Tikal and Flores: Maya-world and sunshine

Tikal was the most northern point we will visit in Guatemala. We were there to see the Tikal National Park, home of the biggest and best preserved Maya-ruins in this old Maya area (southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and parts of Honduras).

The days when we visited Tikal we lived on a small islands called Flores. There is not much to say about Flores, just a small, small town, mostly filled with turists visiting Tikal, but the sun was shining so much! And we really needed this after many days of rain. Shiu-Jene loved the sun and my, being scandinavian and very white, managed to get a good sunburn!

We did a one day visit to Tikal. We went there 5 in the morning to get some of the cool morning air. When the sun starts to burn around noon it's too hot for walking around in the jungle.

And Tikal is one big jungle. It's a huge national park. One big piece of jungle with 54 types of mamals, 333 type of birds and 300 type of trees.
We got a guide, Miguel, and he showed us around, making sure we saw a lot of animals. Among them was deers, monkeys, small over-sized mouse-looking animals, tucans (a bird with a lot of colors), and a super big spider!

Most important, though, he showed us all the ruins. They are amazing! Here the word awesome can really be used! Huge stone temples build according to the sun. The Mayans were so good that they figured out the suns movement with the same precision as we know it now .. and they build there temples after it. We saw traces of human sacrifices and Miguel told us about the rituals and ceremonies that used to be held here.
Just awesome!

But you have to see the pictures!

The day was a bit bad for me, though. I had what you can only describe as extreme diarrea. On top of that I slept only 2 hours the night before we went and got fever later on the day. So I wasn't up to a lot of action, but I saw most of the things. Once we got home again, I slept most of the day.

Well, here are the pictures:
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rgrunnet/album?.dir=3a47&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rgrunnet/my_photos