The Heart of the Mayan World

 

Map of Tikal site

For a time, we were thinking about travelling to Peru to hike the Incan trail to Macchu Picchu. We even chatted up a friend of a friend to get some insights. However, the timing of our availability didn't match up with the ideal time to visit. 

As it turned out Guatemala is known as the Heart of the Mayan world. So, not wanting to discriminate between ancient civilizations, we decided to check out Tikal, the most substantial of all the sites. Oddly enough though, Tikal is closer to Belize City than it is to Guatemala City. So our tour guide, Randy picked us up at our Airbnb and drove us all the way to the Guatemalan border where his Guatemalan counterpart Miguel met us to take us the rest of the way. 

Without getting too involved in the local politics, in case you thought it odd why Randy didn't just take us the whole way was because of the tension between Belize and Guatemala as they wait for the verdict of the Hague court to determine if Belize is an independent country or part of Guatemala.

Temple of the Jaguar - Tikal

This was the first of many intact structures we saw on our tour. The core of the site is two temples built across from each other apparently in perfect alignment with the sunset and sunrise and moon set moon rise at certain special times of the year.

View from the temple viewing level

I chose not to climb up the temple and stayed behind with Iris' aunt. The temperature was 100℉ / 37℃ with little wind and high humidity. We still had 3 hours to go and I didn't need to expend any excess energy.

Another view from up top another structure

For me, the most interesting part of the site was what I was calling the calendar buildings. It had multiple buildings built in a line and depending where the sun would rise in relationship to each building it would give them the time frame for each month of the year to determine when to plant and when to harvest. 

Miguel also told us about the myth of the Hero Twins who were enticed by the gods of the Underworld to play a ball game. However, the gods put the twins through 9 tests before they could even reach the playing field, the 9 tests correspond to the 9 levels of all the Mayan structures (not including the cap). 

It was an incredible day, but also a hot one and by the end I was ready to jump back into the van and the AC. This was the last picture of the day on the ride back.

Toscana / Tuscany

It's always calling to us LOL.

A dopo!


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