by Gary Wonning

Created on: August 03, 2007   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

Tikal, Guatamula

After spending the first night of our journey in Belize City at the Fort Street Hotel, dining on Red Snapper in Banana leaf, and drinking 32 oz. Margaritas ,it was time for the five of us, along with our Maya driver and guide to make the long drive to Tikal in Guatemala.

As we neared the border to Guatemala I couldn't help but notice that it resembled something out of a James Bond movie, khaki uniformed solders with semi-automatic weapons standing guard over a lonely deserted guard shack out in the middle of nowhere.

After checking our passports,we were detained for quite a while, no reason,they did not check anything, it just seemed that when they became tired of looking at us, they let us into the country.

After we entered the country, we drove past an army base, complete with barbed wire fence and angry looking guards, I began wondering if I had done something REALLY stupid. There were no freeways here, just a mud road with a gazillion potholes,and this was the main road. I can only imagine what the back roads were like!

Upon arriving at Tikal, I was amazed as to how crowded it was,most people come to Tikal from Guatemala City, we had entered through the back door. There seemed to be people coming out of the wood work!

It was then that we were informed that we had no room at the Jaguar Inn, the local hotel. As we were planning to observe Tikal under a full moon that evening, this meant that we would be traveling in Guatemala after dark, not a good thing.

Tikal is very old , being occupied between 200-800 AD.

The temple complex has been restored and is actually in very good condition,only royalty and the wealthy lived in the temple area, everyone else lived in villages surrounding the temple.

It was fascinating to be standing in the courtyard where games resembling basketball and racquetball were played. There were even holes in the wall where the ball had to be thrown or kicked through! They were not very large and looked to be higher than our present day basketball rims, which are ten feet from the floor.

It probably wasn't hard to make the pros in those days,as the losers, and sometimes even the winners were beheaded!

Having lived my life in basketball crazy Indiana,I realized that maybe the reason basketball is so popular in Indiana is that there must be a large number of reincarnated Mayas living in there!

At least we don't behead the losers any more, we come close, but that isn't actually done, well maybe in our minds!
While climbing the Pyramid

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