Temple I Tikal National Park

Well, today was amazing! I will get a good sleep tonight, because we have been on the go all day! I wouldn't trade it for a minute, though!

We got up fairly early and after a wonderful breakfast headed to Tikal National Park (or as Greg called it "Tickle" National Park). On our way there, Rick explained to us that the park is a legally …

... , Mexico. The town of Palenque isn´t anything to write home about so I won´t. We stayed instead at the entrance to Palenque national park, in the middle of the jungle where they´ve built a series of sweet little cabins and an awesome bar/restaurant of ...

... ;      I sit outside my room at the Jungle Lodge, one of three hotels located inside of Tikal National Park. It's aptly named: in front of me lining the balcony stand towering flowers, and spindly howler monkeys deftly leap from ...

... to Tikal to see the sunrise (5am). On the way we saw beautiful red skies as the sun came up. When we arrived, Tikal National Park was very peaceful and then the jungle suddenly awoke with the noises of the birds and monkeys. Unlike Chichen Itza it was ...

3:00AM- I’m sleeping soundly in my bungalow at the Jaguar Inn at Tikal National Park in Guatemala. I’m due to wake up in half an hour for a hike through the jungle to catch sunrise from atop the Mayan ruins. You can imagine my frustration at ...

... , we reached the ticket counter, which was manned by a clerk and a Guatemalan guard with a shotgun.  This was the first national park I had ever been to that required armed guards...  The clerk asked for our money, but didn't give me the ...

... excavated and restored many of the structures. A movie trivia fact: George Lucas used Tikal as a setting in his first Star Wars movie, Episode IV: A New Hope, released in 1977. Temple I at Tikal was featured in the film. ...

We hadn't originally planned to visit Guatemala but after hearing several travelers rave about the Mayan ruins at Tikal, we added it to our itinerary. This is where traveling without specific plans has it's advantages. Against Mom's protests, we caught a ...

... the first couple of wires when we got to try out "superman" (harness back to front), as you can see in the photo it does look like the guide is enjoying himself quite a lot too holding my legs. Next stop, back to Guatemala City and then to San ...

... of the sunset.   We arrived at Temple IV (The temple of the two headed serpant), at 64.6 metres this temple is the highest in Tikal, we climbed half of this height and positioned ourselves to await the sunrise. As the light developed, views of ...

... on through the jungle along the Tozzer`s Causeway we arrived at Temple IV. Temple IV is the tallest  structure in Tikal at 72metres. The temple`s crest is not overgrown, so from the temple`s roof comb we could see all the surrounding jungle and the ...