Mundo Perdido (The Lost World)

The main purpose of my trip to Guatemala was to visit the ruins of the ancient city of Tikal. Somewhere between 5ooAD and 900BC Tikal was a thriving city of, if I remember the facts correctly, 150,000 inhabitants.

Mystery surrounds the collapse of the Mayan civilization, and after its demise the jungle swallowed up the abandoned city of Tikal and concealed it for centuries.

Through the eyes of our wonderful guide, Juan, we saw the daily life of these cultured and scientifically advanced people, and in the five hours we spent with him I was in turn amazed and astonished by the facts and figures and most of all the stunning temples that have been excavated. Juan was like a walking encyclopaedia, and kept us spellbound with tales of the Mayan knowledge of the stars, the seasons, and their understanding of the universe.

The temples rise from the jungle, some of them only partly excavated, with just their top layer visible above the trees. At Juan's insistence I climbed the highest, which is 65 metres, although we could only climb to a level of 40 metres. The view from the top was awesome, and it was intriguing to wonder how many more of the peaks concealed long lost temples.

The jungle setting was a bonus; we saw howler and spider monkeys, turtles, and keel billed toucans amongst other creatures, and Juan was a mine of information when it came to information about wildlife and nature.

As I recall I've now visited five Mayan sites on this trip to Central America, all of them very different and with its own charm, but Tikal was the hands down winner.