Tikal National Park – Episode 4

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Tikal National Park in Northern Guatemala is the largest excavated archaeological city from the Maya civilization and also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We climbed temples that rose over 70 meters and unexpectedly found ourselves face to face with monkeys and other rain forest wildlife. View photo gallery.

16 Responses to “Tikal National Park – Episode 4”

  1. Mariano says:

    What an AWESOME idea. I actually have a client who travels a lot who’s looking to use a blog to tell people about her trips. I’m going to refer her here to see what you guys have done. She’d be serving a completely different market, but the ideas are here and you’ve executed really well.

    LOVED learning about Tikal National Park and I think you did a great job editing the video!

    Thanks!

    • Jason says:

      Thanks for checking us out Mariano and thanks for your #followfriday Twitter ideas. Please, go ahead and share our site with your friend.

  2. Adam says:

    Great video #4 guys! Did the monkeys through anything at you?

    • Jason says:

      No the monkeys didn’t through anything at us. When we saw them in the early morning the Howler monkeys were roaring incredibly loud, then at lunch time they were just eating in the tree right above us making no sounds whatsoever. I never expected to see so many monkeys there. We also saw one Spider monkey from a distance. Make sure you watch the entire video to the end, we always include fun bloopers after the credits and this one had roaring monkeys and guides!

  3. Lilliy says:

    That is an amazing video. Thanks for sharing I always wanted to see the ruins. Now you even made me want to go more than ever. Great editing I am envious. What camera are you using?
    Lilliy
    Twitter: @funlilliy
    SU: http://funlilliy.stumbleupon.com/

    • Jason says:

      It is an incredible park Lilliy! There are so many pyramids to see. I am using a Canon VIXIA HF S10 which films in HD. Its a great little camera that is incredibly flexible. I added a microphone to the top for better sound quality and a wide angle lens for filming in close quarters.

  4. Fantastic shots! I like your videos and I hope you will come to Europe and even to my country Lithuania! If so, come to Vilnius and we could have a great traditional Lithuanian beer night!

    Strange, this video isn’t on Vimeo! Are you guys will not upload any new videos there? By the way, crop the final video a bit to avoid black lines. What video editing program do you use?

    • Jason says:

      Julius, glad you enjoyed our video of Tikal! We don’t have plans right now to visit Europe, but I am positive we will get there someday. In order for us to backpack for a year we need to stick to very cheap countries, which is why our tentative plans are for Central & South America and then Southeast Asia. A year is a long time, so our budget is very tight. As we have been traveling, we have been meeting people from all over the world offering us free accommodations, which I am sure will come in handy one day. And I love beer, so Lithuania sounds good. :-) The editing software I use is Final Cut Express on an Macbook Pro.

    • Jason says:

      Regarding Vimeo and also Tripfilms, YouTube and others: We create video exports in different formats for the different video sharing sites. An export takes anywhere from 2 hours to 5 hours depending on the resolution, quality etc. Then we have to upload the exports to the video sharing sites, which could also take anywhere from 2 hours to 12 hours depending on the file size, the internet connection, the country we are in etc. And sometimes the connection is intermittent, which means we don’t find out it didn’t upload correctly until the next morning. These are the sacrifices of working on the road in less developed countries. So we always upload to our website first. Our website videos our hosted by Smugmug, hence the Smugmug player. Smugmug allows our users to view the video in many different formats including Full HD if they have a big enough screen. Then we upload to the other sites as I create the other exports. Sometimes it takes 3 weeks before we get our videos posted on all the sites. We are looking into distribution services, but you often lose quality when taking one video format and posting it to multiple video sharing sites.

  5. SammyK says:

    This is one place that I’ve never been to despite having traveled to Guatemala many, many times. Thanks for the tour – I learned a whole lot! :)

  6. Big Rufus says:

    Great video Jason! Was this before or after the Phillies lost the World Series? Either way, can’t wait until the next installment. Stay healthy.

    • Jason says:

      It was well before the World Series. Our videos are about 8 weeks behind. It’s a challenge to manage so much footage. And I am still proud of the Phillies for making it to the world series two years in a row. :-)

      • Big Rufus says:

        Big Rufus feels ya. Take care of yourselves down there and holla back to the Shade or Dirty Jerz if we can help.

  7. Mariana says:

    Hi Jason, what an amazing work describing your trip. I am so happy for you and Cely. Please, tell Cely that I was very sorry to not meeting her before your trip. I was in Ecuador at that time and had to go to the Amazon. I was in a place called RUKUKAUSAY.COM. Maybe you can stop by that place in your trip to South America. The best part is the healing…
    I send you a big hug! Mariana

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