From Cancun to Montevideo: Tikal

Guatemala: El Remate, Tikal, Guatemala City

March 27 El Remate

T: Bus from Belize 10:00 Fuente del Norte, 11 EUR

H: Hostal Don Bruno 80 GTQ/night

March 28 El Remate Tikal

T: Colectivo to Tikal

S: Tikal Maya pyramids 200 GTQ

H: Hostal Don Bruno

March 29 Guatemala City

T: Bus to Flores 30 GTQ

T: Bus to Guatemala Transportes Santa Helena, 120 GTQ

H: Theatre International, EUR 10

March 30 Guatemala to San Salvador

T: Bus to Santa Ana 10:15 King Quality $17

100 GTQ = 12 EUR

Tikal Don Bruno's place is several small rooms opening towards an inner courtyard with a couple of hammocks and a table in the courtyard. The second day I was very unhappy thinking I'd lost my phone, but fortunately heard my alarm buzzing from one of the hammocks, so beware! A hostal though is not a hostel, you are not allowed to cook for instance, but there are plenty of places to eat.
Don Bruno arranged shuttles to Tikal and back for the next morning, the entrance fee is 200 GTQ (the Q stands for Quetzal, Guatemala's colorful national bird). The park opens at 6 am, an ID was requested. I had left mine at the hostal but fortunately had a xerox copy on me, which was accepted.

Now, Tikal is enormous, mysterious, astonishing, amazing. Where Chichen Itza is mostly barren. Tikal is really a city in the jungle. As the city was abandoned over the years the jungle took over and trees grew on the pyramids. So they are being excavated and restored top to bottom. Early in the morning there was still some mist over the jungle, disappearing as the sun rose. And from top of one pyramid you could see the next one through the tree tops maybe half an hour away.

Templo del Gran Juguar

With a Family from Cordoba, Argentina

People were just awed with the place, yet so quiet in the morning.

With Ricardo, guard at the Park

Ricardo told me a lot of stories about the park, including one about 3 tourists from Poland that got lost in the immense place and only one of them survived. Possibly there is no fence towards the jungle?

Diego from Spain

The best view is from Templo IV. Here is a link to a Tikal video and to the online album. From the Templo IV I went to the Grupo Norte and then back to the Acropolis and Templo del Gran Juguar. In Diego's photo in the square one can see some shrines where Mayas nowadays still come and worship.

I left Tikal about 2 PM with my shuttle but I wish I could have stayed more. There are special tickets to visit at sunrise and sunset too.
Back at the hostal there was already Diego who is a digital nomad, working while travelling, he was going all the way to Ushuaia and Antarctida. This was end of March, in July he was still at the Iguazu falls. We went to the Peten lake, there are some platforms from which you can swim, although there are posts that say "Beware of crocodiles".
Later we went to the lake once again to see the sunset.

Sunset over Lago Peten

Guatemala City Peten Itza is a big lake, some 100 sq km. There is they say a beautiful city on an island, Flores which I meant to visit, but the local bus from El Remate to Flores left me at the bus station where a bus to Guatemala city was just about to leave and I jumped in as the journey was nearly 10 hours. The bus was slow, in each city on the way it had to work its way through a throng of tuctucs, the 3 wheelers very popular in Central America.

The journey was long but far from boring. There were people selling fruits and refreshments at every stop, a couple of mendiant merchants and a couple of priests mounted the bus and preached, selling miraculous cures for body and soul. Although I was told the bus is going to Guatemala City, it wasn't I had to dismount and transfer to another bus for the last 100 km or so. I had spent every quetzal on the bus and the bus terminal is quite far from the center but shared a taxi to my first true hostel: Theatre Internacional. The hostel was very good, with all facilities, very nicely decorated (picture below) with an internal patio. It had lockers with electicity plugs inside so you can charge whatever and even offered free ear plugs. Fortunately noone was snoring in my room, except maybe myself.

Next morning I walked through the City to the terminal of Transportes King Quality which is near a big market. The bus to San Salvador was 120 GTQ, although I meant to get out at Santa Ana. I had no cash left and a bank on the way refused to change money for me, but there was a cambista at the terminal that did. On the way there I took a photo of a Quetzal and a Maya playing ball.

Initially I had planned a day in Antigua, but had to rearrange my itinerary because of the flight from Panama City to Colombia. So, so long Guatemala and on to San Salvador.

But 2 years later in 2019 I was on a business trip in Guatemala city and could take an afternoon off to Antigua. It had rained and Antigua was not very welcoming but still it does have the colonial architecture with buildings several hundred years old and no skyscrapers. Antigua was founded in 1524 and served as capital of Guatemala province until 1773 when it was destroyed by an earthquake and the capital was moved to Guatemala City. When I say capital, Guatemala only became a separate independent country in 1842, until 1821 it was part of Spain.