Guatemala Day Two: No Ticket For Tikal But Some Nice Hikes And A Lot Of Wildlife Near My Hotel
After my day of traveling on Friday , I awoke early Saturday morning at the Tikal Inn in the Tikal National Park in Guatemala. I heard some guests outside my room leaving for the tour to watch the sunrise from a Mayan temple at 4: 30 a.m. I had arranged f0r two sunrise tours during my stay at the hotel. I quickly dressed and asked the guide if I could join the group. I was told I couldn’t enter the park without a ticket. I wasn’t able to purchase tickets before my arrival because of my late flight. Tickets for foreigners can no longer be purchased on line. Tickets can only be purchased at at the Banrural or Bantrab bank locations or at the park entrance located 10 miles from my hotel. 
The staff at the hotel were very helpful and offered to purchase my tickets for me but it wouldn’t be until later in the day. So I wasn’t going to visit the Mayan ruins of Tikal on Saturday. I was a little disappointed but not for long. I decided to make the best of the situation and explore the area around the hotel. As I left the hotel shortly after sunrise I was greeted by the beautiful chorus of birds singing in the treetops. 
I walked to the entrance of the park, about a 1/4 mile from the hotel. Tickets are not sold here. The trees blocked the early morning sun so it was still dark and I couldn’t photograph the many birds singing in the trees. 
I explored the area around the entrance and visited a small pond with a sign warning that there were crocodiles in the pond. 
Here I saw one my favorite tropical trees , the gumbo-limbo tree. I see them on my hikes in south Florida. I learned the are native to Guatemala and most of Central America and were loved by the Mayans too. There were many beautiful trees near the park entrance. 
I found a trail on my AllTrail map and followed it into the rainforest that surrounded the hotel. I later learned it led to an abandoned air field. I walked under the mostly unfamiliar trees. The only ones I recognized with the reddish brown gumbo limbo trees. 
I followed the trail in the dim early morning light until I came to a sign warning, again, of crocodiles. Of course, I had to explore and walked to the small pond. I was greeted by the loud cries of the unusual boat billed herons. There was a large flock of them living around the pond. I had only seen one before, on a visit to Belize. I would return to this pond many time on my visit to watch these birds on my hikes the next few days. 
I left the pond as the first rays of the early morning sun filtered through the trees. 
I walked back to the hotel as the sun rose, disappointed I didn’t see more birds or other wildlife. I had hiked over 3 miles and I was hungry. I enjoyed my first breakfast at the Inn, traditional Guatemalan eggs with onion and tomatoes, fried beans, fried plantains, tortillas, fresh fruit and a lot of coffee. I was full. 
After a short break I was back out hiking the same trail I hiked earlier and hoping to see more wildlife. And I did. 
I was now able to see, and photograph some of the birds singing in the trees, and, the first ones I saw were ones I was very familiar with from my hikes in the woods of Northeastern Pennsylvania in the Spring and Summer, a hooded warbler, 
and one of my favorites, a wood thrush. I wood see and hear hundreds of wood thrushes during my week stay in Guatemala . They didn’t not sing their beautiful haunting melodic songs I so love back home. They sang a more noisy, chattering song here in the jungles of Guatemala. I still enjoyed seeing these familiar birds and wondered if I met them on my Summer and Spring hikes. I love seeing our migratory birds in their Winter homes. 
I next heard the loud chattering of a couple of black-headed salators. I have seen these seed eating birds on my visits to Panama and Costa Rica . They are members of the tanager family. 
I heard and saw a lot more hooded warblers and magnolia warblers in the forest but I was delighted to see this mangrove vireo , my first sighting or a lifer for me. 
I walked back out to the pond where I found the boat billed herons enjoying the late morning sun. 
I walked back toward the hotel and park entrance and in the tall trees near the bus parking area I saw a pair of golden woodpeckers,
a few melodious blackbirds,
and this keel-billed toucan in a treetop. 
As I neared the parking area by the hotel I heard howler monkeys near the park restaurant. I walked over and listened to the loud cries of a family of howler monkeys. the large male making the most noise.
there was also a mother with a infant,
and some other juveniles climbing in the tree tops. I would constantly hear the calls of the howler monkeys my entire week in Guatemala, some times in the distance and sometimes right over my head. Some folks find the loud cries scary and annoying but I love hearing them. 
I walked over to the pond near the entrance and saw a crocodile in the vegetation in the pond. It would be the only one I would see on this trip.
I would see on more critter on my walk a white nosed coati bothering the tourists in the parking lot. I have also come to love these critters having seen them on all of my visits to Central America. 
It was now near noon and I finished my 2 1/2 mile hike. I spent the afternoon editing phots and roaming the pretty gardens that surround the pool at the hotel.
It was sunny hot with temperatures in the 80’s but I still saw a lot of insects visiting the flowers in the gardens , including, and I am not sure if these identifications are correct, I relied on Google lens so please correct me if I am wrong, a yellow angled sulphur butterfly,
a many banded skipper butterfly, 
a pale Mylon butterfly, 
a white peacock butterfly, 
a Julia butterfly 
and a species of bumble bee,
and dragonfly. I enjoy my travels to finds, photograph and share all types of wildlife. I love to find the larger and more exotic animals like snakes and monkeys, but I especially enjoy the beauty of the birds, butterflies and dragonflies. 
I spent some time at the desk getting my tickets for Tikal with the help of the staff. It was already a long day for me. I had walked over 6 miles in the heat but I decided to take another late afternoon hike on the trails near the hotel . I am glad I did. As I walked in the late day sunshine I saw a lot of birds including a fw woodcreepers, a beautiful northern barred woodcreeper, 
an ivory billed woodcreeper, 
oliveceous woodcreeper climbing up the trunks of trees near the boat-billed heron pond. 
A colorful summer tanager was perched on a tree tops, 
while a clay colored thrush scurried on the ground. These thrushes are common, like their cousins the robins in Pennsylvania. 
I walked to the pond for the third time and again found the boat-billed herons, screaming loudly as I approached. I was disappointed I didn’t see any crocodiles. 
I left the pond and saw a few more birds on the walk back including a few more of the wood thrushes and hooded warbles and a greenish elaenia.
It was not late afternoon and the sun was low in the western sky as I neared the hotel.
I continued to find a lot of birds perch in the trees around the parking lot. I saw a few of the pretty but noisy brown jays. The reminded my a lot of the blue jays I dislike back home. They are constantly making their loud squawking calls scaring the other birds. 
However thy didn’t scare this Montzuma oropendola, who, unlike the brown jays has a beautiful eerie haunting song,
or this beautiful roadside hawk I saw in the trees near th hotel. Here is a link to a gallery on my blog page with some more photos of the birds I saw on my hikes near the hotel. Guatemala Day Two. Tikal Inn birds November 8 2024 
I also saw another unique butterfly, a large owl eye butterfly. There were a lot of them fluttering through the forest in the late aftrnoon light. 
I finished my 2 mile hike around sunset, and after showering, and listemed to the holwer monkeys in the distance. The dinning room opens at 6 p.m, and I had anothe wholesome meal although the fish, I am not sure what kind it was, was very salty. Here is a link to a gallery on my blog page with some more photos from my hikes near the hotel. Guatemala Day Two. Tikal Inn hikes November 8 2024 
After dinner I stood in the gardens enjoying the waxing gibous moon and the sounds of the insects and howler monkeys. It was a beauitful evening. I saw so much beauty in the forests around the hotel. I was looking forward to exploring the jungles and Mayan temples and ruins in th Tikal National Park the rest of my fiv day stay. I had to be up at 4 a.m.so I retired early looking forward to my sunrise hike. 
“The time has come to link ecology to economic and human development. When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all. What is happening to the rain forests of Madagascar and Brazil will affect us all.”
Jamie Murphy and Andrea Dorfman, ‘The Quiet Apocalypse
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