Exploring Guatemala- Tikal, Flores, and Finca Ixobel

Our entrance into Guatemala couldn't have been any more spectacular. Our first stop was Tikal, the ancient Mayan ruins in the northeast. Again, we are just amazed at how advanced these civilizations were. Huge cities with magnificent architecture. You really have to see this to believe it. These cities just rise up out of the jungle. Unlike other ruins around the world (like in Egypt), the buildings here were built without the use of the wheel. Think about that for a second. (Read more info about Tikal at the bottom).

After Tikal we spent a night in the town of Flores located on a tiny island in the middle of a lake. That was a pretty cool little spot. We enjoyed delicious food and the drinks were ridiculously cheap. For that reason we had to have 2 or 10 of them.

Here we are 8.5 drinks into the afternoon. It took 10 minutes to figure out how to use the self timer on our camera. It couldn't have been the alcohol, so it must have been how the Japanese build cameras. Don't worry, I intend to write a letter to consumer report.

After that we headed south to Finca Ixobel, a little eco hotel located in the jungle. We had a fun horseback riding trip into the pine forests. Now our butts hurt.

We're moving on this morning, heading southwest. TREE

More on TIKAL:

The collapse of the Classic Maya is one of history’s biggest mysteries still plaguing archaeologists (and my friend Jen) to this day. What makes the disappearance of the lowland Maya civilizations so intriguing is the combination of the cultural sophistication they attained before the collapse and the relative suddenness of the collapse itself.

Classic Maya culture developed in three regions in Mesoamerica. By far the most important and most complete urban developments occurred in the lowlands of Guatemala. This region is a drainage basin about sixty miles long and twenty miles wide and is covered by tropical rain forest. Tropical rain forest is extremely difficult to live in; despite its lushness and moisture, it can only support small human populations. While plant and animal growth seems almost out of control and the rains never stop, the rich soil actually makes extremely poor agricultural land. The principal urban center built in this unlikely region was Tikal.

The first people settled in Tikal around 700 BC. By about 250 AD, the dawn of the Classic period, Tikal had become a heavily populated, religious, cultural, and commercial center, but it would not even reach its apogee until 700 AD. Then, a mere two hundred years later, POOF! The people vanished. This thriving tropical urban center was completely abandoned. Why would a people so advanced in astronomy, mathematics, and language desert their city center? 

One of the latest and most compelling reasons is that the lowland Mayas brought their demise upon themselves by allowing their population to grow too large, which forced them to overuse their natural resources.  Sound familiar? Stevie