Jungle Ruins

Armed guard on the way to Flores
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Next we moved on up to the jungle region of El Peten, an interesting 5 hours in a shuttle bus as we headed into tropical vegetation once more. The little villages scattered throughout the region were like many we had seen in South America but with the addition of an armed guard outside the local grocery stores. Upon arrival at our destination, Flores, a guy joined us in our bus to "help" us find a play to stay. We didn´t need any help and neither did any of the other passengers. Never-the-less "help" is what we got as he suggested places for us to stay that obviously involved him receiving a kick-back from the hostels involved. We´ve been travelling long enough now to have an in-built filter for these kind of lies and in the end we got to stay where we had wanted to all along - It just took us about an hour to get our way.

Mayan ruins rising above the jungle
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The town of Flores is on an island in Lago de Peten Itza, a causeway connects it to the mainland. Suprisingly this was the least Guatemalan of all the places we had seen and it looked like it had just been built for tourists to stay at before they head out to the nearby Mayan ruins. We stayed long enough for the day trip to see one of the most famous Mayan ruins of all at Tikal, different from most due to it´s setting in the jungle.

We were accompanied by howler monkeys swinging through the trees which made it all the more enjoyable

Gary reading up
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It is an hours drive north from Flores and once inside the national park you still have another 30 minutes walk up to the ruins. In the sweltering heat of the jungle this was a tiring walk, although we were accompanied by howler monkeys swinging through the trees which made it all the more enjoyable.

Some brief history for you now, Mayan civilization in Tikal dates from around 700 BC to 900 AD, most of the remaining temples were from the latter half of this period however. I´ll leave it there, hope you are still with us.

Shannyn climbing one of the big ones
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The buildings here are impressive - huge pyramids tower above the jungle canopy with many more hidden away in the dense foliage below. You can climb to the top of some of these pyramids giving you fantastic views across the rainforest. Particularly impressive and challenging were Templo IV at 64 metres and Templo V at 58 metres. Unlike some places in the world where they let you walk all over ruins, wooden steps have been built here making each one safer and less destructive to climb. You still need a good head for heights though.

One of the big ones
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The ruins are spaced out over a large area and it took us a good 5 hours to see most of it. An early start is vital as it´s a hot, tiring day. This was a fun day out and a good first look at the ancient Mayan culture as we head into Mexico and the predominantly Mayan Yucutan Peninsula. (Good link eh)... Gary