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Other entries in Tikal

The virtue of planning - shelter

3) You can clothe yourself and keep warm and dry.

After carefully shopping around for the cheapest bottle of water, we bounced out of bed at 4:15am and set off for the spectacular site (and sight) that is Tikal.

After an hour on the road, we came across our first challenge - a 100 quetzal entry fee!! Thankfully, my brilliant travelling companion, had the foresight to carry the odd US dollar for emergencies and we were able to pass through...

Decked out in our finest summer gear, complete with sunscreen, sun glasses and hats, we started our 6 hour, 10km trek around Tikal. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas and were cold and wet within one metre of the bus :)

Needless to say, despite the weather (luckily our expensive Gortex jackets were keeping our packs dry back at Flores), dehydration and starvation (we hadn't had a good meal, aside from the odd bowl of cereal and the tacos in Flores since 3pm Friday, 31 December 2004) we saw and climbed (quite impressive for someone who's scared of heights - 40 metres up sheer wooden ladders? ) most of the temples and ruins at Tikal. They were amazing - King Moon Double Comb (or Lord Chocolate) must have been quite a guy :P

Tikal is a magical place - towering pyramids (temples) set amidst a lush jungle setting, replete with howler and spider monkeys, toucans, macaws and billions of other birds - and devoid of the usual 'guides' and annoying-souvenier-sellers. No wonder it's been a UNESCO heritage site for the last quarter century... definitely a must visit if you ever visit Central America.


And we managed to grab a big breakfast for an exorbitant price (I still had mexican pesos) at a flash hotel whilst we waited for the bus back :)

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