Flores and Tikal

After a light breakfast by the river we said goodbye to our gorgeous hostel and boarded the mini bus that would be driving us the '8 hour journey' North to Flores. The journey was largely the same as the others we'd taken so far in Guatemala with one major difference, the first being that all but the first hour of the journey were completed on paved roads - super comfortable after the last couple of journeys!

An hour South of Flores the van joined a queue facing a river that we would be crossing and while we waited we watched the ferry buzz back and forth a couple of times, each time filled to capacity. Our turn came and along with two lorries, 9 cars/mini-buses and a motorbike it was considered full and then, rather humorously, they used two small outboard motors to propel us across the 40 metres of brown water. Even with the limited power it took less than 5 minutes for us to cross, and then just before 6pm we were pulling into the town of Flores.

That evening we had dinner in a very rustic restaurant before arranging a tour for the following day and onward transport for the day after that.

4am and our alarm shocked us awake. We were up so early to travel 90 minutes to the ancient Mayan site of Tikal where we'd be spending the morning. Not surprisingly we both slept the whole way there before exchanging the tickets we bought for wristbands that permit entry to the whole complex.

At 7am our group of 15 or so were gathered together by Luis, our tour guide for a few hours. Near the entrance there is a scale model of the discovered ruins and this is where we were given an introduction to our first experience of the ancient temples, palaces and cities that dotted Central and South America for many centuries.

As we left the entry museum behind it took only a few minutes walking along the jungle-lined pathway before Luis stopped us and began pointing into the trees and bush. This moment repeated itself a dozen times more before we'd reached the first Mayan ruin, every time with the whole group fascinated at what he'd spotted for us. The highlights of the wildlife we were experiencing would be the very colourful Quetzal bird that gives it's name to the nation's currency, with a sleeping howler monkey just before this. The monkey wasn't sleeping long as Luis banged the trunk of the tree far beneath where it was resting and as soon as he began we learnt why they have their name - they have such a powerful shout and yet they're so small! Our first animal encounter, however, was probably our best. Coatis are common here and for locals are comparable to a rat, but when a pack of 20 or so were found in a tree next to the path they quickly ran to the ground to curiously sniff around us and each other. They look like foxes in size and colour, and apparently deliver a nasty bite so we carefully enjoyed the lucky, close experience we had of them.

An hour or so after we'd set off from the museum we arrived at the first Mayan ruins of the day, a 1300 year old sacrificial temple. Luis gathered us around a clearing in front of the temple and after silencing the group he began clapping and this echoed through the clearing and off the temple to create a sound like a bird's call, which was incredible. Equally incredible was the view from the top of the temple, across the jungle canopy to the very top of Temple I that peeked upwards beyond the trees. From there we followed an ancient limestone causeway that, at it's peak, was a few thousand feet long and led to one of the most highly excavated and restored areas of Tikal, the Gran Plaza. Here are two of the larger temples, one of which we climbed using a wooden walkway that hugged the outside of the stone. From the top we had a view over the jungle canopy and down onto the plaza where the North and South Acropolis' could be seen. This series of ancient structures are very well restored, having been dug out of the jungle. This meant the view down was a taste of how the area would have looked during it's peak. We also had a walk around the Acropolis' which, along with the temples, commemorated a great Mayan king named Ah Cacao - a good name, if you remember how valuable cacao beans were!

We rejoined our tour group at the base of Temple II that we had climbed, and within 30 seconds of starting walking we were in thick jungle and the only thing we could hear was the sound of the forest, although whatever animals were nearby stayed out of sight. It was only a short distance through the forest to Temple IV, the largest of the whole complex which appeared in front of us. We'd seen the very top of it from the previous temple we'd climbed but now we were standing at it's base it's size was really impressive, standing nearly 50m tall. Another staircase had been built onto the side of the structure and thankfully it was largely in the shade, which made the climb up bearable (it was only 10.30am but already was incredibly hot and humid!)

Once we'd reached the top we sat on the steps that made the final ascent into the inner chamber and looked out across the jungle, which was now much lower than we were. Sadly the inner chamber is closed off because of previous visitor's defacing and graffitiing it, but the climb was still worth it for the view. It was also a view lots of you will recognise, as George Lucas used the spot for filming some scenes for Star Wars! Our tour ended here and although we were given the option of returning to Flores at that point we were far from finished, as the Tikal site is HUGE and we wanted some time to explore ourselves.

Once we were back at the base of Temple IV we had our lunch under a gazebo - the early morning had thrown our body clocks out completely and we realised it was only 11am! We set off toward a structure we'd seen from our viewpoint. 'The Sloped Temple' is different from almost all the other structures at Tikal as it's a pyramid with a flat top, but as it was built to facilitate star-watching and other astronomical purposes the construction made complete sense. I climbed to the top and found a couple of small roofed buildings made entirely out of stone, a considerable feat for the time. We also learnt that this was the oldest ruin at Tikal. Well, not quite. The inner layer of the pyramid is, and the outer layer that I'd climbed was a more recent addition, at only 800 years old instead of 1400 that the inner is!

We continued along a path following signs for 'The Lost World' and explored another handful of temples until we reached our main destination, the Plaza of the Seven Temples. The area that this complex covered was much larger than the Gran Plaza and contained more individual buildings, like a three-doored building used to play a Mayan game like football, an acropolis and of course the seven temples. They were all restored incredibly, although this process wasn't complete which meant we could see the work that it takes to make them tourist-ready. Incredibly we'd been told by Luis that every large mound in the whole area of Tikal is in fact a Mayan structure that has simply not been unearthed yet! What we found as incredible though is that, apart from a guard, we were the only people there! During Mayan times the plaza could have held thousands of people for festivals, meetings and sacrifices yet now there were only three enjoying it.

We were glad we made the 30 minute walk to the plaza and could have continued exploring more of the temples but now it was midday and the heat, combined with the early morning, was getting the better of us so we began making our way back to the main entrance. As the part of the site is less visited the signs weren't so great so we were using a map, and as we walked along what we assumed was a regular path through the jungle we realised we were actually walking along one of the lower levels of a huge acropolis that hadn't been excavated yet. Each level was about 15m high and 100m long, built in levels like a pyramid. The dense jungle all around us showed how nature reclaimed even this enormous building given time and before we arrived back at the entrance we passed another dozen structures that were in a similar state. We'd be so curious to have been at Tikal during the Mayan Era so we could experience the buzz that would have accompanied the city.

By the early afternoon we were back in Flores and spent a while relaxing in the garden courtyard of our hostel. After sharing a huge platter of nachos fully loaded with salsa, guacamole, cheese and sour cream I had a much needed nap before at dusk we went for a walk around the path that leads around the perimeter of Flores. There were lots of people out enjoying the warm evening and we saw families splashing around in the water and couples canoodling on benches fringed with flowers. We sat on some steps with our feet in the water and watched the sun set beautifully. We'd loved our first taste of Mayan ruins and Flores was a perfect and very beautiful base from which to visit Tikal. It was definitely our favourite place in Guatemala and we could have spent longer there easily, so if you're in that part of the world we can definitely recommend a few days there.

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