Take A Trip through Time in Tikal, Guatemala
The combination of ancient ruins and lazy days on beaches provided the perfect trip back in time for us over New Year’s in 2007.
The combination of ancient ruins and lazy days on beaches provided the perfect trip back in time for us over New Year’s in 2007.
Tikal is one of the major sites of Mayan civilization, inhabited from the 6th century B.C. to the 10th century A.D. We spent three days viewing this and other ruins in the vicinity.
In August 2005 we spent three weeks exploring Peru, visiting the Amazon Basin, hiking in Colca Canyon and gazing on the lost city of Machu Picchu.
This was no ordinary vacation; instead our Cosmos (around the world) journey with our kids was a lifestyle change that lasted over four months, from September 2003 to January 2004.
We left Beijing’s West Train Station at 12:45pm on Wednesday to begin our ten hour journey to Luoyang. We were able to get hard seats (for about $12 each) on a ‘K’ train, which is an express that makes very few stops.
It was a 5 1/2 hour journey on a double decker express ‘K’ train from Luoyang to Xian. The next morning we went back to the train station to catch the bus to the Army of the Terracotta Warriors. Nothing prepares you for the enormity of seeing the warriors in lines as you first enter.
It is Thursday night and we are in Luoyang, which is southwest of Beijing. We arrived here late last night after a 10 hour train ride in “hard class.” Hard class is not necessarily the seats (they were padded) but it refers to the cheapest seats of travel – one the Chinese use.