Tom and Margot's Adventures in Photography: Mayan Ruins at Tikal, Guatemala

On Friday we took a tour of Tikal. Tikal is one of the largest archeological sites of the pre-Columbian Maya Civilization. Some of the monuments date back to the 4th century B.C. However, it became the capital of Mayan cultural in the period 200 to 900 A.D. The cause of its collapse is a matter of great debate. One theory is that over a period of time warfare caused more refugees to concentrate around the city and the resulting deforestation, etc. lead to the collapse. See wikipedia for more details.
Tikal on Wikipedia

It is a huge park now with many unrestored monuments in addition to those you see during a tour. It is estimated that the population of Tikal was 10 to 90 thousand people.

As soon as we entered the park we saw a lot of wildlife. It is almost like going to the zoo except they are out in the wild. Here are few pictures to get started. This is a gray necked woodrail to the right and a tropical king bird below.

This is a crocodile - not an alligator.

This is an aguti and is a relative of the guinea pig.

These are coatimundi.

Below is a close up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coati

Lots of interesting plants, also. This is a cactus growing in a ceiba tree. All sorts of plants living symbiotically in the forest.

This is a strangler vine. I don't think you can call this one symbiotic. The vine will eventually kill the tree.

This is one of the temples. I think Margot was taking notes on what the guide was saying. I'll edit this later to but the temple number in. (She thinks this is Lost World Plaza - an astrological observatory)

Here you can get a sense of what the archeologists have to deal with. Over the centuries the tree roots have grown into the temples and displaced the stones and even broken some. This is an excavation site that has a water collection drain at the bottom.

Here the stones are labelled and their position recorded so that they can be returned to the same location.

Here is a worker preparing the same type of cement that the Mayan used to build the temples. By the way our guide was excellent. Luis grew up in Tikal and knows it like the back of his hand. He worked with this guy on another archeological site 20 years ago. He seemed to know everyone in the park. He studies the latest findings about the park to stay informed. His English skills (and personality I assume) earned him a job on the crew of Survivor - Guatemala a few years ago. He was even featured in one of the episodes when a few of the contestants were flown to a "typical" Guatemalan home. It wasn't really his home but he is the guy welcoming them.

You don't want to get too close to this tree.

This red plant is growing on the tree along with moss, etc.

Luis coached this tarantula out of his hole along the side of the trail.

Here is a more pleasant looking wild turkey. Although they didn't seem that wild in the park. They seem pretty accustomed to tourists.

The stairs are really steep going up this monument. Pretty narrow at the top, also. Below is the view.

Some more restoration work under way.

Another temple.

One of the construction workers found this little guy and shared him with us.

This is the sort of outcropping of the city structure that tipped the early explorers off to the fact that there were some man-made structures under the jungle.

We were told that these folks are from the Guatemalan highlands (based on the particular weaves in their dress). They were part of a group touring the site.