 years old and is being dug out of the jungle so that it will be preserved in it’s best state for future generations.
You can see me in this picture next to the watermark. Gives you an idea of the sheer size of this temple.
What good would a Mayan temple be without a few sacrificial virgins?
Digging out the temples from the jungle growth of 1,000 years
Effective sleeping on a night bus from Guatemala City to Tikal (7 hours on a bus)
400 year old Cypress tree
I shall call him Big Face
Day 2
Can you see Carrie?
Lots of monkeys in the park. Pretty awesome to see them swinging from the trees! Just be forewarned that they’re used to people and can pee on you if they’re in the right mood and given the opportunity.
How many Mayan steps can you run in less than 10 seconds (timer on my camera)?
Lots of wild turkeys
Really Nifty bugs
Stay away from monkeys on your travels–don’t even get near them. In India, a young couple
from Brazil, & of all things a doctor lady & a
Pshchiatrist lady, were in our group at a jungle temple India is filled with monkeys EVERYWHERE;
all over the cities & jungles. One of the ladies
was using her little camera with a small zoom
looking up at a small monkey above her on a roof & he jumped upon her shoulder & grabbed her camera & when she tried to hold on to it, he bit a hunk out of her shoulder–this required a visit to the hospital & she had to give herself stomach shots every day for the rest of our trip to be certain she did not contact a disease.
Hola! We are trying to decide whether to take the bus at night or day. Which did you do? Wondering if the scenery along the trip merits 10 hours of day time. My gut feeling is to take the night bus and sleep through it. Thoughts?
Thanks,
Joyce
I don’t know if the scenery is worth it or not.
We took the night bus which takes about 7-9 hours (depending on weather, bus driver, roads, etc.).
The two companies that came recommended to us were ADN (Autobuses Del Norte) and FDN (Fuente Del Norte).
Based on what we heard and experienced, ADN is the better choice for a more comfortable bus…
When you arrive, you don’t arrive directly at Tikal either. You arrive in Flores, which is still an hour away from Tikal. LOTS of taxis and opportunities for transportation to Tikal from Flores, but I would have liked to have known in advance that we still had an hour to go, and that we would arrive at a bus station in the middle of a town that was still an hour away from Tikal. So hopefully that’s helpful.
I do recommend going out to the other city that’s right there too (Santa Elena)… we enjoyed walking around there and think it will be a good real estate spot since it’s a great place to stay before/after a day at Tikal.
Our two posts about Tikal:
http://www.carrieandjonathan.com/wanted-decent-travel-agent-for-tikal.html
http://www.carrieandjonathan.com/tikal-mayan-ruins-at-tikal-guatemala_lots_of_photos.html
And this map will show you what we did and where we stayed.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=113630998063398653484.0004754773765d5dfc150&ll=17.072539,-89.677277&spn=0.615687,1.234589&z=10
I also recommend visiting Chichicastenango on a Sunday. Our post about our visit there:
http://www.carrieandjonathan.com/chichicastenango-on-market-day-aka-we-are-the-giants-from-th.html
Hope that’s helpful!
Jonathan