We'd booked a room at the Tikal Inn, which is in the park itself. This meant we could take the sunset and sunrise tours along with the usual daytime ones. We arrived at around 5am and were the first at breakfast.

Tikal is in the Mayan biosphere reserve, a huge area of subtropical jungle, 70% of which is in Guatemala, and the remainder is in Mexico and Belize. The city was discovered in 1848, and it is the prototypical lost city in the jungle. I think many of the legends of lost cities, Indiana Jones tales and the like originated with Tikal. It was the center of Mayan culture, first occupied in 600BC and finally abandoned around 900AD. Only 15% of the site has been excavated and restored---it covers a large area. The University of Pennsylvania took on the project in 1950 and did most of the restoration, handing the site over to the Guatemalan government sometime in the 1970's.

Our first tour (they are all on foot) took us through the jungle into the main part of the site. As we approached the first plaza and structures, we heard a deep roaring sound, growing as we walked on. Louder and louder, until it was almost overwhelming. It turned out to be a band of howler monkeys. Only the alpha male of the group makes the sound, a roaring and panting grunting that is just like a male lion. We learned that howler monkeys are the second loudest animal on earth, second only to the whales. They feed on breadnuts, and since the breadnut trees account for 70% of the forest in this area, there is plenty of food and so plenty of howlers.

There are five temples at Tikal. These are tall structures with much steeper sides than the pyramids ---that's temple I in the picture with the moon. There are also pyramids, with the largest being in a region of the city called the lost world. It turns out that there is a pyramid called Mirador further north in Guatemala that is the largest in the world, considerably larger than the pyramids in Giza, Egypt. It was discovered after the formation of the Mayan biosphere reserve, which is apparently why it has not yet been excavated.

On the sunset tour, we made our way first through the main plaza, where we were treated to the amazing sound of the oropendulas, large birds with yellow underneath that make huge hanging nests and have a complex song. As we made our way through to the lost world, we saw coatis and agoutis, and in the lost world itself, as dusk fell, we saw a number of toucans. First, a group of keel-billed toucans and then a group of collared toucans. There were also plenty of parrots. We watched the sun set from temple IV, which, at 70 meters, is the tallest structure at Tikal.

The sunrise tour was a mad rush through the dark, followed by an incredibly steep climb up temple V. Nothing like this would be allowed in the US! The group of 22 sat in silence at the top of the temple, waiting for dawn. It was too cloudy for a sunrise, but that didn't matter--the real show was put on by the animals. There are many bands of howler monkeys. This meant we could hear the lead male of each group roaring his dominion---the continuous roaring from all directions, the vigorous rustling of the spider monkeys through the trees just below us, and the calls of oropendulas, toucans and parrots made for an amazing and quite alien experience.

We took the afternoon bus back to Flores on the second day. Flores is an attractive little town on an island in lake Peten Itza. The architecture is quite different from Antigua, with lots of pastel colors. The town is the main base for expeditions to Tikal and into the Mayan biosphere reserve, so you see backpackers, tourists, and internet cafes in abundance.

Another overnight bus to Guatemala city, our luxury bus to San Salvador, and the minibus brought us back to Barillas. We've done some provisioning, got our zarpes (exit documents), fueled up, and we plan to leave in the outgoing tide at 7am tomorrow. The plan is to stop at isla Meanguera in the Gulf of Fonseca, and then to go on to Puesta del Sol in Nicaragua.

There's a new album of photos in the gallery. These cover from leaving Oaxaca to the present.