The Maya International Hotel Tikal National Park

... got the fear going (kind of like a bungy jump), but i had to do it twice! After briefly tubing it down the river (bringing back memories of Laos) we visited the limestone lagoons of Semuc Champey. Blue water cascading from pool to pool to pool all amongst the most beautiful jungly cliffs! I jumped all the way down to the bottom - ace!<br><br>The rest of our days were spent doing nothing besides reading in the hammock or drinking rum ...

... these temples predated either of these cultures. We left our hotel at 6:30am and didn't return until 4:30pm A long day of walking thru the rain forest (with rain included), viewing monkeys, coatimundis, toucans and other birds; climbing to the top of the tallest pyramid #4, taking loads of photos although it was so rainy and cloudy that none of them turned out very well; and came home tired but wanting to go back for more!

... 7 months pregnant and still working as a guide. The trip started with a 15 minutes walk on the dirt tracks in the jungle, before we reached the first temples. Most of the temples are placed as twins directly opposite each other. At the first site only one of the temples was visible, whereas its twin was still covered in the trees and branches and only barely visible. Actually, many of the temples have been left undisturbed by the archaeologist. Even though several temples ...

... morning light thanks to the rain. We could see the various temples peaking out the tops of the trees and hear the howler monkeys screaming in the distance. <br><br>It was highlight of a day, which saw us spend seven hours treking around the site and climbing more monuments than was required. In the end it became a battle of wills to get to the top of yet another crumbling mass of stone, which left me contemplating fact that the Mayans must have had bumbs of steel! <br>

... 2 mind blowing temples one of which was 150ft high.<br><br>That evening we bumped into most of our tour group from Semuc Champey so a night was spent drinking 50 cent beers re hydrating ourselves after our jungle trek... for some reason we didnt feel so re hydrated the following morning... oh well a good excuse to spend another night in Flores watching the sun set over the lake before we hit Belize.... oh its a tough life after all....<br>

... walk back, there was this fluttering and then one, two bats started to fly past making their way out of the caves into the evening air. We blinked and the walls became alive with dark shapes and shadows, the caves hummed and thousands and millions of bats whizzed through the air, narrowly missing the humans who had invaded their domain. They swarmed through the dark caves in a macabre and beautiful dance, with amazing agility, grace and poise. It was an amazing site ...

... deer, toucans, giant grasshoppers, spiders and of course we only heard the Howler monkey. Tikal is a massive site and many of the temples can be climbed (my thighs are sore today) affording fantastic views of the expansive jungle pierced by the tops of the temples. From the top of Temple V, a scene from Return of Jedi was shot - Endor. Flores itself does not have much to offer and I´ll leave tomorrow, but not sure where.

... would say that one just not bother to visit, but the reality is that pictures do not uncover the energy of this ancient city. <br><br>The Howler Monkeys definitely aided in our experience as you may be able to check out one of Shi's great videos of them...well you will get to hear their howling rather than actually seeing them a mile up in the jungle. I totally wished I had a great pair of binos...where is ...

... fresh out of their nest (yum, minty), also ate a type of all spice leaf and some sort of stem, saw alot of monkeys and a few other critters, an aligator, birds, 2 types of frogs, held a tarantula in my hands, swung on vines, climbed many temples/pyramids and walked all around the park. We met with our very friendly tour group for lunch at the restaurant after the guided tour.

... den Store Plads har ligget 45 bygninger og paladser. Man har kendskab til 4000 bygningsstrukturer ud over et 120 kvadratkilometer stort område og mener at byen dengang rummede 100.000 indbyggere. Samtidig kunne jeg ikke lade være med at sende en ikke helt venlig tanke, til de fanatiske spanske præster, der beordrede al Mayaernes litteratur destrueret ! Af alle Mayaernes omfattende beskrivelser af videnskab og samfundsforhold, findes der i dag ...