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Before I had time to fully wake up, I was sitting with a few Australians on the shuttle to Tikal. The park doesn’t open until 6AM, and we arrived at the gate at 5:45. We waited outside and stretched our legs a bit. The driver pointed out a tarantula hanging around outside the entrance.

When the park opened, we were the first ones in. I walked around the paths to various temple sites. Along the way I spotted tapirs, coatis, frogs, monkeys (first monkey sighting of the trip!!) and dozens of different birds. Out near the parking lot, there was a crocodile sunbathing. The temples themselves were incredible. Some, like the Grand Jaguar Temple, were skyscrapers. Temple IV was built atop a huge hill, overlooking the jungle canopy. Tikal is massive, and experts believe that the area once was home to around 100,000 people.

I covered around 12 miles worth of trails and hundreds of feet of stairs on a very hot and humid day. Needless to say, I was drenched in sweat from head to toe. When I got back to the hotel, I jumped right in the shower, not minding one bit that it was freezing cold.

Back in the restaurant I met some fellow hostellers, Matt from England and Ashley from Australia. The three of us had a sort of impromptu Spanish lesson with out hostess. A lot of it went over our heads, but it was a lot of fun and still pretty informative.