Journey to Tikal

The Maya are one of those ancient civilizations that I learned about in school that I should’ve paid a lot more attention to. It’s hard to grasp and appreciate ancient civilizations as a kid, so I won’t be too hard on myself. Now having visited one of the most impressive Maya sites in Central America, I definitely have that appreciation I lacked as a young lad. I’ll try to keep it short and yet, informational.

As I learned in school, it’s believed that humans arrived in the Americas by crossing land that’s now submerged beneath the Behring Straight. Once folks were more secure, having learned how to cultivate the land (growing stuff like peppers, squash, beans, and corn), they began to focus on other things like crazy building projects. Reminds me of Psychology 101 and “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”. Once they had the basic need of food under control, they could focus their attention on astronomy, calendars, architecture, art, or as we do today, the Super Bowl. Most experts divide Pre-Hispanic America into 3 categories: Pre-Classic (before 250AD), Classic (250-900AD), Post-Classic (900-1521AD). Fairly easy. Spanish came in 1521, did their colonial thing, and stuff would never be the same.

What Lynea and I were able to experience was the Classic Mayan civilization (250-900AD) which many believe to be the most brilliant civilization in pre-Hispanic America. We went to the place known as Tikal, here in Guatemala. “Towering above the rainforest, Tikal is possibly the most magnificent of all Maya sites” (according to the book I’m looking at).

According to me, it was pretty sweet. 

We made the journey with some new friends, Andres and Mehedy. The day began at a local market with fresh corn tortillas, tomatoes, and fruit. Good start.

Local market, always serving up fresh corn tortillas!

Then, a 1 hour bus ride into the jungle and the trek began. Soon upon entering, we realized that turning down a guide was a bad mistake. I’ve made this error in the past and learned my lesson well. When you come to something like this in life, 10 dollars a person is nothing for what you will experience and learn with a good guide. When we realized the rich experience we were about to miss, we immediately returned and hooked up with our guide, Luis. His 5 hours worth of knowledge about the ruins, flora and fauna, history, and not to mention short-cuts through the rainforest, were well worth it!

Edible mushrooms. Guide ate them. I opted out just in case.

Temple V (58m) - built between 768-794AD

Sacrifices were offered here.

One of the 3 main city gate entrances

Plaza of the 7 temples (yes, there' s 7)

Model of what the 7 temples would've looked like

Lounging at the great pyramid (observatory).  This was built to observe the heavenly bodies in relation to other buildings.

Tree where gum comes from. They slice it in X's to extract it.

View above the rainforest from the tallest temple - Temple IV (212 feet)

Lynea with our guide Luis

On top of Temple IV with a whole bunch of Mayan kids excited to shout the name of their school.

With a couple Mayan ladies. We traded photos. I think I'm correct in saying that 40% of the population in Guatemala is Mayan.

Most famous Temple in Tikal - Temple I (jaguar temple, 44m), tomb of one of the great rulers of Tikal (721ad), originally painted cream, red and possibly green

Ancient fertility ritual

Widescreen of the Great Plaza

Looking out over the Great Plaza

To be able to stand on the grounds of a great, ancient civilization was indeed a moving experience! To learn about the things they had mastered (agriculture, conserving water, waste management, lunar and solar cycles) was quite impressive. These people were very sophisticated. Their obsession with time has become famous especially this year, 2012. The Mayans had figured out a 365 day calendar year, the same as we have today, but they also had 2 other ways of counting time, the “short count” and the “long count”. The short count was based on a 260 day calendar that marked different holy days. The long count was based on 13 time periods called baktuns. The long count is supposed to last 5,128 years. It began on August 11, 3114BC and ends this year on December 21, 2012AD. Some folks have taken this to mean that the world will end or something crazy will happen on this date. Though it makes for a good (or bad) movie and interesting conversations, the Maya probably didn’t think this was the end of the world. But I suppose we’ll see soon enough.