Flores and Tikal

Another full day of travel to get to Flores, which is a town on a tiny island in the Lago de Petén, an hour and a half away from Tikal.  We were stuffed into the shuttle like cattle again, this time I was in the very back row with my knees wedged against the seat in front of me, my shoulders turned sideways so that we would all fit.  About 8 hours like this, with a break for lunch.  At first I really thought I was going to have a true claustrophobic attack (for the first time), but I was able to calm myself down and concentrate on the beautiful scenery. 

It takes about 20 minutes, if that, to walk around the whole island of Flores, which is connected to the mainland by bridge.  The island is pretty much dedicated to tourists who are there to visit Tikal, but at least when I was there it was very low-key and a nice place to take a walk and relax. 

Lago Petén Itzá taken from the island of Flores

The day after my arrival I boarded a shuttle for Tikal at 4:30am.  The park opens at 6am and they say that is one of the best times to go to see all the wildlife, not to mention that you can finish touring most of the park before it gets too hot and crowded.  I decided not to go with a guide so that I would have more freedom to see what I wanted and go as fast as I wanted.  In hindsight, it might have been better to have a guide, because they also point out wildlife that people may not notice otherwise.  It was truly beautiful, though.  We could hear the howler monkeys from the van before we even entered the park, doing their morning howling.  I also saw a family of spider monkeys, several toucans, and thousands of leafcutter ants on their highways heading towards their massive ant hills.

Templo III and at the top of a smaller temple

Not to mention the ruins themselves.  Tikal is not like many of the ruins you can visit in Latin America because the stuctures are still in the middle of the jungle; the trees have not been cleared around them, so it feels like they are very much still in a natural setting.  It's also nice to have the shade of the canopy while walking aound.  You can climb most of the big temples, as long as they are not in the middle of restoration.  One temple in particular, I thinks it's Templo IV, gives you a postcard view of the whole park.  Truly amazing.

View from Templo IV

Next stop:  Río Dulce/ Lívingston