Sunrise in Tikal

Dear Boo and Bubble,

The other day, I was copying articles off of our website Life's Story.  We started it years ago when Captain and I were cruising on our sailboat UpJinks and the company that hosts it informed me that our time had expired which means the site will no longer be available in the future.  I wanted to preserve our stories and pictures for posterity thinking that someday you might enjoy knowing about our travels, the people we met and the places we saw.  

It was such fun going through them and reminiscing.  I thought maybe it would be fun to share some with you on The Bridge Project from time to time.  This particular entry came from a visit we made to the Tikal National Park in Guatemala.  Tikal is one of the largest of all Mayan ruins in Central America.  The Mayan civilization began in 2000 BC and continued until the Spanish conquest in 1697.  It was a culture famous for its ceremonial temples and system of time that functioned more accurately than any we have today.  

We went to the park with our good friends Susan and Tom Heyward.  Reading it brings back such an incredible memory.

Sunrise in Tikal

We awoke at 4:00 AM.  By 4:30, we were hiking with our guide, Nixon, through the jungle of Tikal National Park to the site of Temple 4, the tallest structure of the Mayan ruins.  Above us, first light began to systematically extinguish the stars and the canopy above us became hauntingly silhouetted against the now lightening sky.  A howler monkey roared somewhere in the distance, creating a cascade of responses from a variety of birds registering their complaint at having been disturbed.

By the time we reached the base of the temple, it was 5:30.  Sunrise was at 6:05.  We struggled with the steep 160-foot climb on an inclined ladder constructed up the side, taking us to the base of the roof comb – which extended upward another 60-70 feet.  Once there, we found a spot on the lowest of a series of steps.  The others in our group sat higher up, so our view was unobstructed.

The panorama of muted colors stretched as far as the eye could see, over the tips of temples 1, 2 and 5, across the jungle to an area totally submerged in fog.  A craggy ridge of clouds rose from the mountain range at the horizon, distinguishable only because the mountains were a darker shade of grey.

A gentle murmur circulated around us as the spectators chatted with each other.

Right on cue, a glimmer appeared at the top center of the clouds.  Then it spread along the edge of the cloud to the right and left.  It was as if someone initially lit a brush fire in the center and it began to catch hold, racing along the top, finally becoming so hot that it spilled over like lava through the body of the cloud.

The fiercely red bulb of the sun momentarily appeared in a break between the bottom of the cloud and the top of the mountains, as if checking to make sure it wanted to come up at all.  

 

A moment later, the orb broke through the top of the clouds and, in only a few seconds, was too intense to view with the unshaded eye.

For billions of years, this routine of nature has repeated itself every morning, awakening the sleeping inhabitants of an unsuspecting jungle.  In most instances it is taken for granted ……. unless seen in such an exceptional circumstance as this.  When you do witness the sunrise at Temple 4, you can't help but sense the vastness of the universe and somehow are confronted with your insignificance in it.