Guatemala – Tikal

We left Belize for Guatemala in our private shuttle. The border crossing was easy if a bit sketchy. We had an entire van to ourselves all the way to Tikal (about 3 hours). The driver waited while we decided which hotel we wanted to stay at in the park. There are only 3 choices, so it wasn’t much of a wait. We chose the Tikal Inn because it had a swimming pool (which is the golden rule when travelling with kids). We bought our entrance tickets to Tikal after 3pm and they were good for the next day, too. Tikal is absolutely amazing. You walk through jungle trails up to huge Mayan ruins. You are allowed to climb almost everywhere and check things out. Absolutely amazing! Tikal is where one of the Star Wars movies was partially filmed (Return of the Jedi -- Jason just told me).

After dinner, we booked our Tikal sunrise tour. This meant we had to wake up at 4 to meet up with our guide to watch the sunrise and get a tour of Tikal. Sounds easy enough, but add waking up at 4am to absolute darkness because the power isn’t turned on until 9am and things get a bit hairy. We finally made it out the door and into some sort of vehicle (I think it was a truck, but seriously, there is no light anywhere and you are in the middle of the jungle!). We drove for about 60 seconds to the entrance to the park and then all piled out. There was a family of 3 from Holland with us. It was quite chilly and we weren’t completely dressed for the weather. To add to the adventure Jade was feeling sick the night before and as it was really still night time, so she was still pretty queasy. Just to add to the fun, Lena started feeling sick, too. Anyhoo, when they offered to drive us instead of walking the 45 minutes to our destination we said “Oh Yeah!!”

The driver took us somewhere and then dropped us off in complete darkness. He asked for 10Q each (about $1.30) and then took off. We had no idea where we were, but we did have 1 flashlight between the 5 ½ of us (the Mom from Holland came with us, too). With my sketchy Spanish I understood that the others, including the guide, should be by in 45 minutes or so. So we hung out wondering where we were and what the heck those noises were.

Finally we saw some others coming and eventually our guide and group. We were told to climb up these really steep stairs and then wait. We all got to the top and it was the top of Temple 5. It was pitch black and the guide told us we were not allowed to talk as some of the folks like to meditate while waiting for the sunrise. Yeah, right! 2 freezing cold, sick girls and 1 very gassy baby do not make for easy meditation. The gassy baby butt got a few giggles and the girls were fantastic considering they were both in desperate need of a toilet.

As the sun started to rise behind the clouds, the jungle started to wake up. First the birds and then the howler monkeys. I have a video clip that I will try to post. Absolutely amazing. Even thought it was cloudy and we couldn't actually see the sun rise, it was pretty fantastic to listen to the jungle get out of bed!!

Due to the stomach issues facing our crew, we missed the rest of the tour. We did get to cruise around the site for a while climbing all over the ruins. Next, it was back to the hotel and a ride into Flores about 40 minutes away.