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chickenfeet Sunday we went to Tikal. This is a massively important Mayan site over the border in Guatemala. The arrangements included being driven to the border and shepherded through immigration to meet a guide on the Guatemalan side. There's a border dispute between Belize and Guatemala so there's about 200m of no man's land (overseen by the OAS) between the border posts. It was all a bit weird and reminiscent of Checkpoint Charlie.
Tikal is amazing. It's not even been completely excavated but there are five major step pyramids plus seven pairs of minor ones, an astronomical observatory, a living complex for the elite, a necropolis, several ball courts and more. The lesser structures occupied by the middle classes have not even been excavated, The scale can only really be understood from the top of one of the pyramids or the observatory. It's huge and most of it is still buried in the jungle. The population may have been as high as 200,000 at its peak.
Seeing it involves a lot of walking and even more step climbing. Expect very sore muscles unless you are super fit. "Experts" suggest one needs three days to fully explore the site but one can see a lot in a packed half day. Of course it's only one of many major Mayan sites (albeit a very important one) that's been discovered. Corocal and Chichen Itza are on a similar scale and nobody really knows what may be hidden in the jungles of southern Belize or the more remote parts of the Guatemalan highlands.
And there were coatis; Central America's trash pandas.
Our tour deal included a meal on the way back. Definitely gringo food! The tamales we had for breakfast were much better.
Click link for photos.
www.flickr.com/photos/chickenfeet1/sets/72157706795936345
Tikal is amazing. It's not even been completely excavated but there are five major step pyramids plus seven pairs of minor ones, an astronomical observatory, a living complex for the elite, a necropolis, several ball courts and more. The lesser structures occupied by the middle classes have not even been excavated, The scale can only really be understood from the top of one of the pyramids or the observatory. It's huge and most of it is still buried in the jungle. The population may have been as high as 200,000 at its peak.
Seeing it involves a lot of walking and even more step climbing. Expect very sore muscles unless you are super fit. "Experts" suggest one needs three days to fully explore the site but one can see a lot in a packed half day. Of course it's only one of many major Mayan sites (albeit a very important one) that's been discovered. Corocal and Chichen Itza are on a similar scale and nobody really knows what may be hidden in the jungles of southern Belize or the more remote parts of the Guatemalan highlands.
And there were coatis; Central America's trash pandas.
Our tour deal included a meal on the way back. Definitely gringo food! The tamales we had for breakfast were much better.
Click link for photos.
www.flickr.com/photos/chickenfeet1/sets/72157706795936345
no subject
Date: 2019-02-19 11:59 pm (UTC)Did Lemur flip over the coatls? I would have.