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Published: March 5th 2009
Behold the mighty Tikal
We decided to take the back route to Tikal from Coban via a town named Chisec, where there were supposed less visited touristic attractions.
Well we can tell you why they are less visited - the attractions are overpriced and quite frankly boring, the town of Chisec itself I guess is ok but has no tourist infrastructure apart from an overpriced hotel that we now wish we had stayed at. Instead we went for the local trucker motel, which instantly gave Karen a migraine due to the room looking like it had recently been a site for a murder - in fact we chose a room without an ensuite as the solitary room with a toilet in it had it conveniently placed next to your head when you slept in your bed.
The town at first impression was quite unfriendly but this was actually due to the fact no-one spoke spanish which we didn't initially realise, people would just blankly stare at us when asked a question. They spoke a local dialect by the way - ki'che we think.
We were helped out by the local police who sit in
Big tree
Can´t remember the name but there are some seriosly big trees in Tikaltheir offices all day due to the fact that the town is run by former guerilla's who don't really appreciate government institutions. The police gave us directions on how to get where wanted to go and gave us a phone number to call if we got into any bother, which was comforting when we discovered we had to walk 15kms back to town without a phone in sight. Luckily we managed to hitch a ride about halfway back from the lakes we visted.
The journey to Tkal was longer than anticipated with 3 changes along the route but it was fairly easy really.
We decided to skip Flores and stay in El Remate on lake Peten, the village was quite beautiful really, a tranquil place with sun setting over the lake. With the local kids as guides we found a really nice hotel called Hermano Pedro's built completely out of wood apart from the shower block and mattress. Arturo the owner was a good laugh and his assistant (we forget her name - sorry) was really nice and lively and was cracking jokes in spanish with us throughout the night.
You could swim in the lake at
Some ruins
All alone again - magnificent El Remate as it wasn't polluted as in Flores and we both took the opportunity to take a dip in the sunshine with the ducks and fishees. Later we ate in the local restaurants that served really good vegatarian and the usual meaty dishes. Oh yes, and we were given a free desert, a candied treacley pumkin, mmm it was delicious, never tasted anything like it. I think it was what teh familly were eating for diner, (we were the only ones in the place)
Note to self: I really didn't know they were going to wash my clothes in the lake, by hand. I still feel bad about it. The lady I had given my clothes to I though would put them in a machine was stood in the lake for hours beating them against a stone. NOTE: I must pay more attention when I handin my laundry to get washed.
THE MIGHTY TIKAL
Well all I can say is GO,see it for yourself... yes there are other people visiting, yes it's $20, but it's huge, it's amazing, you can get lost, you can be on your own with the ruins. Millions of guide books have written about
it we don't need to tell you about it. We had a day that will hopefully be clear in our memories forever. We walked for 9 hours never backtracking. Return of the Jedi doesn't do it justice! and so many animals and birds and monkeys galore!
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