Travel | Tikal | Mayan Civilization | Guatemala

The Majesty, Mystery, and Magic of Tikal — The Heartbeat Of the Ancient Mayan Civilization

Words and photos will never do this place justice.

A version of this article was originally published on my blog on July 21, 2018. Over the course of our 4 months staying at nearby Flores, we would visit Tikal three times. This is a record of the first.

How does one put into words the sense of being in a place as truly astounding as Tikal?

Some say that Tikal was the capital city of the entire Mayan Civilization and while they have only uncovered 16 square kilometers of ruins that make up Tikal National Park, they say that there are countless more in the surrounding area that is buried by the dense jungle foliage.

When I set foot on this ancient land, I suddenly felt like I had come home. Like somehow, someway, I had lived there before. I walked the trails with a calm sense of knowing where I was being led, feeling an invisible pull from location to location, temple to temple.

Pictures will never do justice to a place like Tikal. You simply have to experience it. It is profound, it is absolutely mind-blowing, and it is transformational.

Our day began early, we caught a 5:30 am shuttle bus in front of our nearby hotel that is located in El Remate, the closest town to Tikal National Park. There were 4 of us waiting for it, the other 2 were well into their late 50’s or early 60’s. As the medium-sized bus pulled up, it looked like it was some sort of traveling slumber party. The average age on the bus was about 19, and maybe one or 2 of them were wide-eyed and bushy-tailed to start their day, but the rest were sawing logs.

Realizing that they had come from a hostel in Flores, another hour away, I can imagine that their morning started much earlier, and knowing the backpacker's general routine of partying every night, I’m sure many of them barely had had any sleep.

The 4 of us filled the only remaining seats, and we all giggled inside at the sight of the heads bobbing all around us.

I just had to laugh at one poor guy trying to hold onto the seat in front of him to rest his head on his arm, only to have his fingers slip off as soon as he fell asleep. Once his hand slipped, he would snap awake, make a grab for it again, and then repeat the sequence all over again. I couldn’t help feeling terribly sorry for him, but I also couldn’t stop watching as the suspense of watching his hand slip off, each time was as enjoyable and as hilarious as the last.

At the main gate, we got out and paid our Q150 (roughly $20) entry fee, then got back on the bus for another 5–7 kilometer drive. I was actually surprised at how long it took us to get there. I expected only a 30-minute drive and thought we would be in the park by 6:00 or so. However, it took us until closer to 7:00 to finally start our day.

I bought a map outside the gates when we were paying for our ticket for roughly $3. I took a look at it right away and noticed the farthest point out from the gate. It’s called Temple IV, and I had a quiet knowing that we immediately had to go to that temple to start our day.

My rational thinking was that it was farthest from the gates, and it would be the quietest place for the longest. But I had no idea what sort of temple it was and certainly didn’t know that it would be the absolute most spectacular temple of them all, and a perfect place to begin our day.

While walking through some other temples to get to the big one, we couldn’t help but stop and take photos of the incredible sights along the way like the central plaza above.

When we got to Temple IV and climbed the stairs all the way to the top (it’s mostly man-made stairs now unfortunately), we were astounded by the view of the lush green canopy that was presented before us and could see a few temples poking out of the foggy and mystical tops of the trees, in the distance.

Arriving at the top, we chuckled at the sight of the other 2 older people that we had waited for the bus with that morning, having already arrived. We had a quick laugh about all of us wanting to beat the kids to this spot, to enjoy some quiet morning time from up there.

We sat atop this incredible temple and watched Toucans zip from tree to tree through the Canopy. I saw a big howler monkey in the tree branches of one tree, and we had a visit by a Pozote (coatimundi) that had obviously climbed all the way up there from the ground.

By then, a group of the students had arrived at the top of the temple, and when one guy approached the edge to look down, he turned to the rest of us wide-eyed and said “There is a crazy animal down here!”

One girl asked what it was from her seat on the stairs, and he announced “I really don’t know, it’s like a Dog Monkey.”

Haha! Well, that was it! Many people jumped up from their seats to go and check out what a “Dog Monkey” looked like, including Chris. Thankfully, having seen these guys already in Costa Rica, he knew what it was, and was able to tell people its correct name.

The Pozote had come up sniffing around for food that our British friends had dropped. Their cake, which they bought for lunch was incredibly crumbly, and she had thrown a bunch of the crumbs that were falling on the ground, down the side of the temple. This super cute guy came up from exactly where she had thrown it and was sniffing for more.

As they also had a huge pile of crumbs near where we were sitting, he made motions to come closer to get them, but thought more wisely about it and stayed his distance. I’m sure once all the people are gone at the end of the day, these guys climb up and recover the goodies that have been left by the tourists.

In witnessing him, and the rest of the jungle animals, we realized that they are the lucky ones. The animals of Tikal get to live in this magical playland. This place where time seems to stand still, where your worries about the rest of the world just melt away. Where mother nature dictates what is happening, and where the powerful energy of the place just breathes life into every corner of it.

I can’t tell you how many times throughout the day, I wished that I could make this place my home. ‘With a little roof here and an extra wall there, we could easily make this place habitable again.’ I couldn’t help but think. It was fascinating to know that this place had housed thousands of people throughout its history, yet none were here now.

With more people starting to arrive at the top, and the sun starting to get warm, we decided that it was time to descend back into the canopy, to start our day of exploration. We had plenty of time, our bus wasn’t leaving until 4:30, and we had food and plenty of water.

We were absolutely in no rush at all.

Having an overhead view of the park from Temple IV allowed us to also use our map to figure out where we wanted to go next and how we wanted to plan our route for the day. So we set out immediately for the next structure that you could climb to the top of, and that was also poking above the canopy. We wanted to look back at where we had been sitting atop Temple IV, to get a scale of what we had ascended.

After we satisfied our curiosity and finished checking out the next temple, the sun was starting to get hot, and it only made sense to stay below the canopy and out of its deadly tropical rays. We flitted along the paths from temple to temple, took tons of pictures, and even had an awe-inspiring connection with a butterfly about the size of Chris’ hand that flew past us.

I didn’t notice, but Chris watched where it flew to, just down the trail. It landed at the base of a tree trunk, and as we made our way down to it, it stayed in the same place, seemingly not caring about us at all. As we realized that we could maybe get a picture of this fabulous creature, we slowed down and crept up to it.

We both got within one foot of it, and it didn’t even twitch.

We also had run-ins with many wonderful fuzzy caterpillars crawling on the ground, birds of many species, a giant grasshopper, more monkeys and of course Pizotes scattered here and there on the forest floor. We walked amongst ancient trees and massive plants. Of course, one can’t help but make comments about feeling like they are in Jurassic Park when wandering through the incredible flora.

Familiar plants that we have in pots in our houses in Canada, towered high above our heads as we walked the trails of this dense tropical landscape.

We finally stopped for lunch back in the Central Plaza around 11:00. We were finding it hard to just stop ourselves for a bit as we were wide-eyed with wonder as we went from temple to temple, realizing the massive scope of this city. While eating, we couldn’t help but notice the tourists that were just arriving, at the hottest part of the day, and with all the other crowds.

Knowing that we still had lots to see and explore, we ate quite quickly, refilled our water bottles, and set off. (Something to note: there is NO Food available throughout the park, only a couple of restaurants right at the beginning. So pack a lunch, and plan to stay a while!)

The second part of our day was filled with more explorations. We climbed countless stairs, ascended and descended structure after structure, walked through tiny tunnels, and explored as many nooks and crannies as we were allowed to, and possibly one or two that were at the very least, a grey zone of whether we were allowed to or not. We somehow found ways to avoid the crowds and made sure that we stayed away from the main trails and guided routes.

It was in this alone, that we were thankful that we had not decided to hire a guide. Occasionally we came across groups with guides, and it was clear that these groups were not moving at the pace that we were, and many weren’t able to cover the vast amount of area that we were.

And while there are a thousand unanswered questions about these temples, how they came to be, who lived in them, what the structures represented and countless more, what we really felt like we were there to do was just experience the land.

To realize that countless thousands of people had lived there and that while Tulum was but a tiny seaside village, this was a city. It was an empire.

It was, and is, royal, majestic and incredibly humbling.

When our buzz of excitement and our need to explore everything we possibly could wore off, we realized that we were exhausted. Suddenly our knees and legs and every part of our bodies were tired, and we realized that it was time to go. We had seen all that we could in one day, and we knew that we would be back.

Tikal is a place that I think a person could return to countless times, each time finding a new thing to explore, a new carving, a new structure. We do plan to return, but next time it will be with a guide. Next time we will get our burning questions answered.

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