7th April 2015 – Tikal

We wake up this morning to a beautiful view over the lake and it’s already quite warm at 6:30 am.We are collected from our hotel by our guide Julio in a Hyundai SUV, which is lovely and comfortable, and we are driven to the Tikal ruins. These ruins have been described to us as the New York of Mayan ruins where as Copan is the Paris. When we arrive we can hear this incredible howling sound, which is a howler monkey. Julio takes us to the tree where the sound is coming from and 1 of the monkeys is very upset and howling loudly at a worker under the tree who is cutting up a fallen branch.On the lawn in this area there is a male Occellated Turkey that is courting a female turkey, it is after all spring. He is all puffed up and strutting around her with his beautiful tail feathers fanned out, it is quite a magnificent site. She appears not to be interested but she doesn’t run away, instead making him work harder with every step. He finally jumps on her back and stands on top of her for several minutes before finally mating with her, the whole process taking about 15 minutes. It is like being on a David Attenborough film set. There are 2 guides and another couple watching with us and Julio said in the 10 years that he’s been coming here he has never seen this before, so we feel very privileged to have witnessed this act of nature.From here we walk along the jungle path looking at the plants and next we see a couple of Spyder Monkeys, these are smaller then the howlers and brown. They are eating the flesh around the bread nuts, dropping the bread nuts on the ground. They move very quickly swinging through the trees & vines. Further along the path Michael spots a toucan sitting in a tree and it takes off over our heads with a flash of green. The jungle and trees are amazing.We first visit the area called complex Q a restored group of four structures consisting of 2 temples facing each other on the east and west side of the group. On the south side is the smaller building representing the underworld or afterlife & the north side is a building representing heaven. Julio our guide demonstrates how the echo of a clap sounds like the bird call of a sacred bird of the Mayans. It is an amazing part of the Mayan temples and is too common not to have been a feature of the building. It works so well for Julio that a real bird replies to his clap We then wander into the Palace complex where the last Mayan rulers lived with their entourage. This large complex had many small rooms and rose 5 levels. As we climb around to the front of the palace we come across the Grand Plaza a huge plaza adorned on 2 sides by huge temples and on the north side opposite the palace is the North Acropolis a tall ceremonial area. We cross the Plaza and ascend the high steps of the North Acropolis to look out over the 2 temples and the palace and the never ending jungle into the distance. ÿ We then visit the temple of the lost world. This group of temples were of astrological significance to the Mayans.ÿ The last building that we visit is Temple 4 this temple is the highest of all the temples. We climb to the top via a series of wooden steps built on the outside of the temple. From the top we have a magnificent view over the top of the jungle with a number of the large temples pocking above the tree canopy. We can hear the howler monkeys with their guttural howl echoing around the dense jungle. It is quite an experience.We leave the Tikal ruins and have a lovely lunch and drive onto the Yaxha ruins about 45 minutes away.ÿ Here we climb to the top of the highest temple to look out over the jungle and lake and watch the sunset with the sound of the jungle below us.ÿ It is fabulous.