Tikal, Flores, and Guatemala

Hello,

this past weekend Jess and I took a trip to Flores, Guatemala to take a sunrise tour of Tikal, a huge Maya site (where one of the shots during Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was taken. You remember, the Ewoks home planet? Those ruins were what we saw)

Before all that though, we had to get there. After crossing the border into Guatemala we were bombarded with people asking us to change money or if we needed a taxi, but we knew where to go and we already had exchanged in San Ignacio. The taxi to Flores we needed was a collective taxi that only cost 10 Belize each! Too catch it, we had to hike up a hill in the border town, Melchor, to the town market. There we found a taxi just leaving so we hopped on. This taxi is a large, van-like vehicle that gets packed with passengers. There were about 15 people in this small cab and we were crammed in ontop of everyone else. It was a long, hot ride, but we made it to Flores in one piece.

There we went streight to the hotel we had looked up, the Jaguar Inn. However, it was not in Flores, but in the sister town, Santa Elena right across the bridge. There we took one look at the rooms and decided we would rather try our luck elsewhere. We decided to go to Flores and stay there for the night. Flores is a town surounded 99% by a lake with one bridge that runs over a thing strip of land conecting it to Santa Elena.

In Flores, we found a hotel for an affordable price with a great view of the lake. There, on the last day of passover no less, we found a large amount of Israelis staying. It was very funny, for Jess in particular, having had no contact with the Jewish/Israeli world and then finding 15 guests staying at the same hotel as us. She was obviously excited.

After settling in, we decided to go to book our sunrise tour of Tikal back at the Jaguar Inn, the place in Santa Elena where we had just looked at. There, we made plans for the tour and paid.

That night we had dinner, set the alarm and went to sleep early. The next day we were to be picked up at 3:30 am to get to Tikal on time! When the time of departure arrived, we found ourselves joined on the curb outside our hotel by a number of other guests. at 3:30 almost exactly one van came by and took about half the guests. The guide checked our ticket and said that we werent riding on that van; another was to come soon. 15 minutes later, another van came and picked up the final guests. Then the driver looked at our ticket and said, this ticket isnt for us, maybe another one is coming after. So we waited around until 4:30 in the morning before giving up. No one came to pick us up! Jess and I were both very upset, but at least we got to go back to sleep. When we woke up again, we went back to Jaguar Inn. We argued with the women who sold us the ticket, saying we had only planned to stay one night and were low on money and needed to be fully refunded and taken care of as a guest. She told us, however that the ride was not included in the ticket that we had purchased and we needed to hop on one of those vans on our own and then pay. Having not had this explained to us, it was very frustrating, however, we did get our money back.

After much debate, we decided to stay in Flores one more night and book a sunrise tour through someone else. To save money, we moved out of the hotel and into a hostel. The owner, Toto was a very nice young man who helped us book a tour and gave us a great rate on a room. He also made us a fantastic, chicken and veggie toasted sandwhich. That afternoon (Saturday), we had extra time to spare so we went to a park and went on a Zip Wire through the jungle. It was very fun, but since we were the only two doing it, it ended very fast. Jess was aprehensive at first, but she ended up loving it. After that, we walked around Flores, up and down the streets and watched the sun set. Flores, to me, seemed a lot like the towns I have visited in Spain: Narrow streets with beautifully crafted buildings.

After our snack/dinner watching the sunset, we started our early morning wake-up routine. This time, we got picked up. It was a long, surprisingly cold, van ride up to Tikal and after a quick walk through the woods, we found ourselves climbing a Maya Temple. At the top we watched the sun rise through the mist. It wasnt as dramatic as I had expected, but it was definitely a once in a life time thing to watch. Verry beautiful.

When the sun was up and the mist wasnt clearing, the tour guide took us around Tikal and told us to return for a panaramic view later. The buildings at Tikal were enormous. They seemed to dwarf all other sites we had been too, except Caan, a Maya building at Caracol. Even though we had heard all the info the guide was telling us already in our class and from other tours, it was quite an enjoyable hike. The best way to explain is by showing you pictures so go check out snapfish! the place was out of this world! I can see why the used it in Star Wars.

So after a wonderful morning in Tikal, Jess and I returned to Flores, packed our stuff, and came home to San Ignacio. It was quite a busy weekend but we had a great time still. I know I sound like a broken record now, but I am exhausted from traveling. Hopefully, after our trip to Antigua, we will be able to relax for the next two weeks in Nicaragua. Before that, though, I have two days of finals and then I am completely done here. This semester went so fast! I cant believe it.

I hope I get to show all of my listeners out there the many pictures I have taken. There are stories behind each one of them.

Hope you have enjoyed my blog. I may not be able to post until I return, but I will tell you all about my final adventures through Belize and Central America.

Stay Tuned!

love,

Colin