Gym's Ramblings: Taking in Tikal, Guatemala

Gym felt a little adventurous and somewhat flush when he picked the Guatemalan shore excursion. You could choose a free self-guided tour of Santo Tomas, or alternatively, several other moderately priced day-trips or at the other end of the scale, you could pay big dollars to get off the ship, travel 3.5 hours by various and expensive means and see some venue of uncertain quality. And remember, Gym's dear wife has just gotten used to ship travel, is a white-knuckle flier and not a great bus person, especially on Central America's roads. So why did Gym chose this expensive, exhausting and wife-torturing excursion? No one knows the answer but the destination was worth it, even Mrs. Gym agrees.

This blog is always hard on Mrs. Gym, reminding the reader of her enduring motion sickness. To be honest to our readers, for the first time in 10 years of traveling around the world, Mrs. Gym was in comparatively better traveling shape than her husband. Gym had visited the ship's doctor about a delicate GI issue just prior to leaving for this day's tour. The diagnosis was not grave but it did require that some thickening agents be employed to make it a little more comfortable for our hero. Unfortunately, this so called medical expert seemingly over-prescribed for the symptoms. Some super-duper white pills instantly altered Gym's normally iron constitution and frankly, at time of writing, he is still trying to get over their evil effects, a week later. Notwithstanding, our adventurers successfully completed this tour and have declared it the best venue visited on this trip.

The Tikal Mayan ruins were not easy to get to from the ship. From the Marina, the intrepid couple had to drive to the Porto Barrios Airport, through the middle of the crowded city. Then, they jumped on a chartered TAG Saab turbo-prop, of uncertain age and fitness, to fly about 170 miles north to the city of Flores, Guatemala, some 45 minutes away. Once in Flores, they had to endure another 90-minute bus ride through the countryside on windy Central American roads to get to gates of Tikal National Park. To that point, they had traveled three and a half hours from the ship, so they had less than 2 hours to get a quick tour of the ruins and still have time to make the return trip and to make the ship's departure time. Two days in a row Gym and his lovely wife were among the last to re-board the ship later that day.

The first thing Gym did at this enormous Mayan site was to follow his wife up to the top of Temple No. 4. At the top, a few minutes behind his wife, Gym looked out on one of the most spectacular sites he'd ever seen. From the top of Temple No. 4 you can see the the ruins of Temples Not. 1 and 2 on the left and the rulers palace on the right. Each of these massive structures rises above the canopy of the Guatemalan jungle and the vista is inspiring. Gym immediately had a sense of deja vu. He had seen this all before. It wasn't because Gym had re-incarnated from a past Mayan life, it was because it seems that this view had inspired someone else. It turns out that the view from top of Temple No. 4 was used by George Lucas in Star Wars IV. In that scene Tikal is a rebel stronghold and a starship blasts off from somewhere between Temples 1 and 2.

Star Wars is not why Tikal is cool. It is an awe-inspiring mega-ruin that has enough preserved structures that the visitor really feels a sense of how it was to be a Mayan living in Tikal. Our guide on the day, explained that even though many fine structures had been unearthed, there were thousands still hidden by the jungle. If you do a little research you find out that geographical scientists have used LIDAR technology to map out ruins under the jungle in 1000s of acres of the park. There are still jobs for lots of archeologists.

Sadly, the Mayans died out because of deforestation. They used up all the fuel they needed to sustain their society and their geologists hadn't discovered an economic source of hydrocarbons to replace the wood. Sad, very sad!

Stay tuned, this isn't the end of the Mayan ruins explored on this trip.

At the airport in Porto Barrios

The Linda approaching the TAG charter turbo-prop

The marathon runner stooping for a pic before
ascending about 10 flights to the top of Temple 4

At the top of Temple 4

The familiar site that both Gym and George Lucas thought was pretty cool

Starting the descent off Temple 4

The jungle has reclaimed the city but is demise was attributed to a shortage
of wood and the destruction of the jungle around the city which may have exacerbated
drought and made farms less productive.

The temples were aligned such that winter and summer solstices
could be captured by the placement of the buildings and the extreme positions of the sun
on those particularly significant times of year.