Tikal

Tikal was AMAZING!

ps. my foot is fine. overnight it completly got better and no sign of anything today. I think I just stabbed it on a rock or dull glass yesterday.

Anyways it was very good day, I climbed 4 temples yes 4 temples, one was the HIGHEST temple called Temple 4 at 210 ft high. It was quite the climb and the first climb of th day, but totally worth as dawn broke over the jungle and a mist covered the tree tops and then peeking out of the jungle & mist were some of the tips of the highest temples of Tikal. The sun burned off the mist pretty quickly in the morning so I am SO glad we endured the 4am wakeup to leave by 5 to get to the park at 6am when it opened totally worth it.

Only 25% of Tikal has been excavated thus far, there are over 300o buildings as part of Tikal. They have unearthed 6 temples but they know and named a large mound of dirt, trees and brushes, Temple 7. It seems every year they find something new and add another piece to the puzzle of how the people lived and who ruled etc.... Currently they are still even excavating Temple 4 which we climbed. Only the top as been excavated so far. The bottom is still covered under the jungle. They have built wooden steps in order to get to the top of temple 4.

The 2nd climb was a lesser temple in the lost world complex of buildings, I got to climb the actual stone steps on that one.

The 3rd climb was the one that almost did me in! The wooden stais are not stairs at all but a ladder type of deal. and VERY steep, I mean REALLY steep. I got half way and was beginning to shake and sweat and was really thinking at the next platform I should just head back down because I couldn{t do the height. But then I decided that the view was likely worth it and pressed on! My heart was racing and when I got to the top I was dizzy and shaking from the adeneline and fear! I had to sit down and breath for a few minutes before I could walk along the top and rest take in the view.
The view was INCREDIBLE, and a couple of us fromthe group sat down with our feet over the edge (I took a photo of my feet actually and Bens too) it was very worth it and I am SO proud of myself for doing it. It was so scary and I had vertigo a couple times....
Going down was no easier! It was a slow decent, I walked down like climbing down a ladder, most people did it that way.

The last big climb was Temple 2. Which is one of the twin temples that face each other. 2 people have fallen to their deaths at Temple 2 so now you climb wooden stairs at the side to reach the top and not the stone steps. Temple 1 which faces it directly is closed to the public to walk on, so it can be perseved in good condition. Its really beautiful and nice to take some photos without little dots of people covering the temple steps etc.... and ruining the shot!

We were allowed to walk all over most of the ruins which was pretty cool, I doubt it will be that way forever. And going to Tikal in the morning was really good because there werent too many groups of people there yet by noon we were done and heading back to the bus, I am also glad we did it in the morning because it was nice and cool compared to the afternoon sun!

We got lots of great shots of Tikal and I really enjoyed myself it was very very cool.
Tomorrow is back to Belize and San Ignacio for 2 nights and then camping for 2 nights after that!

ps we are going camping on the Belize River, the same river we did the night croc tour in and saw all those HUGE crocs at the beginning of Belize!!!!

Oh the marching band is going by again too.... ok ben is ready to go.. he was ready 10 mins ago so I am signing off ! Tikal was SO amazing... beyond words really....