i recently visited Tikal, after many years of seeing pictures by others and reading about its beauty - it was a wonderful trip, a wonderful place.

unlike most tourists, i entered tikal after visiting uaxactun (the subject of another gallery), and my first view of tikal was from a top temple 4, where i could see over the tree canopies to the tops of the temple of the great jaguar and temple 2 in the great plaza, i must have been up there for an hour just takiing in the view, you could see exotic birds and hear the monkeys and nothing ion the world would dare disturb that peace. my trip could have ended there and i would have been happy, but after that i trekked to the lost world area of tikal, and then to the great plaza.

on my way up temple 4, rain was pouring down, and unknown to me all the tourists were leaving the park not wanting to get wet, i was already exhausted and wet from uaxactun so it made no difference to me, but when i arrived a top temple 4 the rain had stopped, and foretunately for me i was practically alone in the park and the rest of my visit i was able to wander without interruption. i could not have asked for a better day at tikal.