‘Tikal‘ is a super fun board game that we’ve got at home but today we went to see the real thing. After a horrible night (we didn’t sleep much due to the light and noise of the hotel) we were awake quite early so by 7:30 we were already walking around the archeological site. Heading for complex O and Q but getting lost in the jungle, we came across an encrypted stone representing the defeat of an ancient rival leader. The walk further up was too steep though to continue so we headed back down and walked towards temple IV instead, also a good walk up but on a steady wooden stair case. The view on top was totally worth the climb. From above you could see the temple I and II tops as well as the top from another temple. Walking around the buildings, you could really grasp how people could have lived here years ago. We continued our walk towards the lost city, over the seven temples to the main plaza with the two temples. By that time we were too exhausted to explore any more so we walked back to the car.

  

Next to the incredibly beautiful buildings, they also have very exotic animals in the national park such as oscillated turkeys, butterflies, white-nosed coatis, dears, spider monkeys, howler monkeys and toucans. We didn’t spot the last one but we did see all the others.

Our visit to Tikal lasted a good 3 hours. Still parts of the site are being excavated so who knows what more secrets they might discover here.

Then we headed for ‘Flores‘, a city on an island in the middle of ‘Lake Peten Itza‘. All was going well – the road was great, we found the place alright, and there was a nice hostel in which we could stay – until Patrick reversers the car into a big concrete lantern which was located on the road (“it came out of nowhere!”). It twisted the metal bar protecting the back of the car a bit (we now know why it’s there!). We also noted that the exhaust suspension was broken, although that probably happened a few days ago during our off-roading in Belize. On the positive side, we managed to get all the dirty laundry washed – we’ll get the car fixed tomorrow. Cooling down in the hotel in the hammocks on top of the roof we enjoyed the weather and the view over the lake. When the sun was setting we went for an evening walk through the small and colourful streets of the city.

So I want to know – what’s the name of the game

Does it mean anything to you?

Can you feel it the way I do?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ90ZqH0PWI