Belize Trip - Tikal

We took a day trip to Tikal, Guatemala, a giant ancient Mayan site, and took Isabel with us on that excursion.

It took us about 45 minutes to get through the border crossing into Guatemala because the Guatemalans want you to take their vans to the Tikal and so they make it obnoxiously difficult for vans from Belize to go across the border. You need a bunch of paper-work and they look for nit-picky things to deny you access to cross. They spent 20 minutes looking for the VIN number of our van to be sure it matched the VIN on all the documents for the van. We got through, but another van from Chaa Creek had to turn around because one number in the VIN was missing in one of the documents. Chaa Creek even sent Dosio up to the crossing with more documentation, but they still wouldn't let them in. Joe, our driver, was organized and efficient. And fun to talk to. He and his wife both create curriculum for the Belize school system for their full-time jobs, and Joe does these tours on his off days.

We climbed to the top of Temple 4 first and got a breath taking look at the jungle around us and of the site. Unlike Chichinitza, we didn't have to climb the stone steps but there were wooden steps on the side. Not as exciting and authentic, but easier and less scary. Seeing how high the temples are and how large the site is (with temples and sleeping quarters for royalty and other things like plazzas and ball fields), it suddenly became clear how important and complex the Mayan society here was and how many people lived close by. When the Mayans were living in the area, Belize had more than 3 times the population it has today!! This was a big deal.