Guatemala Travelogue, Part 1 The Pet├йn and Tikal

Guatemala Travelogue, Part 1 The Pet├йn and Tikal

Guatemala тАУ Land of the Eternal Spring

A six part travel article on Guatemala, Central America
Part 1 The Peten and Tikal
Part 2 Livingston and the Rio Dulce
Part 3 GuateтАж.Guatemala City
Part 4 Lake Atitlan & The Highlands
Part 5 La Antigua
Part 6 Monterrico and the black sand beaches of Pacific Coast

My favorite country outside of Canada is Guatemala. I fell in love with it, quite by accident through my connection with Cancun, Mexico. My family owned a small apartment in Cancun for many years and I continued going there on my own from the early eighties, sometimes hanging out there for March break or weeks on end. I still go there today, when I can get a cheap convenient flight in and out and fortunately we have plenty from Canada. Anyhow, Mexico is another adventure.

Many years ago, a new carrier from Guatemala, Aeroquetzal started advertising in Cancun a special package deal to Flores, Guatemala and Tikal from Cancun back then and so I decided to book the trip. Guatemala had been struggling with their civil war with the URNG, a struggle that was supposed to be based on land rights and land reform but that had been transformed into an extension of the Cold War, a battle between Left and Right and a focus for the Americans during the Regan years for Communists. All sorts of nonsense was happening down in Central America during this time and so there were plenty of reasons to be apprehensive about going there.

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My first visit down was all it took to get me hooked both on the place, the people and the positive vibe you get from a people that have seen and been through so much. I found the sane to be even more profoundly true in later trips through El Salvador during its continuing war.

There are so many ways in and out of Guatemala for me. When IтАЩm coming in from Cancun IтАЩll pass through Flores, quite often stopping off if IтАЩm bringing family or new guests in. When Mexicana was still around, I would come in via Mexico D.F. and stop off there for a few days or add a quick flight into Havana. Mexicana went out of business a few years back. Now my usual way in is from Vancouver through LAX and a quick flight from there in usually with TACA, Central AmericaтАЩs more reliable regional carrier.

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My first trip took me to Flores from Cancun, landing at a small Municipal runway they share with the Guatemalan military. The military base was quite active on my first trips in, especially since a lot of the fighting was still active along the border with Belize. It has also been used as a laughable message to Belize and to England that Guatemala still contests BelizeтАЩs right to sovereignty and considers it still an annexed province of Guatemala. Great Britain only needs to land a few jets in Belize to change the subject up quickly, which they still do on occasion.

Flores, in the northern jungle province of the Pet├йn is beautiful. It is a small island situated in the center of Lago Pet├йn Itz├б and known as one of the last hold outs for the Mayans in the Conquest of the Spaniards. Also known as Tayasil, in the ancient Mayan tongue of the Itz├б Maya .

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All through Guatemala, you may come upon villages with some of the most beautiful looking people. The history of the people and their lineage is still something prevalent in Mayan culture especially in the class structure that still exists in many of the Mayan communities. Each village is identified by the clothing that they wear, the colors and the patterns.

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Lake Pet├йn Itz├б is quite large, with small Mayan villages still dotted around the shoreline. IтАЩve only passed through these towns in a van or on a bike on my way to Tikal, situated 60 kmтАЩs or about an hour away from FloresтАжon the other side of the lake.

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IтАЩve been back to Flores may times and have seen the little town grow. The river rises and falls by the decade, when I stayed at the Hotel Pet├йn back in the very early nineties the first floor was abandoned and under water and todayтАжthe water level is several feet below street level.

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Several Hotels, Lodges and large private residences have lined the shoreline of Lake Pet├йn Itz├б. There are comfortable places to stay and great places to eat, including if you are interested in eating some of the more exotic creatures of the area. The best dish is fresh fish from the lake.
There are so many great things to see in the Pet├йn besides just TikalтАжalthough that is an incredible thing to see. There are many other Mayan sites bigger, but less developed than Tikal, there are huge limestone caves and cenotes or water caves for diving.

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You can fly in, in the morning from Guatemala City..get shuttled up to Tikal and shuttled back I the late afternoon for your flight back in the early evening. I prefer to stay a night or two if IтАЩm stopping offтАжjust because Flores is well worth the visit. Even today, youтАЩll see locals with side arms strapped to their sides.

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Tikal is an hour out of Flores. Buses start operating very early in the morning and should get you to the gate for the 6 AM opening time. There are also a few hotels lined up at the gate, but they really donтАЩt offer you any advantage and you miss out on Flores. Some people like to be up on Temple IV or V at sunrise, especially if the howler monkeys are alive in the jungle tops. Temple IV is one of the tallest pre-Columbian structures in the world.

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The temples are beautiful, some restored very well from the roots of trees that now dominate many of the unexcavated sites. The park is huge, 60 square kilometers and many of the great sites are spread of from one another and require considerable walking. I have never found the insects to be a problem despite being smack in the jungle. The temples in Tikal are even steeper than the other Itz├б temples of Chichen Itz├б and Uxmal in the Yucatan.

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Temple I you cannot climb anymore and Temple II now has scaffolding to get you up. Temple V is beautifully restored and has very steep scaffolding and Temple IV, the biggest starts with wooden scaffolding to the semi restored top or comb.

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Wide, well groomed paths will lead you from Temple site to Temple site. There are clean washrooms, great restaurantsтАжsome serving Pollo Pibil a fabulous chicken dish cooked underground in a hot stone pit wrapped in banana leaves.

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You could easily turn this into a 2 day trip to Tikal, if you had the time. There are regular Mayan ceremonies at the site during Solstice and Equinox. The Mayan people were very focused on the stars, mapping time, mathematics and so Tikal is one of many Mayan sites that is geometrically built in line with the sun and shadows.

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This trip, we took the bikes down to the Rio Dulce (River), for the trip up to Livingston Guatemala. ItтАЩs a long windy highway that drops from the jungle up to the long grass fields along the Caribbean. To get back up river to the Caribbean and to get to Livingstone, weтАЩll have to take a water taxi and leave the bikes behind.

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