Road Runner: Tikal & Flores, Guatemala

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Tikal & Flores, Guatemala

While we were in language training in Antigua in 1987 we took a trip to Flores, Guatemala to visit the Tikal National Park and see the famous ruins. We had a choice of a 12 hour bus ride over lousy roads or a 20 minute flight on a modern jet plane. The plane won out and we made reservations at the Flores Maya International hotel.

The hotel sure did look nice on the travel brochure and we were excited to get there and jump in the pool for a nice refreshing swim and enjoy the restaurant on the property. The hotel was across the lake from the town of Flores and was impressive looking from the picture we saw.

Flores Hotel Maya International

Imagine the surprise we saw when we actually got to the hotel. This is what it really looked like. It seems they forgot to tell us an important fact.

Restaurant

Restaurant on right and rooms on left.

When I inquired about the photo and the reality of the hotel, they said Lake Peten Itza had risen a little. Where was the pool I asked? Right there in front of the restaurant, under 6 ft of water. The bottom floor of the hotel rooms were now under 6 ft of water also. What had been the 2nd floor was now the first floor. Huh?? Wait, it even gets better. The rooms didn't have screens to keep the mosquitos out and they were terrible. There wasn't a ceiling in the room, just a wire mesh there and we could hear the people in the adjoining room breathe. So much for a romantic getaway.

***** NOTE I checked a recent view of the hotel using Google Earth and it looks like the water has gone down and the hotel rebuilt. The restaurant looks the same and the rooms now occupy two floors. *****

The mosquito problem was sort of solved by buying a local product that smelled like diesel fuel and something else unknown added. It was the most foul smelling mosquito lotion I have ever used.

We had arranged for a bus to take us to the Tikal National Park that was about 12 miles away and they showed up on time and we enjoyed a nice ride to the park. We really hadn't read up on the park and didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of our living overseas. The ruins were fantastic and we spent the whole day there climbing all over them and marveling at the construction of them. I seriously doubt anything man has made in the last 100 years will be standing over 1,000 years as these structures were.

There is so much to learn about Tikal and wikipedia had written a great article describing the rise and fall of it, so I am including a link to their article. Take a look, it is fantastic.

Tikal National Park <========Double click for an interesting article

Gerry wanted to hike to the top of this temple and when I saw they didn't have any hand rails or anything to catch you if you fell, I strongly urged her to forget it. Then when I heard that 4-5 people a year fall down the steps and are killed or injured, that sealed it. This is the temple she wanted to climb, what do you think? Keep in mind that the steps have been used for the past 1400 years.

We walked all over the place and did climb one temple so we could get an overall shot of the grounds. To do this we had to hang on to vines growing out of the side of the temple. At least it wasn't as steep and high as other ones. The view from there was breathtaking and I wish we would have had our digital cameras with us. Of course they didn't have digital cameras in those days.