Birds and mammals

Besides the Mayan ruins, one of the reasons I wanted to come here was to see the mammals.  I love them!!!!!!

The animals....

Howler monkey

Pizote

Zorro

Howler monkeys

The birds

Gallinola

Faisal

?

Toucan

Aracari

Flycatcher

Pavo oscillato ..turkey

I am still learning the Spanish names of all of these and different people call them by different names, so stay tuned.  Many might be wrong.

Sunday, a day of rest!,

Breakfast this morning at our little restaurant!!

With our little friend, Maritza

This afternoon Maritza came to the pool with us.  She wasn't too sure about being in deeper water, but she had fun.

Tomorrow breakfast again at our restaurant, then packing to take a collectivo back to Santa Elena which is the town next to Flores where we were before.

A break and the sunset

A break......the Jungle Lodge is a great place to stay...it is in the park, but outside where you enter...nice rooms, no bathroom in our part, but nice bath house and toilets in a separate building.  And it has a pool!!!  ( we are paying around $48 a night split between us.)

It is great to soak in the pool and feels wonderful on our feet and legs! Re-energized we go back up to the main plaza, first to climb Temple II.  Most of the people are gone now.

Climbing the pyramids and temples have damaged the stones so they are building stairs up the back of some.

What a view from up here.

But we want to find a higher place to view the sunset!  Just hoping for a sunset.....you can never be sure and I am not sure how much more I can climb.

But it was worth climbing up here!  And I can see Temple IV where yesterday we sat by that sealed door.

My legs are tired and wobbly so I make my way down the steep stairs on my butt.

In the tropics when the sun goes down it gets dark quickly so we want start making our way out of the park.  We brought little flashlights, but as night desends they don't give off much light and it is dark, dark, dark!! For a while we can hear some people behind us, but suddenly we realize they aren't there and we are alone.  We walk at least 1/2 hour hoping the little road we are on will take us out of the jungle.  Finally we can hear voices and our road merges with another where there are 4 people.  No longer alone the last 10 minutes go quickly!! Another great day!!

Another day in ruins

This morning after breakfast we headed back to the ruins.  This time without a guide and to some partially restored sites further out into the jungle.  

First to El Palacio de Las Acanaladerias..palace of candles. A site just beginning to be restored.

It is so great to go off the beaten track as we saw many, many people and tours headed for the main plaza.  Here we feel like we are explorers.

We went on to Temple VI, meeting hardly  anyone.

I think I like these partically restored sites better than the famous temples we have seen around the main square.  As we walk we see hills covered with jungle and we know there are other structures under there waiting to be discovered which will reveal new information to enhance or change the stories of this great civilization.

Temple 38

We wanted to visit one more temple before we return to our hotel.  Walking, walking, and more walking. It is easy to get turned around in the jungle as we discovered when we approaced this temple from a different direction than we thought would.  I felt lucky to have found it at all as it became one of my favorites. The back is still jungle.

I am tired, but we do want to come back for the sunset.

A day of ruins

We were awaken at 5am by howler monkeys!!!  What strange sounds the males make to declare their territory! Once it got light our stomachs led us to breakfast and on the way...

A torch ginger

And a coatimundi

We hired a guide, Samuel, for our first time in the ruins so we could learn the history and see the most important sites along with monkey and bird sightings.

Coming into the grand plaza

In the grand plaza temple I. The grand jaguar.

Temple Ii

Acropolis Norte

Temple III

Suzanne atop Mundo Perdido, the oldest building in Tikal

From atop temple IV

Partially restored building in complex Q 

They now know that there are over 36,000 buildings in Tikal!!  It was an powerful commercial, spiritual, and political center for 1500 years.

Weaving through this amazing complex in the jungle, seeing toucans, spider and howler monkeys, isn't an experience one soon forgets.  People come near for one day and we are lucky to be able to be here for 5 and we will still just scratch the surface of this place!

We returned to our Jungle Lodge and swam in the pool and strolled to our little Mayan restaurant where we ate last night and this morning.  The sights and sounds in the jungle are heavenly.