Today was Tikal day. I got up at 2:30 to get ready for the journey to Tikal. We got to the park and it was still nighttime, so we had a rather dark walk all the way across the park where we viewed the sunrise of Temple 4, which is the tallest building in Tikal. A lot of it remains unexcavated though, so you climb wooden steps to the top and sit and wait for the light to come. Unfortunately, it was foggy and the sunrise was unspectacular. We just stared into brighter and brighter fog, and couldn't get a view of the other buildings. Later in the day, I had to come back to see the view, which ended up being pretty cool. The tour guide took us along the major sites of the park and gave us a few tidbits of information here and there. The tour wasn't great, but we did see most of the main buildings all before about 9:30 in the morning. I felt like I had a full day of exploration before the time that I normally get up on any other day. The tour group was rather large but I ended up meeting someone to hang out with. Later, we hit up one of the temples that the tour didn't lead us to and a couple of the museums.
In the afternoon, we explored some nearby caves, which were surprisingly more impressive than I expected. Unfortunately, the entrance fee only covers us opening the gate to the caves, and it doesn't cover lights or a guide or anything, not that there was an opportunity for these other things. So, we ventured into the cave with our headlamps and cellphones alit. They worked pretty well, and we spent quite a long time exploring the underground rooms. Luckily, there are signs to keep people from getting lost. There were a ton of bats in the cave, and I caught a glimpse of a gigantic spider that I didn't really care to weed out.
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