We cross the border from Belize into Guatemala by car as one guide drops us off and another picks us up. I do love a land border crossing, it’s much more exciting than arriving to a new county by air. This is Shane’s first time in Guatemala so this is country number 97 for him [I’ve got some catching up to do]. There’s a reasonable size queue at border control, something that you would expect to move in about ten minites but honestly I think the two officers are in a competition to see who can go the slowest…. Deep breaths! Eventually we get through Belize departure and then it’s a quick efficient stamp of our passport on the Guatemalan side.
It’s an hour and a half to Flores where we are staying tonight at Hotel Isla De Flores.
Isla de Flores is a small island sitting on Lake Petén Itzá (the 3rd biggest lake in Guatemala) and is connected by a causeway to St Elena.
We arrive quite late so we head out for dinner and eat at EL PEREGRINO just a few buildings down from our hotel. A “welcome to Guatemala” margarita, followed by steak and chips – Guatemalan style i.e. with habeneros and tortillas and washed down with a surprisingly good (cattleman’s pour) glass of red wine.
There’s a festival on tonight. We find out later that it’s the feast of black Jesus and they must be expecting it to get noisy as when we check into our hotel they ask us to sign a printed note declaring we know there’s going to be noise until 1am!! While we eat dinner we can hear lots of fireworks going off so we step outside to check them out.
After dinner we walk around and in the main square outside the church there is a stage set up with a band playing and lots of street food and beers!
When we’re out and about next day we come across this poster which shows the band we saw.
We retire to our hotel rooftop bar as we can still hear the music up here (yes it’s going to be loud!) and after a little confusion thinking the waiter says we can only have drinks “sin alcohol” (that’s without alcohol), we re-clarify and I get a delicious tamarind margarita while Shane tries a local beer.
Next morning we head out for a walk around the streets. It’s a cute colourful town but most of the homes are dilapidated and in need of repair.
The most remarkable thing is the flooding that has happened from the lake. In the photo below the path stops and the water begins where there used to be a garden and a full path around the edge of the island. Apparently there’s a 50 year cycle of the water rising and then receding so in 25 years they may be able to use this path again!
Back at our hotel, breakfast is really good and I even manage to get a decent cup of tea as I have a sneaky Lyon’s teabag in my bag and Shane asks for the water to be “mucho caliente” or something like that …. The result is hot enough water for a proper brew!!
We have some free time until our pick-up at 12:30 so we walk off of the island to the mainland and the town of St Elena so we can have a view back. The people who live here clearly love fast food as there’s a Burger King, McDonalds, Taco Bell and a local type KFC within short distance of each other. I have noticed the Guatemalans love their fried chicken – even in the small villages there is always some sort of Pollo fried chicken option!!!
As we walk back over the bridge and re-enter Isla De Flores I see an egret (I think that’s what it is) walk casually along a board at the edge of the lake.
We head back to the church but it is closed off, awaiting some sort of parade that this guy has just been carted in for (in fact we saw him on the back of a truck getting driven up the hill)!
It’s 12:30 so time to meet our driver (Jose with no English!) and travel to Yaxha which will be our first Mayan ruins in Guatemala. The city of Yaxha sits on Lake Yaxha, approx 2.5 hours drive away. On the way we pick up a new guide – Luis. He has excellent English and will be with us for the next couple of days.
We stop on the way for lunch and Luis has told us about a local dish made with pumpkin seeds (pepitas) that we should try. We stop at a restaurant run by a women’s co-op and have the dish which is called Pepian. We have it with chicken and it is really delicious. Everything is served with black beans and tortillas – of course!
The road to Yaxha was flooded a while back and it is in bad shape. In addition to the obscene amount of traffic ramps (they are so high cars need to come to a complete stop to navigate over them) there are potholes all over the road! We eventually get to the entrance to Yaxha and we must take a boat to the complex of ruins.
This place is magical, we have it mostly to ourselves, with no other tourists around. We are only off the boat, walking among the trees when we hear howler monkeys. I’ve never witnessed this before and it is crazy! Check out this video I took – you won’t see them but you’ll definitely hear them!
The ruins here are being restored and they have done a really nice job in clearing vegetation so you can walk easily among them and get a sense of where and how the Mayans lived. Luis provides us lots of context and info pointing out where people would have lived and where they would have watched sports etc.
We climb a fair amount of steps to get to the top but there are a lot more steps to climb throughout the visit here. The view from up here is fantastic and in fairness to Luis he takes a great snap showing the top most section of the pyramid.
We climb “Structure 216” which tops 30 meters (98ft) and is Yaxhá’s most impressive construction”. To be honest I can’t remember if this one is 216 or if we’re looking at 216, it’s hard to keep track!! All I’ll say is anything we are allowed to climb we do!
The last pyramid we climb today is our spot to watch a really pretty sunset. We also see some monkeys in the trees and have some great views of the other pyramids in the complex.
It’s time to continue on our journey and as we approach the water, so we can take the boat back to exit the park, we hear a loud splash and Shane (who’s first down) sees a crocodile slip into the water. We see him swim away just as our boat arrives in!! The sky is a magnificent colour as we enjoy the short boat ride back.
I’m very excited that tonight we get to stay within the Tikal National park at the Tikal Jungle Lodge. It’s about an hour and a half drive but the roads are just as brutal (for most of the way) as earlier. The lodge is gorgeous.
On the way there are many signs to be alert to wild animals crossing. It’s almost like a joke as each sign has a different animal picture… deer, turkey, coatimundis, and jaguar!! Apparently only last week one of the guides came across a jaguar crossing the road, he looked at the van and then off we went.. alas we don’t get to see anything other than a large rodent which I actually don’t see at all!!
Next morning or as I would call it, the middle of the night (4:30am) we meet Luis so we can see the sun rise over what is known as the Jewel of the Mayan world. We walk for about an hour in the dark stopping for some info along the way and then at 5:30am, an hour ahead of the official sunrise time we ascend a lot of steps to sit on and there are already some people waiting.
It’s an interesting experience sitting among the jungle treetops and looking out at the Mayan temples below.
The sunrise itself does not lead to the most spectacular colours as there’s a fair bit of cloud but the mist and atmosphere and sound of those crazy howler monkeys makes it an amazing experience.
We are first to leave (there’s a decent number of tourists gathered but not a massive crowd) and climb down the steps to meet Luis and continue the tour, now thankfully by sunlight.
We explore more temples and do some climbing to get a great view of the pyramid we were just sitting on. The early morning sun lights it up beautifully.
Luis seems to be an aficionado when it comes to the flora and fauna of the jungle. He points out this bird called the Trogan and we also see Toucans and other birds I really don’t remember – it was hard to take it all in and then to remember it!!!
There are so many amazing buildings in the complex and I know we’ve seen the tallest and the oldest and the most ornate… but again it’s hard to keep track as to which is which.
This main square surrounded my temples is stunning and it’s hard to capture what we see as we look around. This panoramic shot hopefully conveys a bit more of what we see. It’s hard to walk away from.
As we exit the complex we see the national tree of Guatemala, the ceiba tree also known as a Kapok.
What an amazing morning it’s been. By 8:30am we’ve done a tour of Tikal, hit 10,000 steps and are ready for breakfast!
It’s time to move on now and we have a four hour journey to Río Dulce – read about that in the next instalment! Goodbye Tikal, you were everything I’d hoped for!
odohertyelaine 