Luke, Han, Leia, C-3PO, R2D2, Chewy oh and someone else, someone important...

oh yeah me...

knew I´d missed someone out

Right before the a fore mentioned rebels succeeded in destroying the first Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV, they needed to make a pit stop at their base. A location that Darth Vadar was clearly familiar with as was I, once I climbed to the top of Temple IV in the Tikal National Park in Northern Guatemala that is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z690zwlaMao

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGeNytNp7ve7ZW4kbQSnh0inyW7VD_j5aboEV5JMOC0_wdRHZEMayTgvKjLVypYeY74gMfQBJjckhZjW7hqxjYdiBhj2baEEy-PEt-fTtBA6w3m7dP7tE1tAPR2WJSz5BaFEito3ahQVlJ/s1600/800px-Tikal_screenshot1.jpg

My last stop in Guatemala was to see the most famous site in the Mayan kingdom, Tikal, a day trip from the local town of Flores. I had managed to get to Flores from Lanquin despite having finally succumbed to the evil travellers bug that thankfully kept quiet for the 8 hour journey to Flores.

Flores was not a bad place to be unwell and stuck in for a few days. The town is on a island on a beautiful lake and whilst it was baking hot the colonial-style town is rather mellow as most travellers seem to pass through en route to the ruins leaving it perfectly quiet to get a bit of R&R.

In a few days of doing sweet nothing, the highlights amounted to catching the final of the World Series of Baseball, with some San Francisco Giants fans (they thankfully won what is an incredibly dull sport), watching far too much premiership football and eating plate after plate of delicious plain rice. Yum.

After getting to Tikal bright and early, I struck out for the rebel base, and despite not bumping into any of the rebel alliance, it was clear to see why Tikal is the number tourist attraction in Guatemala and why the ruins are the most dramatic in all the Mayan Kingdom.

Simply put, the temples are huge. The photos do this more justice than I can, but what they can´t show is that this whole area is deep in the heart of the jungle. Half of the appeal about Tikal, is that you´ll be wandering through the jungle checking out out some gnarled trees, noisy bird or possibly a howler monkey (who looks suspiciously like a sibling) when suddenly you´ll see a temple almost by accident at eye level only to see it erupting out of the canopy to over 60 meters high.

The jungle of Tikal is a tiny part of the region of Petan that from the top of the temples, spreads out to what seems like an infinity and knowing that there are ruins vastly less inaccessible many miles to the North, it´s easy to see that the area is an explorers paradise.

The temples are spectacular, and I´m not surprised they filmed a tiny segment of Star Wars here, from the top of Temple IV, the area looks like it belongs somewhere else, from a world long ago abandoned and long ago forgotten. Early in the morning when few tourists have arrived, the park is very easy to get lost in and with more temples and ruins than I thought possible. Tikal is a definite highlight so far and for the brief time I was there, I could begin to see where the inspiration for line, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" may have come from.

photos in the usual place:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richsmith/sets/72157625357738638/