Blogs from Tikal, Petén Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 5

Visiting the ruins of Tikal has always been very high on my agenda since I first visited Chichen Itza nearly 10 years ago. Chichen Itza receive millions of tourists every year, Tikal, a maximum of 600 a day. Why are you going to ask me? Accessibility seems to be the answer. To explain why so few tourists are making it to Tikal you first have to consider that Guatemala has only been out of civil war for few years. Second, Guatemala City, the capital is very wellknown for a huge crime rate and unsecurity. This doesn't make the best marketing campaing up to these days for Guatemala. Next problem, access. You can fly in from Guatemal City, but we didn't want to go there. You can also fly in from Belize, but this is far away ... read more

One of the few reasons for me to come to the island of Flores was that from here you can get to the ruins of Tikal quite easily. So that is pretty much what I did today... Yesterday morning while I was waking up over a nice and big smoothie, the Austrian couple which I met while travelling trough Belize, greeted me after checking in to the hostal. After they had put their stuff in their room and some casual talk they decided to go on the same trip that I had booked for the coming morning, the one to the Tikal ruins. We were being picked up at around 4h30 by a little van that would drive us all the way to the entrance , which meant we would arrive at 6h and have time ... read more

Unser Tagesziel waren die Maya-Ruinen von Tikal. Zuvor hatten wir aber dem Inselörtchen Flores im See Petén Itza einen Besuch abgestattet. Es war wie immer drückend schwül und die meisten Nichteinheimischen saßen bei kühlenden Getränken im Schatten. Nach einer kurzen Rundtour zu Fuß entschlossen wir uns zu einem Bad im See. Einige Amerikaner aus dem nahen Hotel waren auch schon am Steg und sprangen mit uns ins (wenn auch nicht besonders abkühlende) Naß (ca. 24 Grad Wassertemperatur). Man hätte sogar zu einer nahen Museumsinsel schwimmen können. Doch eine schwarze Regenfront zeigte sich am Himmel. Während wir anschließend noch im Supermarkt in St. Elena einkaufen waren, prasselte auch schon ein heftiger Tropenregen aufs Gebäudedach. Der Run zum Auto ließ uns dann ein zweites Mal am Tag naß werden. Doch bis nach Tikal waren es weitere 60 km. ... read more

Sorry-pics aren't in the right order but I'm losing patience with the website... I had a terrible night sleep. The walls between the rooms were paper thin and I had one side with a snorer and the other with 2 blokes chatting loudly until the early hours. I think by the time they stopped, it must have been 2am, which was roughly the time when the dogs starting barking and the cockerels started crowing. I thought to myself “Why? It's the middle of the night... Aren't you supposed to start crowing when the day breaks?” In the end, I was awake before my alarm even went off, so I left the hotel at about 5.15am as it was still pitch black. I had heard that the transport to Tikal started from 5.30am, so I intended to ... read more

(Day 790 on the road)Guatemala has recently been rated the worst democracy in Central America. Well done! Considering how stiff the competition here is and that other countries are doing their best to snatch the title, this is quite an achievement. To take this trophy home in this part of the world, you really have to excel in various categories: Biased elections, restricted personal and political rights, a weak separation between the three powers of the state, a state-influenced media, a couple of human rights abuses here and there, and generally a weak governance favouring corruption. After having been ripped off for the fare to Flores by the bus driver at the border in La Tecnica, we soon got our first taste of government corruption right at the immigration office in Bethel, when the friendly officer ... read more