Right now we were supposed to be enjoying the surf in sunny El Salvador. But fate had a different plan for us.. in Guatemala's Antigua where we would enjoy the scenery for a day or two and then catch a tourist shuttle to the Salvadorean coast, our transportation ended up being in an accident and never showed up to pick us up that morning. The driver had been hospitalized and the owner later greeted us with a limp. Lucky for us we were not on board yet. Meanwhile I kept thinking we had been had by a good old scam; paid for tickets and the ride never showed and the "travel agent" was nowhere to be found. In the end we got fully refunded, and offered a ride the next day but had already made up our mind of heading to Tikal instead of the coast.
When traveling, you tend to sit on a bus a lot. And the trip over to the lovely island of
Flores - the gateway town to Tikal's Mayan ruins - was just that, some 8 hours on a shady bus way too chilled by the AC overnight. On the roadside toilet stops there always seemed to be a guard waving an assault rifle at us yawning passengers. Perhaps he was making sure nobody misses the urinal OR ELSE! Ole! Night buses are great as a concept, you travel all night and when the sun comes up you're in a whole new place having saved the price of a hostel room. But in practice you're totally exhausted from the lack of sleep and when you do arrive, you're hungry as hell but nothing is open for breakfast yet because its 0530 o'clock..
Arriving to Flores was awesome despite the tiresome trip. The island is compact and pleasant, we found a perfect place to stay in the center of it all and the day is turning great, 18C at 8am and going up, blue skies and all. In the afternoon we crossed the lake with a boat and walked across the peninsula of
San Miguel to a local "beach" by the lake. Was amazed by how clear the water was. Never seen a turquoise lake with palm trees growing on the shores. There we enjoyed a relaxing swim with crowds of small black fish.
The next day it was wakeup call at 0400 and off towards Tikal, where we'd arrive shortly after sunrise and enter the park precisely at 6am, when it opens, as the first minivan. The group size of our guided tour (4-5 hrs, 7-8$) was way too big (20 pax or so) but other than that our day at the site was nothing short of fantastic. I didn't expect for the ruins to be so awesome, but they're certainly up there with
The Lost City of the Inca/Macchu Picchu as well as
Angkor Wat. Nor was I expecting to encounter so plentiful flora & fauna - from the gigantic hardwood trees to tarantulas and crocodiles, not to mention the abundant bird life all around. Howler / spider monkeys constantly around in the canopy too!
The weather was in our favor too, mostly sunny and not too hot, with the temperature hanging around 28-29C at noon. All in all a wonderful experience and well worth the 20$ park fee. From here we're heading to Belize to enjoy the caribbean coast for some marine sports. After a week of historical and archaeological sightseeing, some splashing around in the warm waters shall be very welcome.
Guatemala recap
Out of the countries of the region we've been to so far, Guatemala has the strongest tourist infrastructure by far. Shuttle buses connect all the major destinations, and the prices are quite high accordingly. Beyond that, the country is very pleasant to travel in, with overly friendly and helpful people and so much to gawk at. And yet so much remains to be seen; El Mirador ruins hike for example.. but that's for the next trip.
See all the Guatemala photos here!
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