Tikal to ride

Tikal was one of the things I was most looking forward to on my trip and it didn’t disappoint. One of the biggest Mayan sites, with some of the tallest structures in Mesoamerica, it’s arguably the daddy of them all. The 4.30 start was not ideal but it could have been worse and it got us to the gates for opening and given we beat both the crowds and the rain I’m not complaining.

I took another tour here and this one was excellent. It took in a large swathe of the site, including the main pyramids, was informative and didn’t feel rushed. We had time to do our own thing at the main plaza and you’re permitted to climb a lot of the buildings, which was a bonus. The sun even attempted to come out before deciding it didn’t much fancy it. Plus who doesn’t love a guide who offers advice like “If you have a joint, save it for Temple IV”? I didn’t see anyone light up but the panorama of the jungle and the tops of more temples was spectacular.

As an added bonus, it’s also a great place for wildlife spotting. There were a lot of noisy parrots flying about and I saw a toucan cresting the top of a tree. Ocellated turkeys, like shiny peacocks, wandered around, as did agoutis (large rodents, though they’re no capybaras), but the highlight was a family of spider monkeys who were engrossed in eating, allowing me to snap away.

Job done, I headed back to my new base of Flores, Guatemala, a tiny town on a lake, joined to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. It’s an attractive spot in and of itself, albeit a smaller one than I’d realised, as well as the main launch point for Tikal. I spent a lot of the rest of the day hanging out with Ian and Cindy, a really nice Australian couple I’d met on the tour who were travelling from the US down to Patagonia. I also indulged in some hostel envy as they were clearly in the place to be in town but as I could come and go and eat and drink there anyway it didn’t really matter that I wasn’t sleeping there.

The next day was pretty chilled given the regular torrential showers but not every day can be action-packed and down time is nice to have. When it eventually cleared up I took a boat trip across the lake to visit the nearby animal rescue and conservation project. Saw a jaguar(!), an ocelot (!!) and some other comparatively less exciting things and found out a bit about what they do to look after them and ideally release them back into the wild. 

First stop in Guatemala complete, it was time to deviate from my rough itinerary for the first time and follow up on a word of mouth recommendation as my next destination.



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