Tikal

Temples, monkeys, and a breath-taking aerial view awaited mission team members on Thursday during a visit from Flores to Tikal, the area Peter dubbed the one-time “New York City” of the Mayan civilization. The night before the trip Peter described how Tikal was one of dozens of Mayan sites around Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, but was the leading site, with some 100,000 people living there at its height around 900 C.E. Apparently the city outgrew its resources and a drought may have helped wipe it out, with survivors spreading out to other Mayan communities.

During the Tikal visit, the guide who worked with the mission team, Jesus, showed the team members how many of the sites both symbolized and analyzed the calendar year and described the theory that it was the WINNERS of the Mayan ball game who were honored by being sacrificed/beheaded. He also showed team members the ramon, the super-nutritious nut that Mayans cooked with.  Peter also explained that the Mayans and other Amerindians were the first group to domesticate what became one of the world’s most important grains, corn/maize, which was one of the most difficult to domesticate and the only one domesticated outside of the Tigris/Euphrates valley. Jane reminded the team that the Tikal visit was part of educational activity that Crescent Hill folks had promised to do – to learn more about Guatemala and the Q’eqchi’ – and a reminder of the noble origins of the church’s Q’eqchi’ partners.

No visit to this world cultural site would be complete without contemporary cultural references. A scene from the tail end of the “Star Wars” 4 movie is what Doug (pictured above) saw from a Tikal high point, and Tavi pointed out that the screams of the zombies/vampires in “I Am Legend” sounded just like those of the howler monkeys at Tikal. And the ceiba, the sprawling Mayan tree of life (pictured below), harkens back to a similar tree of life – and civilization – in the movie “Avatar.”

-Perry