Abandoned Plaza = Dancing...

Abandoned Plaza = Dancing...
Originally uploaded by zassink

With my recent travel to Tikal I was feeling liberated and free! It's Semana Santa (week before Easter), there's no school, and I haven't seen a student in almost a week! Does like get better for vacation? Well, I found out that it definitely does. I arrived to Flores, Guatemala on Monday afternoon along with my brother, David, and Cody and we found a great hotel right on the lake for just $5 each! So we explored the island for the night, got some great fried fish, and just relaxed for our full day at Tikal. While in Tikal I was in a constant state of shock about everything. It was all so massive, huge, and mind-blowing....You can check out some of the pictures on my flickr, I'll put some more up later too. The top of Temple IV (one of my favorite spots) was also where they shot the scene of the rebel base in Star Wars. Some of you might recognize it.:) Other than that....there was Temple I which I made a relief of in pottery class my senior year of high school. I've been dreaming of seeing that temple ever since then and finally, 6 years later, I got to see it! Or climbing to the top of Temple 5 which was about a 60 meter staircase going straight up like a ladder instead of stairs.
One of my favorite things about our trip was walking through the jungle and imagining the Mayans having the place cleared out for paths and temples. It's a super thick jungle (much more than anything with have in Copan) and I can't imagine the Mayans coming in and building this huge city without any river or lake even nearby! There was stucco plazas, temples, and statues all over the place. Our guide did a great job of separating speculation from history and painted amazing pictures for us of the era when the Mayans were ruling compared to the reality of the ruins now.
Anyways....my pictures are better descriptions on this one than my words....look away...:)