Today was a big day: I finally went to see the archaeological site of Tikal, something that had been on my wish list for this trip right from the start. My plan was to go up in the afternoon, sleep in the park to catch the sunrise, and explore Tikal after that. The travel agency organizing the bus had told me that it would be possible to go right up to the camp site in the national park without buying a ticket for that day. However, when we arrived at the entrance gate - 17km away from the actual site - they told me I would have to wait for about four hours and buy my ticket for the next day down there. Initially I was furious: the agency had plainly lied to me to make me take an earlier bus so they wouldn't have to run the later one just for me - it's low season after all.
Luckily my anger didn't last long, and I got to chatting with the guides hanging around at the entrance. Passing the time like this, the wait turned out to be really nice. I learned that there are more than 20 Maya dialects spoken in Guatemala. The name Guatemala is also of Mayan origin: it means country of many trees. One of the guys even made a ring for me, folded out of a one quetzal bill.
And then, with more than an hour of waiting left, someone offered me a ride up to the site and suddenly the officials were ok with me buying my ticket up at the site instead of down at the entrance gate. The heavy rain that had set in in the meantime might have had something to do with it ;-)
In the visitor area that's located at the entrance to the ruins, I first secured a spot to sleep. There are three hotels up there, all ridiculously expensive of course. But luckily, there is a campground where you can rent a tent complete with mattress, pillow and blankets; so that's what I did.
Later the rain subsided a little, and I decided to pay a first visit to the ruins of Tikal. Although the sky was overcast, the huge temples were an amazing sight.
