Remember this scene from the first Star Wars movie? It was shot at Tikal, Guatemala—those are the ruined temples poking above the canopy.
So I was at Tikal for a few days, and I was staying at a campground right outside the ruins. While hanging out, some other campers showed me a barely-there forest trail that led to a huge tree that had a series of ladders and platforms built up it (the ladders and platforms were made of forest saplings tied together, not finished wood or anything…).
It was rickety and scary, but pretty cool being up that high in the rain forest. One of the nights I was there, I and a couple other people came back and slept in our sleeping bags on the platforms—it was nice, up above the mosquitoes.
Anyway, I always wondered if that rig was a remnant of the filming. I’ve compared the above screenshot with the locations of the temples in Google Earth, and I don’t think so…it seems like my estimated filming point is quite a ways from the campground. But who knows…the forest track may have been longer than I remember, and we are talking about 20 years ago…
11 months ago • 2 notes
