Tikal (2nd weekend)

Kirsti and I went to Tikal for the weekend with 4 other students from the school. We got there Friday night with the plan to find a place to rent hammocks for the night and then wake up early to climb a temple to watch the sun come up.

Well, we rented hammocks right outside of the park which we thought was great. The came with bug nets and everything. Unfortunately we all thought we were going to have to carry our belongings all day so we didn´t really bring any blankets for sleeping (plus it is really hot at night in San Andres). Well it is quite a bit colder in Tikal! I did bring a small blanket and a sheet (but I loaned my sheet to another couple) I think I was the warmest, but not as cozy as I would have liked to have been. And, I think Hammocks are better for resting not sleeping the whole night... none of us slept well. Which made it kinda easy to get up at 5am to be ready to in the park at 6am.

Come to find out there was a building where re rented the hammocks to lock up our stuff for the weekend so we didn`t have to carry it!

Kirsti and I started out with a guide who sped walked the group to temple 4 which is the highest to watch sun come up. By the time we got there we realized we no longer wanted a guided tour because we were told that it would be able to be in Spanish, but since it was a large group with mostly English speakers our guide was mostly speaking English. So we negotiated a partial payment and split.















Watching the sun rise from Temple 4 was my favorite part of the. Oh and hearing the howler monkeys! The make the most incredible sound!

Howler Monkeys - you can not see, but hear

What an amazing place. To imagine a huge city of people lived there so long ago!








We headed back to San Andres that night. From Santa Elana to San Andres we took a chicken bus. I think it was the last one of the night because I have NEVER seen so many people on a bus before. We kept stopping and picking up more people. I was standing in the back surrounded by a bunch of local people I did not know, with no room, and almost nothing to hang onto, trying with all my might not to fall over on people. Not comfy. But it was kinda funny at the time, but by the end of the trip I thought I was going t have a panic attack :)