We felt a little worse for wears after a night of cuba libres and spent the morning relaxing in the gardens of El Retiro, by the river. Around lunchtime we ventured in to town for ice cream before heading back to the lodge for a 2pm tubing session. We were picked up in a truck and driven back to the Grutas de Lanquin where we climbed in our tubes and began our trip down river, beer in hand. The current is pretty strong and you get swept along at quite a pace, every now and then having to paddle at speed away from a fallen tree or overhanging branch. We had a good group of people, including the Kiwi’s Louise and Jason, and had a great laugh. At the lodge that night things were a little quieter. After watching the bats from the cave whizzing down the river next to the restaurant we ate, played poker and had an early night.
Rhys was up stupidly early and was nagging me to get up and pack so we could leave and head to our next stop. We walked to the bridge in the village and after about half an hour managed to catch a micro back to Coban. This time we had space and the seats weren’t broken so we traveled in relative comfort. Once in Coban we asked a few locals and a policeman and found ourselves at a bus park where we caught another micro to Chisec, our journey only held up by the passing of the president and her entourage. We checked in to a hotel and headed into the town to explore and use the internet (we’ve had very limited access for a while now). There wasn’t much to the place and even the main plaza was pretty plain but it was a necessary stop over since we wanted to visit B’omb’il Pek. That night we ate at a little local place and had one of the best meals we’ve had in a while for a bargain £1.70 including a bottle of Coke.
We left the hotel early to squeeze in a trip to B’omb’il Pek before check out - a sink hole that you can rappel into and a cave with ancient rock paintings in. We caught a micro heading out of town and asked to be dropped off at the site. Having read the guide book we expected there to be an office or something on the main road and were a little surprised to find only a sign and an open gate. Nethertheless we took the path and walked for about 25mins through woodland and maize fields trying to find the office where you could organise guides (you can only visit on guided tour). After reaching a plague of mosquitoes we decided it was getting a bit silly and turned back. Finally we ran into some locals and worked out that we needed to head back to the main road and walk to a local community to get a guide. We walked a little way, realised we still had no idea where we were going and gave up, we’d already spent over an hour trying to find the office and didn’t fancy retracing our steps with a guide - it’s just a shame we didn’t continue for another 20 minutes along the path as we would have reached it anyhow by ourselves. Back at the hotel we packed our bags and waited on the main road for a micro to Raxruja.
We originally wanted to stop on Raxruja to tube through the Los Nacimientos cave system but having decided that the chances of us getting the group of 4 together necessary for the tour to go ahead were slim (we’d already checked ahead with the tour guide earlier in the week to see how busy they’d been lately), we planned to head straight to Flores. Luckily for us the next bus that passed Chisec actually went all the way to Sayaxche which meant one less buss change for us. Once in Sayaxche we hopped on a little boat for the short trip across the Rio Pasion and found a bus to Santa Elena waiting on the other side. Another couple of hours later and we were at the bus terminal in Santa Elena. We loaded our bags into a tuk tuk and headed off, across the causeway to the tiny island of Flores. First we checked into a well known hostel called Los Amigos. After we’d thought it through though, we figured our platform room, above the bar and without walls was a bad idea and would offer little protection from mosquitoes. We repacked our bags, bearing in mind how badly Rhys reacts to mosquito bites, and headed to a different hostel across town where for the same price we had a private bathroom, room for four people and four walls. As soon as we’d checked in we heard Jason laughing in the street outside and popped out to say hello and make arrangements for a drink later that evening.
Flores is a small island in Lago de Peten Itza with a slow pace and laid back atmosphere. We spent an hour or so walking around the island and poking our heads in the various bars and restaurants before stopping at a roof terrace eatery for a quick dinner. After food, we headed to Louise and Jason’s hostel and then onto a cheap bar, Tipico, they’d discovered the night before where you could get 2 mojitos for a bargain £1.30 - highly recommended not only for the cheap drinks but the super friendly and welcoming bar staff and the lake view. Since we’d all booked on to a 4:30am trip to Tikal the following day we didn’t stay out late.
It was an early start for our Tikal trip. We’d decided to skip the sunrise trip which costs significantly more and means you arrive with hoards of other tourists to sit at the top of the same temple, and opted to get there as soon as the gates opened to the public at 6am. Tikal is a vast Maya site dominated by six giant, pyramid shape temples, the largest being a height of 64 metres, scattered in dense jungle. Among these main temples there are ruins of literally thousands of other structures, some uncovered or peeking out from between giant roots and some discernible only as tree covered mounds. The first known settlement at Tikal was in 900BC with the city reaching it’s height in 700-800AD when the five great temples were built. By 1000AD Tikal was abandoned only to be ‘officially’ rediscovered in 1848AD.
We had a great guide who fed us just enough info and gave us plenty of time to explore each area by ourselves before moving to the next complex. The tour finished after 4 hours at the base of Temple IV. After climbing a wooden staircase wrapping around the temple we emerged at the top where the views across the jungle covered park were spectacular with the cones of other pyramids just breaking through above the tree line, accompanied by the sound of howler monkeys it really was quite incredible. Along with Louise and Jason we then spent another couple of hours wandering around some of the smaller areas, climbing temples, admiring stelae and looking out for wildlife before catching a 12:30 shuttle back in to Flores. The whole place had been spellbinding and being able to actually climb most of the structures and temples, even having some to ourselves due to our early arrival time made you feel like an intrepid explorer.
Back in town, after finding out our new nephew had arrived that morning and meeting him on Skype, we spent the afternoon relaxing with a quick dip in the lake to cool off before meeting Louise and Jason back at Tipico for more cheap drinks, joined by Lewis (who we met in Lanquin) and his mate Nick. After a while we decided to head to the Plaza for some amazingly cheap taco/burrito combos before returning to the lake for a late night swim, bombing contest and other water based frivolities.
We spent the best part of the next morning in our room catching up on sleep and chilling. Rhys headed across the causeway for a Burger King and I sat in the plaza with another taco/burrito combo before heading out for a short boat ride across the lake to San Miguel on the Peninsula Tayasal. With very brief and bare instructions we found our way along some peaceful country tracks up to a mirador with spectacular views out across the lake before continuing along another track to Playita El Chechenal where we found Jason, Louise and Lewis. After a swim in the clear water of the lake we walked back to San Miguel just as the heavens opened and took refuge in the mirador shelter. We slipped and slid our way back to the dock and caught a boat back to Flores. That evening we ate at a lovely little restaurant over looking the lake before meeting up with the Kiwis one last time to say our goodbyes and repeat our promises to catch up in Melbourne. As we were all pretty tired and they had an early bus we didn’t stay out long and turned in for the night.
The next morning we packed our bags before heading out to a little cafe called Cool Beans with a lovely tropical garden on the lake for breakfast. It was very peaceful and a great start to the day. Back at the hotel we checked out out and flagged a tuk tuk to take us to the bus station in Santa Elena. Straight away we managed to get a micro to Poptun and arranged to pay a little extra for the micro to continue a further 4km past Poptun to drop us at Finca Ixobel. We checked in to a little tree house with no electric and headed out to explore. The finca is a working farm surrounded by pine forests in the foothills of the Maya mountains. There are a couple of self guided trails and we decided to tackle the ‘Pyramid’. It wasn’t so much a walk as a rock climb. We scrambled up the face of an extremely steep pyramid shaped hill only to find that the trees at the top blocked most of the view (otherwise it would have been beautiful). After the Pyramid we stopped by the natural lagoon for Rhys to swim and spotted a few toucans. When we got back to our treehouse the family in the accommodation next door had their music blaring and we ended up asking to move to the other treehouse located at the very bottom of the field surrounded by trees and giant spiders. After sitting on the veranda for a while we headed to the main building for dinner and slept with the sound of the forest and our creaking treehouse.
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