Tikal.
Ancient ruins in the Guatemalan jungle and monkeys. What’s not to love.
- Tikal Ruins.
Tikal is an ancient Mayan city in the middle of the jungle. Without a doubt what makes the ruins so magical is the surroundings, and these are my favourite Mayan ruins to date!
You feel like an explorer ‘discovering’ temples – in particular the less popular ones which are still ‘unearthed’ (covered in vegetation). To top it off there were monkeys jumping through the trees while we wondering between the different temples. Win win.
2. Lago Petén Itzá.
We’ve been to a fair few lakes so far but this one was the most surprising. We went to check it out and ended up staying there all afternoon with the pier to ourselves – and we saw one of the best sunsets of the trip so far!
3. Flores.
To check out Tikal most people stay in Flores, a little island surrounded by Lago Petén Itzá. We went for a day trip, grabbed some lunch and wondered around the cobbled streets. It was quiet (I assume everyone was at the ruins) but very pretty with tuk-tuks swerving around the streets and lots of lakeside bars. People we met recommended the hostel Los Amigos if you stay in Flores!
4. Accommodation.
I didn’t quite appreciate we’d booked somewhere that wasn’t in Flores until probably the day before, and I was a little gutted. However when we made it to Alice’s Guesthouse I was chuffed we’d found somewhere so rural. Down a questionable dirt track (the taxi was convinced we were lost), it’s surrounded by the jungle and sound of howler monkeys. The bungalows are in El Remante, closer to the ruins and very close to the lake for a dip.
We visited Tikal in October 2018.
