Tikal and Antigua
After three nights in Belize we continue our whistle stop tour of Central America and head into Guatemala. First stop Tikal, the largest set of Mayan ruins. Tikal is in the jungle, and on entering we are greated with the sounds of howler monkies, we didn’t see any on our journey around the site, but did encounter spider monkies hanging around in the trees near the ruins.
We didn’t head to the Gran Plaza first, but decided to head to some of the out lying ruins before heading to the main one. There are thousands of ruins in the park, but only a few have been uncovered/restored (or should it be rebuilt?), and whilst we were there there was some major work on Temple IV, the tallest structure in the complex. We were still, however, able to climb it (despite the scaffolding at the top), and also savoured the views from the top of Temple V and II.
We enjoyed the visit, but were more interested in the wildlife around than the ruins themselves – think we are slightly ruined-out. I managed to spot some toucans, which was very lucky and we enjoyed watching the spider monkies play, despite nearly having one land on us when (s)he jumped onto a rotten branch (nearly hit by a branch instead!)
Despite being “the” ruin to visit in Guatemala, it was surprisingly quiet and we had some of the ruins to ourselves, which came as a bt of a shock – none of the coach loads of visitors that we had become accustomed to in Mexico.
From Tikal we headed to Flores – we only spent the day there before getting a night bus to Antigua. A day was enough though, there isn’t much to Flores. It is just a pretty town on an island in Lake Peten Itza. I think a lot of people use it as a base to see Tikal.
An early arrival in Guatemala City and a shuttle stransfer straight onto Antigua. Antigua is a beautiful old Colonial town – we think it is the Cusco of Central America – there are certainly a lot of hotels/hostels, cafes/restaurants. However, we are not complaining – we can find decent coffee on every corner, which makes a change from the past months in South America. Antigua was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1770’s and a lot of churches have never been repaired and are in a state of ruin, which is slightly odd, but makes it feel like there is some history to the place.
From Antigua we took a tour to Volcan Pacaya – an active volcano about an hours drive away. From the visitor centre it was an hour or so walk uphill to the view point, before heading down to the lava flow. We now understand why the local kids rentout sticks at the vistor centre – so you can poke lava with them, set fire to them & toast marshmellows (or in our case some rolls we’d bought for tea!)
What an experience – how hot was the surface lava? You could only poke your stick in for 30 seconds or so before you becomae paranoid that your coat/glasses/eyebrows would melt!
In Antingua was also visited a music & coffee museum (on the same complex – La Azotea), which were really interesting. Certainly have to buy Fair Trade coffee from now on, not much money goes to the producing country – it is all made in the country it is exported to, the pickers certainly don’t make much at all. I can recommend Guatemalan coffee too – apparently it is 3rd best, in terms of quality, in the world, unfortunately I can’t remember who 1 or 2 were!!)
Tags: Antigua, Flores, Guatemala, Mexico, Tikal, Travel
Jenni
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