Welcome to the Jungle – TIKAL

When I started investigating what to do in Guatemala, visiting Tikal came at the top of the list. If you come from Belize it is a little tricky to get to, you can either head down to San Ignacio in Southern Belize to do a cross border excursion, or you can fly.  If you fly, it is a two legged trip that goes to Flores via Guatemala City.  After several email exchanges I decided to opt for the two legged flights and spend time in Flores.  Tikal is just over an hour’s drive from Flores. It also allows me to stay on the Isla de Flores!

I headed to the jungle to go see Tikal. What is Tikal I hear you say?  It’s the ruin of an ancient Mayan settlement dating back to 900BC, that was the site of Mayan culture for almost two thousand years, until 900AD.   If you want to learn about history, go where the history is, that’s a well worn saying for any traveler.  Tikal is in the middle of the jungle in the Peten Basin, which means lots of different animals creating the many sounds of the jungle.

A mini bus ride from Flores gets you to Tikal, and you can either just use the transport, or add the option to have a guide.  With only a small cost difference I opted to have a guide.  Henry, our 10-person group guide was outstanding.  We were exploring the Tikal jungle for over 5-hours, and not once did I think I wasn’t learning or enjoying the advantage of having a guide, Henry was good at his work!

I learned so much about what was and is still here, how the Mayan villages are impressive and amazing.  You can’t help but shrug your shoulders in wonder, ‘how on earth did they build this almost 3000 years ago.

Mid-tour it started to rain, and hard, this was jungle weather in rainy season.  I was glad I brought a hat and coat.  I did question that logic as we set off with many people carrying very little, but it seems I was ahead of the game on this occasion.  I still got ridiculously wet, but not quite as bad as some of the others in our group, and even Henry the guide.

One of the interesting historical pieces I learned was that every 52 years in Mayan life they played 3v3 soccer games.  There were 3 games played on the 3 fields, so 18 players were specially selected to compete.  The winning captain on each team was sacrificed! Not quite a World Cup winners medal then… getting sacrificed was a high honor in Mayan culture.  I think there would be a lot of own goals if they played by the same rules in today’s soccer games.

I headed back for the Isla de Flores for three quarters of a day of exploring the local area and seeing what happens in the town of Flores on an October afternoon. Those wandering excursion are always interesting and fun.

At the end of that day I moved on with an evening flight from Flores to the capital of Guatemala City. From seeing zero American fast food chains in Belize, they are everywhere in Guatemala City. I decided to stay in a nice hotel here, and my Guatemala City hotel room is more like an apartment, and the bed could sleep five!

A day trip to Antigua in Guatemala was a highly proclaimed excursions that I read about everywhere, in fact, all the information was not to stay in Guatemala City and get out of the city. I tried and I tried various sources, sent various emails and got nowhere. How do you get the 25 miles from Guatemala City to Antigua. There are buses, but the take forever, there are no trains, there are taxis, but it is a 45 minute drive, and with Guatemala traffic that can quickly become 90 minutes. I was going around in circles, I sent emails, some replied, some didn’t. A private car was almost $200 for a 1 day trip to somewhere 25 miles away, the cost was almost ten times going to Tikal. On arrival at the hotel I got them to negotiate, and a taxi driver agreed to take me there, wait for me and bring me back for $100. Not great, but ok.

The jaunt to Antigua for the day worked out great, an early morning departure before traffic got up n a Sunday morning, a few hours in Antigua viewing the sights and getting a feel for the place and then heading back to Guatemala City to round out a busy day with watching the Seahawks on Guatemala ESPN in Spanish.