Pensamientos: Adventures in the lost world: Tikal

The whole time I've been in Guatemala I've been excited for one thing: Tikal. Ok, fine. I've been excited for a lot of things, but I was really super excited for Tikal! I've always heard of people who have gone there, or who have put in on their bucket lists to visit before they die. And in every history book I think I've ever opened, there's been at least one picture of the Temple of the Jaguar Priest, or a paragraph or two on the innovations of this civilization. The schedule we were given early in the semester had the date listed for the Tikal visit, and I kept thinking, "That's so long from now!" But then all of a sudden, it was time to board a tiny little plane, in which I really thought my head might explode from the pressure, and go explore some Mayan ruins!

We left last Saturday at around 4am. Awesome, right? No. Not at all actually...Took a bus to Guate (Guatemala City) where we boarded the afore mentioned tiny plane. I'm not sure if it wasn't pressurized or what exactly, but I've never been in so much pain while on a plane. It simultaneously felt like my head was being crushed and ready to explode. Luckily that didn't last too long, and before too long we were in the region of Petén. From the airport it was about an hour and a half drive to the Tikal National Park, including a stop to learn about how gum was made. Look it up, kind of interesting. And then, Tikal!

I don't think I ever realized how much jungle would be around the ruins. I mean, I've seen Star Wars and I guess there was jungle on the Fourth Moon of Yavin... ;) but I kind of just assumed we'd pull up and there would be the ruins! Not so much. First you have to take a walk through the jungle, which was pretty cool too. Don't think I've ever been in a jungle before. Saw some monkeys swinging around, some cool plants... And then after awhile you start to find the ruins. Let me just tell you. They are incredible. Without you visiting, my words will not do them justice, unfortunately. Huge, amazingly preserved pyramids. Built by a society that had no machinery. No horses. Not even a donkey. Just pure manpower. And brilliance. Every pyramid in the park is perfectly aligned with a specific constellation. They all have perfect acoustics, so that when a big festival or something was being held, the common people who weren't anywhere close to the pyramids could hear what was going on just as if they were standing in front of it themselves. (They area surrounding the pyramids was specifically for royalty and priests. The commoners would have lived away from the main plaza, closer to the jungle, which at that time would not have been anywhere close to the pyramids.) And it's not like these are little pyramids that didn't take much work to create. They're huge, towering way above your heads, and built with giant stones that they dug out of quarries miles away. Keep in mind, no machinery. No horses. Just brute strength. They've only uncovered some of the pyramids because nearly every pyramid has an exact counterpart. Since it can take anywhere from 5-15 years to uncover a pyramid, costs a lot to go through this process and even more to maintain, most of the pyramids remain, and may forever remain covered by a layer of earth. A lot haven't even been discovered yet. They just found another set of pyramids in another area of Guatemala that are proving to be the biggest pyramids on the planet. The ones they have uncovered you can climb up, and the view from the top of each one is amazing (Well, I guess you can't climb up all the ones they've uncovered. They're worried people will fall off or something so they closed a few off to the public. Lame.) And yes, the view from Temple IV looks just like it does in Star Wars: Episode IV. :)

I've seen a lot of cool things in my travels. But so far, nothing has compared to Tikal. I was absolutely blown away by the pyramids, their size and the ingenuity behind them. I can't imagine the thought it took to create these monuments, nor can I understand how exactly this so called "primitive" civilization was able to build things of such magnitude. I can understand now why the locals here say they had help from aliens. It's positively unreal. Here's a few pics, but keep in mind they in no way do the park justice.