April 11, 2008
Day 926
Pyramid VI.
I'm getting sick of paying for a bus ticket at 5 AM only to have the bus show up at 6. But instead of leaving right away, of course we go and talk to the driver's friend for ten minutes. Then when I yell at the driver, he acts like it's my fault because I'm not patient enough. After all, the day is long. Still, I think I had a right to be mad. The place we were going was the Tikal ruins, and lately the temperature has been climbing over 100 F (without the heat index) at 10 AM, not to return back to double digits again until well after dark. So not only am I sick of this intense heat, I'm even more sick of people wasting my few precious hours per day when it's not too bad. 5 till 8 AM is the only time of day where there's even a remote possibility of walking around without sweating.
Like Copan, the Tikal ruins were built by the Maya people thousands of years ago and were inhabited until about 800 AD, when they were promptly abandoned. Unlike Copan, Tikal had a lot more pyramids, it was more spread out, and it was right in the middle of the jungle. The fact that you could actually climb most of the pyramids made it a very fun and sweaty place to visit. There weren't even very many tourists visiting the ruins. I guess most of them stuck to the far-more-popular Chitzen Itza in Mexico. But I was certainly impressed by this incredible ancient city.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Wonder if some kind of tour could be done on a bus connecting sites like this throughout Central America - not unlike what is being done with BusStartup.com at the moment in California
Wow Ben, what a great idea!