The Vincents: Guatemala Part 4: Tikal Ruins and the Colorful City of Flores

Tikal is one of the more famous Mayan Ruins in Guatemala. It takes an entire day to walk through this former capitol of Mayan civilization and commerce but we asked our guide to keep it short and sweet (4 hours!) and utilize shortcuts. We still got to see and experience the most impressive of the temples and had time to climb around and explore on our own too. Guatemala doesn't have the same safety and preservation standards as the U.S. so we could scramble onto the terraces of the ruins and see what the Mayan sleeping quarters and hallways looked like from the inside (under-bed storage carved out of the stone)! Our guide had lots of very interesting information about the place- as he is a second-generation Tikal guide and would tag along with his father's tourist groups when he was a boy. Look at the ground in the photo of the temple below: those tombstone looking things are sacrificial altars. The sandy circle in the middle is a fire pit. For special occasions, the Mayans would sacrifice their ruling class (it was considered a privilege to be selected for such a death). Not so coincidentally, this kept the power struggles for leadership over the city in check and the population was kept relatively peaceful.

Here's a Howler Monkey. These little guys (the size of 3 year olds) have the loudest voices and they actually echo as if they are on loud speakers. Jill and I first heard them while we were using the bathrooms in the tiny tourist center. They sounded like dinosaurs and we were wondering who was playing a recording of loud roars in the middle of an otherwise quiet jungle! Turns out, the producer of Jurassic Park used the Howler Monkey's sounds for the T-Rex's voice!

That's me near the top of the temple! A very scary ascent even with wooden stairs and railings built on a scaffolding in the back!

After our Tikal tour, Jill and I strolled around the nearby town of Flores. It's the most colorful cute little city I've ever seen. I would have loved to stay maybe one more day to take a boat ride around the island (it's situated in the middle of a lake) and jump off the docks to go swimming. But taking pictures of all the color was fun too!