Mis Sueños en Vivo: Hot and Steamy

Hot and Steamy are the only two words that I could use to describe rainforest. It was an absolutely amazing experience but it really tested the people in my group, both physically and mentally. When we arrived at the park, we were told to wear jeans, socks, and tennies so that we would not A.) step on anything, B.) Get bitten by anything or C.) Step on anything. It was the most intense heat and humidity that I have ever experienced and jeans certainly did not help.

The place we went to was Tikal National Park. It is a massive park and is one of the largest sites of Mayan ruins in Latin America (approximately 500 square meters). Since its discovery in the mid-1800s, archaeologists were only able to excavate 15% of the entire park. The other 85% of the park remains covered by dense rainforest that you have to climb through to get to the pyramids. While we were walking the trails to the pyramids, we saw so many different animals. My favorite part was watching the Spider and Howler monkeys swing from branch to branch. We also saw bats, anteaters and a ton of birds. I was able to find a green and yellow parrot feather to take home!

After seeing some of the animals on the trail, we approached the largest structure in the park, Templo IV. It’s approximately 200 steps up a winding staircase to reach the peak. The view from the top was worth the climb, as I could see the entire jungle below and the tops of Templo V and Jaguar Palace. After spending some time up there, we descended. One girl was feeling so sick that she went back to the park entrance and waited for the rest of us to finish the tour.Little did we know that she’d be the first of many affected by the intense humidity that day.After she left, the rest of us continued on to see many more structures. My favorite one was the royal sleeping chamber because it had original wood in it and there were some little bats inside!

After three and a half hours of exploring the park, we called it quits. It was an amazing place to visit and is very accessible, unlike much of the other Mayan ruins.