A Journey East – 1st Stop Tikal
With a week to kill before my return to Antigua for Semana Santa, I headed off to Flores, a launching spot for Tikal. I paid $30 for the combination shuttle from Antigua to Guat City and first class bus to Flores. Let me tell you, that bus station in guat city was seriously dodgy, but I made it safely onto the bus and downed a xanex for the 9 hour overnight bus. I actually got some sleep!
I arrived in flores at around 5:30 am and found a nice room with a great lake view for $10 at Hotel Tayazal. Flores is in a lovely setting on an island in the middle of a clear lake, attached to Santa Elena by a short causeway. One can probably walk around the island in a ½ hour. There are lots of hotels and restaurants and boat tours around the lake are available, but otherwise there is not much to do. I found myself rethinking my tentative plan to return to Flores to relax a few days after visiting Tikal.
With a call I made reservations at the Tikal Inn for 2 nights. There are 3 hotels just outside the park entrance and I’d heard this one is nice with a good pool – so I prepared for another slurge – $70 per night including breakfast and dinner. After a quiet evening in flores I took a late morning shuttle to Tikal and settled into the inn. At the pool I ran into two girls I’d met on the shuttle to guat city – Jen from SF and Sharien from Sweden (J&S hereafter). I bought my ticket into the park after 3pm because this way it is good for the next day as well. That evening we walked into the park and watched the sunset. They don’t rush you out at 6 pm when the park closes.
Thankfully the new Tikal Administrators did not follow thru on their plans to end sunrise tours (the last was to be the morning before I arrived!) and I signed up at the info kiosk outside the park entrance thanks to info from J&S. Caesar, who owns Caesar’s Travel in Flores, was instrumental in keeping the sunrise tours going and these tours can be arranged via his agency in Flores (cut out the middle man) or he can be found most afternoons at the info kiosk in tikal after he has completed his morning tours. It’s the best 100Q I’ve spent (about $13). If you are staying at the park it is less expensive to arrange it this way and walk out to the kiosk at 4:45 am rather than arranging thru your hotel.
One thing I have consistently heard about Tikal is how hot and steamy it is. I totally lucked out with weather and it was mild and dry. Actually refreshing! When I walked out of the hotel at 4:30am the milky way was blazing in the sky (there is no power in/near the park until 6am)!! I have also read many accounts by those who did the sunrise tour could not see the sun or the ruins because of fog, so I was doubly fortunate! I cannot put into words how incredible the experience was…..the sun rising over temples that emerge from the jungle as the animals come to life at dawn. howler monkeys and parrots create music to accompany a vision that no special effects could aspire to duplicate. I felt so fortunate to be there that I was moved to tears. I wish my photos could have captured a fraction of the beauty.
The guides do a pretty good job of keeping everyone quiet for the experience but if you go please be respectful of your neighbor and zip it for an hour or so. Even whispers can be heard! After the sun rises the tour part begins and is over by about 9 am. After that I did some exploring on my own then returned to the hotel to spend the sunniest hours of the day in the pool ☺.
I enjoyed the Tikal Inn for the most part but they have these bizarre rules that they take a bit too far. I won’t even bother going into it here but if anyone plans to go and wants to know more let me know. Overall it was clean and well-run with a crystal clear pool. I spent 2 nights and thought that amount of time was perfect. It allowed me to spend a little extra time bird watching, which is amazing in the area.
While there I decided to accompany J&S to rio dulce and onto Livingston on the carib coast before heading back to Antigua on Tuesday, when they planned to return as well. This gives me a chance to see more than I’d planned and not have to kill time in flores.
Tags: central america, guatemala, Travel
Peggy Rehm