{"id":11836,"date":"2005-02-23T14:41:00","date_gmt":"2005-02-23T19:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theandiamo.com\/logwp\/?p=11836"},"modified":"2023-03-24T14:43:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T19:43:05","slug":"tikal-ancient-city-of-the-jungle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theandiamo.com\/logwp\/blog\/2005\/02\/23\/tikal-ancient-city-of-the-jungle\/","title":{"rendered":"Tikal, Ancient City of the Jungle&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Tikal is the kind of place that you can&#8217;t possibly fully picture until you&#8217;re actually there. Sure, it&#8217;s easy to picture the Mayan ruins especially if you know what they typically look like. But that&#8217;s where it stops. To imagine this massive city is deep within a thick, lush jungle, and that most of it is still underneath tons of vegetation and earth (as a result of the jungle&#8217;s progressive growth over the city once it was abandoned), is pretty wild stuff. Especially when you find out that only about 20% of the actual city is excavated and visible!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Truly a day to remember for us, the views were amazing, and I still find myself wondering why in the world the ancient Mayans who lived here just walked away from it as their civilization collapsed&#8230;<a><\/a><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalFog.JPG\" alt=\"Tikal in Fog\"\/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalDistance1.JPG\" alt=\"One of the temples\" title=\"One of the temples coming out of the fog as we watched from the top of Temple I.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalPath.JPG\" alt=\"Path through the jungle\" title=\"This is one of the paths that you take through the jungle to get to various excavated parts of Tikal.  All along the paths, you can see other temples and buildings that are still covered by trees and earth, nestled in the thick trees.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalSteel.JPG\" alt=\"Me perplexed... \" title=\"Here I am trying to figure out where the ancient Mayans got steel I-beams and concrete to build this modern-looking structure, perhaps once-glorious in its day. =)\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalTemple2.JPG\" alt=\"Temple II\" title=\"This Temple II on one end of what is called the 'Gran Plaza'. You can climb to the top of it via some wooden stairs on one side of it.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalGardener.JPG\" alt=\"Teresa with a rake\" title=\"Teresa with a rake, ready for action. She work hard, strong, like BULL! =)\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalContrast.JPG\" alt=\"Contrast\" title=\"Contrast, between man and nature. (deep =P ...)\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalJungle1.JPG\" alt=\"Jungle\" title=\"An example of how thick the jungle vegetation can be around here.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalRaf.JPG\" alt=\"Raf\" title=\"Raf, reaching into his bag o' tricks... \"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalCanadianGirls.JPG\" alt=\"A view from the top of Temple IV... \" title=\"A view from the top of Temple IV... \"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalBehave3.JPG\" alt=\"Me\" title=\"When I was on one of the temples, I found myself regressing back to my primitive roots... A stick I found that kinda looked like a spear helped a little... =)\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalStairs.JPG\" alt=\"Stairs on Temple V\" title=\"These are the very steep stairs that you need to take up to the top of Temple V. They stopped letting people climb the original stairs on the temple when several people fell off and died over the past couple of years. \"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalTeresa&amp;Tony.JPG\" alt=\"Teresa and Me\" title=\"Teresa and me on one of our many breaks... \"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalTeresa.JPG\" alt=\"Teresa\" title=\"Teresa, looking very introspective...\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalTony&amp;Me.JPG\" alt=\"Raf and me \" title=\"Raf and me on top of Temple IV...\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalTop1.JPG\" alt=\"Teresa and view\" title=\"Teresa on top of Temple III, with an awesome view\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalTop2.JPG\" alt=\"Me on Temple III\" title=\"Me on Temple III\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalView.JPG\" alt=\"Me, on Temple IV\" title=\"Me. on top of Temple IV, presenting the grand view... =)\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/images\/guatemala4\/GuatemalaTikalWide.JPG\" alt=\"Palace\" title=\"One of the grand palaces of Tikal, right off Temple III.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\">Comment from: Janet [Visitor]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\">I hate you!!! Here I am working in this boring Library &#8211; and you are in paradise!!! I spit a cat hairball in your coffee!!!<br \/>It looks so fun &#8211; as you can tell I&#8217;m extremely jealous!! I&#8217;m so happy to see that you are enjoying your journey and seeing all these wonderful new places! I hope we can see you sometime soon!<br \/>Take care &#8211; Love,<br \/>Janet<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/log_b2\/index.php?blog=5&amp;p=120&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1#c325\"><\/a> 2005-02-23 @ 11:07 <a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\">Comment from: Judy [Visitor]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\">Tony,<br \/><br \/>Those were some very cool pictures, and I must say I am very jeaolous&#8230; I had just finished studying about MesoAmerica, and wished I could see it up close. One day I will, not today, but one day!<br \/><br \/>Judy<br \/><br \/>P.S. Barbara (Craig&#8217;s Mom) send you warm greetings!<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theandiamo.com\/log_b2\/index.php?blog=5&amp;p=120&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1#c436\"><\/a> 2005-03-14 @ 14:48<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tikal is the kind of place that you can&#8217;t possibly fully picture until you&#8217;re actually there. Sure, it&#8217;s easy to picture the Mayan ruins especially if you know what they typically look like. But that&#8217;s where it stops. To imagine this massive city is deep within a thick, lush jungle, and that most of it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theandiamo.com\/logwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theandiamo.com\/logwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theandiamo.com\/logwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theandiamo.com\/logwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theandiamo.com\/logwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theandiamo.com\/logwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11837,"href":"https:\/\/theandiamo.com\/logwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11836\/revisions\/11837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theandiamo.com\/logwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theandiamo.com\/logwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theandiamo.com\/logwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}