A day in Guatemala!






During our Honeymoon to Belize, Ryan and I took a day trip into Guatemala to visit one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Tikal. Tikal is one of many Mayan sites which (since the 1950s) is under the microscope as archaeologists try to learn more about the powerful civilization whose extensive and powerful reign achieved fascinating scientific accomplishments.

Above you can see one picture of the jungle "canopy" and a few of the temples rising above the treeline behind me. For Star Wars Trilogy fans - this is where George Lucas filmed the flight scene into the Ewok village. (Ryan may have to correct some of my references to the trilogy and spelling - so my apologies in advance if I've offended any Star Wars fans by my illiterate reference)

Below you'll find a few pictures of our day at Tikal, and our lunch at one of Francis Ford Coppola's resorts (La Lancha) afterward.

The photos you won't see are those of the the tarantula we saw during our exploration of Tikal and those of the impromptu military checkpoint we passed through. Apparently the young soldiers with their automatic rifles don't like to be photographed...or smiled at. Okay, well, maybe I'll show you the tarantula.

In the photo on the right, you can see one of the 4 temples that has been uncovered at Tikal. It's 73 steps to the top, and provides quite a view when you reach the high platform. These temples were accessed only by nobility and at the base of the temples were often the site of sacrificial alters. Sacrifices ranged from blood-letting to death. But we'll get to the death part later.

The temple is in poor shape and undergoing a bit of restoration. You can see from the photo that some of the stairs are crumbling, but this does not seem to deter tourists. Once Ryan and I reached the top though, the heat was intense enough that we were anxious to get back down to ground level in search of shade. (Which we shared with some spider monkeys who wouldn't stop to pose for a picture)




You can see in the photo to the left how the temple's stairs are crumbling, as well as get a sense for each step's height. You may also notice that the incline is VERY steep. I took this photo of Ryan on our way back down - which was the quickest scramble we could manage. As you may have already guessed by my skin tone, I'm prone to sunburn. So even with my super-SPF we were always a bit anxious to find the shade.

The photo on the right shows the plaza, where the most well docmented Temples reside. In this plaza are also the ball courts, which have to do with sacrificial death. You'll notice that in this photo there are many people in the plaza, which helps demonstrate the incredible size of these temples, and the enormity of the feat to build them around the time of 900 B.C.

On the lefthand side of the photo you'll see what is referred to as the North Acropolis (series of buildings) with Temple 1 standing high above on the right. Directly across from Temple 1 stands (in mirror-like perfection) Temple 2 (which you cannot see from this photo) . To the right of Temple 1 are some of the well preserved and infamous ball courts. You'll see those below.

The photo below shows the Acropolis in the background, Temple 1 directly ahead, and the infamous ball court at the base of the temple. If the ball game being played was a game of honor, the WINNER'S life would be sacrificed at the base of the temple. In a game of honor, two men of Mayan nobility would compete with one another and it was considered a great honor to win and be sacrificed. Why? Because the Mayan's believed that the next life would be greater than the one in which we presently exist.

If the ball game was being played by prisoners of war (more or less a game of shame) then the LOSER would be sacrificed at the base of the temple.

On our way out of the main plaza, our guide, Jugo, mentioned that a "little pet" lived next to the trail. Kneeling down he picked a long blade of grass, wetted it with his saliva and began to lightly jab it into a hole about the size of my fist. You can see Jugo on the left as he prods the grass into the hole. Well, believe it or not, he was right. The "little pet" turned out to be a sizeable and very hairy tarantula!

After a thorough exploration of Tikal, we set off for LaLancha to have lunch. LaLancha is one of the three ecotourism resorts owned by Francis Ford Coppola in Central America. To the left you can see a series of masks that hung in the outdoor restaurant - these made appearances at many locations and provide colorful decor. We never learned of their cultural significance, but they always made for interesting conversation.

As you may already know, we split our honeymoon between the other two resorts, both located in Belize. Lunch at LaLancha was, for me at least, the best meal we had during our honeymoon. I do love authentic dishes, so I was in for a real treat when my chile rellenos came out with freshly made corn torillas, a large helping of rice and beans, and my favorite ice-cold coca cola. It was near to heaven on earth. Guatemal was truly a highlight of our trip and we look forward to putting some of our Belizian photos on the blog next!