Best of the Maya Tour - Maya ruins of Palenque, Tikal, Quirigua and Copan

Day 2 - Kolem Jaa, La Venta Park and Palenque - After breakfast, tour members are transferred to Kolem Jaa Natural Park and Reserve where zip line, jungle canopy, mountain bike, jungle walking trails and water falls adventures are all available. Lunch will be served at Kolem Jaa. The tour will then return to Villahermosa, visiting La Venta Park, a magnificent exposition of Olmec Culture. The Parque-Museo La Venta is an open-air museum that contains most of the stone sculpture excavated at the Olmec site of La Venta. There are 28 Olmec carvings at this beautiful outdoor museum with an interesting zoo and lake. Each piece was set carefully for optimum viewing. The huge and amazingly well crafted Olmec heads, intricate altars, and intriguing stele and statues there makes one appreciate these ancestors of the Maya. Coatimundis, agoutis and other tropical wildlife wander the grounds among some of the last native vegetation in the area. The tour then continues to Palenque. The tour will check in at the hotel and proceed to dinner. (B, L, D)

Day 3 - Palenque - After breakfast, there will be a walking site lecture of Palenque Archaeological Park, one of the best preserved of all the Mayan ruins. A UNESCO historical monument, Palenque is considered a world treasure. Set like a jade jewel in the emerald foothills of the mountains of Chiapas, Palenque is arguably the most beautiful of the ancient Mesoamerican cities. Deep within the Temple of the Inscriptions the great king, Pacal, was buried and remained undiscovered until 1952. It was then that archaeologist Alberto Ruz raised the 4 ½-ton sarcophagus lid and uncovered the ruler within his crypt. The sight he beheld was the noble lord in his entire splendor wearing magnificent jade jewelry and a mosaic death mask. Palenque is unusual in having almost no stelae but stucco sculptures depicting the city’s royalty decorate many of the buildings while lengthy hieroglyphic texts can be found on tablets inside the palaces and temples. Entering the ruins while the day is still cool, we will guide you through the most significant buildings, reconstructing the fascinating stories of dynasty, succession, and intrigue that are revealed in their inscriptions. We will also visit the modern site museum that houses a full-scale replica of the tomb of Pacal the Great that lies deep within the magnificent Temple of the Inscriptions.

Many scholars believe that the height of Maya artistic achievement occurred at Palenque, and certainly the remains of magnificent painted frescoes and sculptured stucco friezes decorating its buildings show brilliant artistry.

The three temples in the Group of the Cross are certainly the most spectacular buildings in the city. Built high on the side of a mountain, these beautifully decorated sanctuaries dominate the site. In their interiors, massive, finely carved hieroglyphic panels tell the history of the kings and the glorification of their gods. We leave the site along a delightful trail that follows a series of waterfalls, including the Queen’s Baths that flow past the homes of the people of ancient Palenque.

The tour will then continue to Agua Azul water falls for time to swim and refresh. Lunch will be served at the falls, then back to the hotel and before dinner and a lecture on Pakal's tomb. (B, L, D)

Day 4 - Bonampak and Yaxchilan - Today the Mayan tour journeys Bonampak and Yaxchilan. First the tour travels to Bonampak, home of famous Mayan murals. To reach Bonampak, the tour travels through the Lacandonian Rainforest Reserve, some of the last of the uncut jungle in this area. Here, within a palace, the "Templo de los Frescos", are three rooms containing the remarkable murals telling of the accession of a new king of Bonampak, whose untranslated name is “Man-eating Jaguar”, in 790 AD. These vivid colored paintings were not completed as the city collapsed shortly after this. Bonampak is well known for its murals, but the immense stelae, or carved monuments, here are equally lovely they tell of the center's close relationship with nearby Yaxchilán.

We will then move deeper into the remote area of the Peten and travel by boat down the Usumacinta River to the mysterious ancient Maya site of Yaxchilán. Similar to the Amazon in South America, this river contains the largest volume of water flowing in Central America. This incredible boat ride through the rainforest with its huge trees and abundant wildlife makes you feel like you’re in an Indiana Jones movie! Located deep within the rain forest on an oxbow of the river, Yaxchilán was until very recently almost inaccessible. Here, the rulers Shield Jaguar and his son Bird Jaguar built towering memorials to themselves in the 8th century; ancient Mayan Queens exerted great power and the modern Lacandon Indians (of whom there are only 450 people remaining) still use Yaxchilan as a place of worship. There are more than 125 carved monuments at Yaxchilán, including inscribed altars, thrones, steps, walls and stelae, but it is the door lintels that are the site's claim to fame. Sheltered from the elements, these great stone slabs span the tops of 56 doorways, and their incised hieroglyphs are still fresh after more than 1200 years. Adventurous travelers will want to climb Yaxchilan's highest temple as the view of the Rio Usumacinta and surrounding jungle is magnificent.

Day 5 - Tikal - Today the tour visits the spectacular Mayan ruins at Tikal. One of the most famous and beautiful of Maya sites, Tikal’s massive and steep pyramids (one is over 200 feet high) loom above the lush jungle of the Peten where one can observe spider and howler monkeys and numerous bird species such as toucans, parrots and macaws. Here, bathed in a cacophony of jungle wildlife sounds, we will walk through the myriad of canopy-shadowed trails that lace the park. Wild pigs or peccaries, native to Central and South America, walk the jungle paths, and brilliantly colored ocellated turkeys parade through the forest. Here, in the shadow of the magnificent pyramids, and accompanied by the distinctive call of the howler monkey, learn about the royal families of Tikal as told by their carved stone monuments. For example, the Golden Age here began in 682 AD when King Jasaw Chan K’awiil began his reign. The famous Temple I, towering above his tomb, has carved, wooden lintels that depict the king seated on his throne beneath a towering jaguar god. Spend the morning in park's two museums where the finest of Tikal's carved monuments are preserved along with other artifacts from the years of excavation. Lunch will be included. Later there will be a dinner lecture on "Peten, the Lost Jungle". (B, L, D)

Day 6 - Puerto Barrios - After breakfast the Mayan tour continues to Puerto Barrios, to the Banana Palms beach resort for dinner and an overnight stay. (B, L, D)

Day 7 - Quirigua and Copan - The tour's day begins with breakfast in Puerto Barrios and then an exploration of the old United Fruit Company plant, a tour of Quirigua Archaeological Park and transfer to Copan, Honduras for a tour of the Copan Mayan ruin. Quiriguá is a lovely site near the shores of the Motagua River. Quiriguá's stelae are the tallest and most intricately carved in the Maya world. The Great Plaza contains zoomorphic sculptures and elaborately carved stone monuments honoring Two-Legged Sky, who freed his city from Copán when he captured 18 Rabbit in 738 AD.

Later, it's on to Copan. This UNESCO World Heritage Site represents one of the most spectacular cultural achievements of antiquity. Recent work has helped restore the magnificent hieroglyphic stairway to its former grandeur, and art historians are presently reconstructing the elaborate facades on the buildings. Throughout the site, finely chiseled writing tells us of the powerful kings in the lineage, from Yax K'uk Mo', the founder, to 18 Rabbit, one of the greatest of the rulers.

The site in Copan is perhaps best known for producing a remarkable series of portrait stelae, most of which were placed along processional ways in the central plaza of the city and the adjoining "acropolis" (a large complex of overlapping step-pyramids, plazas, and palaces). The stelae and sculptured decorations of the buildings of Copán are some of the very finest surviving art of ancient Mesoamerica.

The site also has a large court for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame. Afterwards there will be a dinner lecture where The Bridge City of Copan will be presented. (B, L, D)

Day 8 - San Pedro Sula, Honduras - Transfers to San Pedro Sula International Airport for a return flight. (B)

PROGRAM	ACCOMMODATIONS					TOUR PRICES (Per Person, Double Occupancy)
	Villahermosa	Copan	Palenque	Tikal	Guatemala	2	4	6	8
Custom	Holiday Inn Express	Hacienda Real	Kin Ha	Jaguar Inn	Banana Palms	Call for quote	Call for quote	Call for quote	Call for quote
Comfort	Cencali	Marina Copan	Kin Ha	*Peten Esplendido*	Banana Palms	$3187	$2216	$1706	$1284
Deluxe	Hyatt	Marina Copan	*Chan Kah*	*Camino Real*	Banana Palms	Call for quote	Call for quote	Call for quote	Call for quote