Tikal via Flores and Santa Elena

Landing in Santa Elena airport
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Flores & Santa Elena

We get to leave Guatemala City and we know exactly where the Tikal Jets terminals are. Our shuttle driver told us that Tikal Jets got its own special terminal because the mayor of Guatemala City owns the airline and of course -- it's in bankruptcy.

In search of Mayan temples and the best bathrooms in town!

We went to Santa Elena & Flores on our way to Tikal.  We landed at Santa Elena Airport and found lots of people offering rides to Flores and Tikal. We tried getting a reservation with one of the 3 small hotels in Tikal but it didn't work out.  So we decided on a shuttle bus to drive us to Flores to put down our bags.

Flores from afar
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We had read about Flores beforehand and it is a town on an island and thus it should be romantic but in reality, it's just a dusty town that could only keep our interests for about an hour.  About two-thirds of all houses in Flores are either hotels, restaurants, or stores.   Most of the locals seem to live in Santa Elena.  I think we were still expecting something like Antigua but it could not compare.

We put our bags at Hospedajes Dona Goyas in Flores.  The guide book said it was a popular and clean hostel and for $11 a night, it wasn't that bad.  At least no electrical wires in the showers.

One of the temples
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I would say that the lake that Flores is surrounded by is one of the cleanest and prettiest lakes that we've ever seen.  The water is blue and calm.   Boat captains driving the little boats will come up to you to ask if you want boat rides.

We tried to get to Tikal as quickly as possible since there was nothing to keep our interest in Flores or Santa Elena.

Let's go to Tikal!

Our shuttle driver from the airport set us up with a tour to Tikal, even though we didn't get a hotel reservation there. Our shuttle driver, Mynor, was on the crew of Survivor Guatemala (along with 150 other people so he says). Mynor says that after Survivor, the archeological areas of Guatemala (where Survivor filmed at) cost more to enter than even Tikal. I guess Survivor does drive tourism.

Me & a temple
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Tikal is a jungle / rainforest, lush with so many plants and animals.

Getting a tour guide was a really good idea. Our guide, Francisco Escobar, showed us where the crocodile was in the pond that we would have completely missed seeing.  The baby crocodiles were getting rides on their mother's back -- that was a cool sight. 

We saw about 6 temples areas including the Gran Plaza (which had temples and Mayan living quarters).  This was also where sports were played.  Apparently, the winners would be the ones that got killed as it symbolized being immortalized with the previous great sportsmen.

Flores lights - New Years Eve 2006
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The temples were not always used for worship but was also used for astronomy  -- being able to see other planets better.  The Mayans had their own calendar and it was pretty accurate and has the year 2012 is to be the end of the world!  Yikes.

Francisco provided us a lot more Mayan history but I was too busy trying to take great pictures to remember much... sorry! But what was more interesting was when he told us about current conditions of his people, such as that 80% of all people in Guatemala City are unemployed.

Ken & I at Gran Plaza
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The little that I do remember is that during the Mayan period (when the temples were built), the rainforest did not exists there. Now, it is a full-on rainforest. Apparently, it is still unknown as to why the Mayans built the temples there as it was not close to any body of water. There are still a lot of excavations to be done but unfortunately not enough money to do it.

Back To Flores & Santa Elena In Search of the Best Bathrooms in Town!

Because we could not get a room in the 3 hotels in Tikal, we headed back to Flores. We decided that we are now completely spoiled travelers after spending a night at the Westin. We couldn't deal with the little hostel where our bags were sitting in. We needed better bathrooms!

That's high!
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So we decided to check around for better bathrooms. Unfortunately, we didn't know that this little task would require us to literally go to almost every hotel / inn in Flores and Santa Elena. We even went to the high end hotels and realized that bathrooms just suck in this city! Our last hope (before calling the Westin close to Tikal to pick us up) was Hotel Casona Del Lago. It was a gleaming 9 month new hotel and it has the cleanest and newest bathrooms in town. Somehow, Ken and I are now the experts of bathrooms in this little Central American town.

Ken relaxing with a Flores view
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We spent New Years Eve at Hotel Casona Del Lago having a great dinner and drinks by the pool while watching the Flores city lights.