Our journey here was tedious to say the least. Six hours on an old rickety bus, which looked much in need of an MOT service and had questionable ‘air conditioning’. Thankfully there was only a handful of people travelling on it, which meant we each got two seats, although how you would have been able to fit more than one person on my given ‘two seats’ I have no idea.

Undoubtedly Flores is a beautiful place, the lake swallows up most of the view. The cobbled streets are colourful and intertwined with restaurants and gift shops. A quiet town, we were being gently eased into Guatemala. When we arrived, a tour guide for the company assisted us checking into our hotel and offered to show us the local ATM’s. Our card was declined at all 3 in the local town. Frustrated and confused, the tour guide reassured us it was the ATM’s which were broken and kindly offered to drive us back over the bridge to a bank. Finally we were able to withdraw money and could return to our hotel for a much needed shower. The tour guide showed us the company offices and proposed we come down later to book our Tikal tour and transfers. Now we both like to believe in the kindness of humans, although we are not naïve travellers and unfortunately something just didn’t feel genuine about the tour guide’s generosity, so we did some research. In short, this guy is on almost every blog/forum we found. He is notoriously known for stealing, selling fake tickets, largely over charging on trips-the list goes on. Travellers-don’t be alarmed by this, just know that if 10 minutes before you arrive in a Flores a seemingly helpful tour guide hops on and offers to show you local cashpoints-it is in fact a scam-the sad reality.

The ultimate reason we ventured to Flores was to experience Tikal, a city ruled by Mayans and we had heard impressive reports from other travellers. We decided against a sunrise tour, as a raincloud was currently having a great dance over Flores and its surrounding towns, so we wouldn’t have been able to see enough to warrant a 3am start. Yes-3 am!!! Not that 4.30am is much more of a lie in, the given time we opted for to avoid the heat and peak times. We awoke at 4am to screeching alarms, our bodies still limp and eyes fuzzy. It felt like our bed sheets were physically wrapping our bodies and sucking us back down to the comfort of the duvet. It was a forceful escape to get up, but as our brains were becoming more conscious the thought of Tikal returned and we were able to find enough energy to leave on time.

Tikal is only an hour journey from Flores, making it much appealing for backpackers. It was pitch black, with the sky lightening as we approached Tikal, although we could not yet see it the sun’s presence was here. There were several shuttles and we were divided into groups and allocated a guide for the morning. The great thing about this is it gave us an opportunity to meet other fellow travellers. Impressively our guide spoke English and Spanish fluently and was extremely informative throughout the day. His passion for Mayan culture shone through his detailed speeches on each landmark.

The ruins boast themselves, there are similarities to Chichen Itza, although in all honesty Tikal won our vote over the two. Enormous structures reaching the tree tops surrounded us, the remarkable architecture and attention to detail of the Mayans is both inspiring and magical. Their knowledge of astronomy is sensational at what was such a premature time in the western world. They understood eclipses, sunrises, sunsets and time. This is what most of their temples were built specifically for, carefully constructed with a set purpose and representation, evidently they were very visual designers.

Unlike Chichen Itza, you are able to climb up these structures which really does make it much more of an adventure. Tip toeing up tiny narrow steps, we reached the top breathless and wondered how we would make it back down. Some of the temples were so steep that Hayley opted to shimmy down on her hands and bum like a child! One slip would cause a fatality, which made us wonder how the Mayans were able to begin to construct such marvellous buildings. One of the most fascinating things about Tikal is that such a large percentage of it is yet to be discovered. As you walk around you will notice lots of huge mounds, with vegetation happily homed on top of them. Our guide explained that underneath there are more temples, waiting to be uncovered. Simply incredible.

Thinking we had seen everything Tikal had to offer, our guide suggested we climb another 200 plus steps to witness the top of the tallest temple(IV) before leaving. We set off eagerly and our pace gradually slowed as we neared the top. The pain of the last step was cured instantly by the tree tops we were looking down on at the summit of the temple. This was one of those experiences that no words, photos or videos can do justice. You will never understand what we saw at the top of this temple from a photo nor the words of this post. We were in the clouds, above the treetops, overlooking a mass of forest. A view usually only experienced by tropical birds. We felt like Tarzan and Jane and it was this moment which allowed us to fully appreciate the Mayans and what they had created. We inhaled this view, wholly memorising it in our heads. A fantastic end to an educational, adventurous and insightful morning. We cannot recommend Tikal enough- backpackers you must add this to your bucket list.

Unfortunately for Flores, the magic of Tikal was not comparable to anything else, and so from here onwards the town itself became a little dull in all honesty. We strolled around the lake, explored the crooked pathways and ate street-food. We also made friends with a delightful German man and formerly fellow backpacker, before purchasing a restaurant in Flores a decade ago- in exchange of all his travel savings! The most interesting people with the best stories are always backpackers in our opinion, but of course we are biased. We were fortunate enough to encounter some wonderful globetrotters and exchange stories, tips and tricks whilst in Flores. Some advice for backpackers-as we have said in this post, Flores is a lovely town although very small, we would advise using it as a base for Tikal and spending no more than a few nights here. Although we must recognise that Guatemala had introduced itself well and we were excited about meeting more native towns.

Look out for our next post on Semuc Champey-which might not be what you expect, if you’ve already heard about it from elsewhere!

Happy travels!

Jonny & Hayley 🙂