Tikal.... "We are approaching the planet Yavin." (Part 1)

 It all started at 3AM when my alarm went off. The bats were out and squeeking, and the moon was bright. I worked my way through the corridors, blindly grasping for any source of light. The guard was at the bottom of the stairs sleeping behind the desk. I felt bad for waking him, but we couldn't get out, and seeing the sun rise over the legendary "Yavin" was a must that I couldn't miss out on.

 The crowd was small, less then 30 people in the whole park, and the air was cool and clean. The howlers were yelling and roaring and the toucans were croaking.

 I didn't get much of the noises, but I gave it a shot here. If you can get it loud enough, you can hear it a little.

Honestly, the fact that Star Wars had a scene here, wasn't the selling point for me though..... it was everything!

 Everything was beautiful, we had a tour guide for it all (English or Spanish), and I couldn't get enough of it.

 Guided tours are not my favorite way to go, I'm more of a wayfarer myself, but we were given some time to wander alone, and I still had a great time. Next time I will wander alone though.

 I love seeing those adorable little pizotes, it's been so long and they are beyond cute. Don't feed them though, they travel in groups and will attack if you quit feeding them. You will probably only see one, but they are close.

 This beautiful Argiope Aurantia caught my eye, it truly was a beauty.

You can see the size of it compared to the flowers next to it here.

 There was so many ruins! I could explore all day, even though I have already seen this once, it just is too much to think I could fit it all in just once.

 Even though we all know Yavin is just Guatemala, it feels like a different planet when you are all over these mysterious ancient pyramids.

I was in love with this tree.

Life is everywhere in this jungle. From the spiders, to the monkeys in the trees, everywhere you look, there is something crawling or flying by.

 There was so many stairs to climb, but I was never disappointed when I reached the top, plus a little bit of exercise will only do me good.

 Here you can see the temple of the ascending god. The carvings are still so clear to this day.

 The temples, the greenery, the heights, the giant steps that are obviously too big for the Mayans we know of, all of it made for an unbeatable combination. This is all to big for one blog though.... more to come.