Category: Travel

Ever since arriving in Guatemala, I knew I wanted to go to Tikal National Park. Temple I in the Great Plaza of the park is basically a symbol of Guatemala. My guidebook went as far to compare it to the Eiffel Tower’s iconic representation of Paris.

The problem was that I was living and working in the southern/southwestern part of the country, and Tikal is in the northern part, deep in the jungle. But I was determined to get there.

So, at the end of my project, I left Xela a few days early with two of my friends and we headed for Tikal. We first took a bus to Guatemala City (4 hours), and from there took an overnight bus (10 hours!) to Santa Elena, which is close to Tikal.

We arrived in Santa Elena at 6:30am and at the bus station were immediately harassed by vendors trying to sell us bus tickets to Tikal. But to avoid getting scammed or overcharged, we decided to head towards Flores, a nearby island-town and book our bus and guided tour through Los Amigos Hostel. Best decision we could have made.

Los Amigos was great. The hostel itself has a really cool vibe, and setting up the bus + guided tour with them was really easy and went incredibly smoothly. We also bought a bagged lunch from the hostel’s restaurant to take with us to the park.

We left for the park at 8am, and stayed until 3pm. Our guide, Luis, took us on a tour through the park, leading us from complex to complex and pointing out spider monkeys and tarantulas along the way. He was really knowledgeable about the flora and fauna in the park and made the whole experience really incredible for us. He showed us a plant whose flowers smell like garlic, and encouraged us to eat termites, which he said tasted like carrots (almost everyone declined but a few brave souls actually did it).

I most enjoyed finally being able to see (and climb) Tikal’s temples and pyramids. I liked spending time in the Great Plaza, which is flanked by two large temples.

I also enjoyed climbing the Temple IV which is the tallest temple in the park, and actually the tallest remaining Pre-Columbian structure in the Americas. (It’s also the site where they shot a scene of Star Wars Episode IV!) From the top of Temple IV, we had a beautiful view above the jungle canopy , with the temples flanking the Great Plaza poking out between the trees. It was truly breathtaking.

After our day at Tikal, we spent a little time exploring the nearby town of Flores. I absolutely adored this town—it’s actually on its own island! I also loved that Flores has this cool Caribbean vibe to it complete with brightly painted houses.

We ate dinner at Raices Bar & Grill, and sat out on the dock. This gave us a beautiful view of the sunset, and was the perfect ending to a long day.

I was scared that I would spend so much time trying to get to Tikal and then be underwhelmed by the park itself. But I can easily say that nothing about the park was underwhelming. The natural beauty of the park along with the enormous ruins were truly amazing, and worth the long journey to get there. This long excursion was the perfect end to a wonderful time in Guatemala.

-S

After a wild Saturday (full of horseback riding and dancing the night away at Sublime, see my previous post), I woke up crazy early on Sunday to go for a sunrise hike. I crawled out of bed at 3:15am and sleepily got ready. Three of my friends and I headed for a mountain near San Pedro known as “Indian’s Nose” or “El Rostro Maya” (“The Mayan Face”). It gets its nickname because the mountain looks like the profile of a man’s face.

We got picked up in an old travel van and headed for Santa Clara. I wanted to sleep on the way there, but that turned out to be pretty impossible. It was a bumpy ride, and the van had been pimped out with some neon green lights on the inside that lit up every time the driver hit the brakes (which was often).

After about 45 minutes, we arrived in Santa Clara, pulled over in what seemed like a random part of town, and got out of the van. Our guide, José, asked us to turn on our flashlights and follow him. In the darkness, we walked down an alley and then through cornfields. My friends and I were really confused as to where we were, and also so so so thankful we decided to pay for a guide, because otherwise we would have been terribly lost. We eventually reached the base of the mountain, where we finally saw a well-travelled trail.

Now the hiking began. We went up some stairs, and then zig-zagged back and forth up the mountain. The hike itself was pretty short–maybe 30 minutes, including breaks. But I was hiking against medical advice (I’m having knee surgery in the fall), so I was in a good bit of pain.

But the views were definitely worth it.

When we reached the top of the mountain (well not quite the top, we were at the “mouth”, not the “nose” of the face), the sky was just beginning to light up.  The view of the lake was incredible, and the lake looked so still it almost looked frozen.

We could see almost every volcano around the lake. The towns below us were still in the shadows, with their street lights twinkling. We watched the sun rise up over the mountains; the sky changing from pale blue to pale pink, to light orange. I can’t even put into words how beautiful it was.

Naturally, we took a million pictures (which will never ever do the views justice), and José was smiling and laughing at us as we posed for “candids” and held an imaginary Simba out over the lake.

Even though waking up for this hike (and actually hiking) was pretty painful, this was one of my favorite experiences so far in Guatemala.

-S

I know, I’ve been slacking on the blog posts lately. But I have a pretty good excuse: I spent almost three days completely out of commission due to some horrendous stomach bug. I’ll spare you the details, but just know I was struggling. However, with lots of Gatorade, Immodium, sleep and prayers, I made it out alive.

Last weekend, we took a short trip over to San Pedro La Laguna. We started off with a brunch buffet at Mikaso Hotel ($5 all you can eat).  The food was pretty good, and the buffet included made to order omelets and crepes. However, service was a bit slow because I don’t think Mikaso was ready for 11 hungry college/grad school kids to descend on their buffet. The views from the restaurant (third floor of the hotel, right on the lake) were fantastic though.

Next, we decided we wanted to go horseback riding up San Pedro volcano. Sounds kind of crazy/dangerous/fun, right? It turned out to be all three. All 11 of us rode through the cobblestone streets of San Pedro and headed along the lake towards the volcano. The last time I rode a horse was at some fair of some sort when I was a child, so I’ll admit I was pretty nervous. But the trip through town was really fun, with people coming into their doorways when they heard horses and waving at us as we rode by.

But then things got a little wild once we left town. The horses started running. In the streets. For no apparent reason. They would run for a good 100 feet or so, and then walk, and then start running again. I had no idea how to make the horse (her name was Muñeca) slow down, so really all I could do was hold on tight and focus on not falling off.

We made it safely up to a viewpoint on the volcano, where we got off the horses for a while, rested, and took pictures. I really enjoyed our afternoon horseback riding adventure, and it ended up being a pretty fun way to “hike” a volcano.

We ended Saturday night with dinner at Bar Sublime. The food was absolutely amazing, and we got there in time for happy hour, which included $0.66 Cuba libres (no, that’s not a typo). We met the owner (and the DJ for the night, DJ Fernchild) and stayed for his set. Bar Sublime was a ton of fun, and I’d definitely go back again.

Once again, a Saturday in San Pedro well spent.

-S