After a 30 minute walk in the dark early morning, with the humid air smelling of jungle and mystery – we climbed Tikal’s temple number four, to await the rising sun in silence and watch the mist slowly lifting and revealing the rest of Tikal’s grandeur. It was magical.

Guatemala winning again? Definitely. I like temples, but tend to find them boring as they get flooded with “please don’t sit here” signs and tourists in orange caps. In Tikal, there were tourists, but not too many, and the dense vegetation always allowed for a moment of solitude and experiencing the pyramids and temples as if there was nobody else there – or actually, as if it was still the time of the Mayans and everybody were just still asleep. I went with George, and we spent hours just sitting on different pyramids and exploring by ourselves. “George, you need to climb this one, I feel so small up here – it’s amazing!” We sat watching the tourists come and go again, looked at the amazing stone buildings, and spoke about essentials.

Tikal was an amazing place. Without any doubt topping my list of places worth visiting, much of it thanks to that jungle around the temples, but mostly thanks to the fact that it felt so real.