Another bus full of tourists, another border crossing, without the corrupt officials this time though, and it’s welcome to Guatemala. My base for this part of the trip is the tourist saturated Flores, a tiny little island in Lago Petén Itzá connected to Santa Elena on the mainland by a quarter mile long causeway. Flores is a cool place to stroll around, but as far as I can tell its just hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops. I’m staying in Santa Elena just at the end of the causeway. That way I can easily walk to the island for dinner and don’t have to deal with the nightmare of driving my rental car to the island every night and trying to find parking. Flores is saturated with tourists thanks to the very popular Mayan city of Tikal nearby, we’ll get to Tikal in a bit, but first I went for the more remote site of Uaxactún.

To get to Uaxactún, I had to drive through the Tikal hordes, then on for another twenty miles down a mangled road where no one goes. I read that very few people come out here and that seems to be true because while there were hordes of people at Tikal, I had Uaxactún all to myself all day. It was fantastic!

Uaxactún was a rival of Tikal back in their heyday. It was a really impressive site given that nobody comes here. There were temples and palaces and lots of stelae lying around. Most of the stelae are in pretty bad shape, but I did find a couple of great specimens.

Uaxactún was also bigger than I thought. Every time I thought that was it I would spot another plaza through the trees.

This big palace below was just hiding behind what I thought was a big temple in the pic above. It really pays to walk the 360° around every building, or climb up and over when you can, like I did in this case.

I keep finding fascinating and unfamiliar plants on this trip too. This thing with the purple leaves was pretty much everywhere.

Don’t forget the interesting wildlife too. Although this guy seemed to belong to some people in the village at the bottom of the hill.

The main plaza was the highlight with its face temple in the center. A total of six faces were on each side. Awesome!

From the top of the face temple you lineup perfectly with the three temples on the other side. During the solstices and equinoxes these temples and the sun all align into a sort of geometric bliss. That must be quite a sight!

At the last palace I climbed around on I found myself surrounded by butterflies. I don’t want to say it was magical, but it was really cool.

Finally, I walked back down the hill where I ditched my car because the road got too rough and headed back past Tikal and toward Flores. This was a good day!

The next day I left early, but stopped a bit shorter than yesterday, at Tikal. It’s time to tackle what many consider one of the best Mayan sites around and the primary and often only reason people come here.

Because of it’s popularity, Tikal is heavily regulated, heavily trafficked, and more expensive. Luckily it didn’t seem to be too crowded the day I visited. It also involves a lot of walking on serene jungle paths like the one above.

I kind of went a roundabout way passing some sections on the periphery making my way to the furthest temple first.

The furthest temple from the entrance being also the tallest, Temple IV. I was surprised that it hasn’t really been excavated yet. It’s basically a mound of dirt and foliage with the temple sticking out the top. They built some stairs though that take you to the top for a great and uber famous view.

The uber famous view for you Star Wars fans is the one in the pic below. It was only about a three second shot in Episode IV, but this is the hidden rebel base on Yavin. I got to geek out a little bit up there.

As iconic as that view was, it wasn’t the best view in Tikal in my opinion. That award goes to the view from atop this big pyramid in the Mundo Perdido section seen below. The views of the jungle canopy with all these temples poking up through the trees was just incredible!

Tikal was a really big site. It was a lot to take in.

Just like Temple IV, Temple III was also unexcavated.

The Gran Plaza, however, was very much excavated. This is the center of the park and the busiest section. Sandwiched between Temple II, the Jaguar Temple, and the Acropolis Norte, this is where all the action is.

Climbing that magnificent Jaguar Temple isn’t allowed, but the views from the top of Temple II were pretty amazing. I just couldn’t stop taking pictures of that Jaguar Temple. Temple IV gets all the publicity, but when you look at pictures of Tikal online, all you see is the Jaguar and that shot from Star Wars. Ha!

Let’s not take anything away from Temple II, though, it was equally impressive.

I took some time to explore the Acropolis Norte as well before moving on. As impressive as this place is, having that many people, along with the staff, bathrooms, and snack stands does dim the allure a little bit, but it’s not difficult to see why it’s so popular.

I left the Gran Plaza and made my way past some other secluded temples and stelae on my way to the final stop.

The last temple to see was at the far opposite end from Temple IV where I started, Temple VI. This temple was mostly unexcavated too, but the remains of the carvings on the exposed wall were something I don’t remember seeing at other sites. They’re hard to make out. You just have to be satisfied recognizing that they’re there at all.

This was a really long day! But I need to take a quick walk through the museum before grabbing a really late lunch. This is where all the really intricate stelae are.

For some reason, I always thought jade was more green. But this jade jaguar was really beautiful.

After lunch, in the parking lot I saw this Coatimundi sniffing around. I saw a few in the park earlier, but was never quick enough to get pictures. This guy made it easy.

And just as I was about ready to drive away, this giant family of them came running across the parking lot! There were probably twenty of them all together. Score!

Next up was another more remote site where not many people go, Yaxha.

Yaxha was a really cool place. The howler monkeys were all over and making a lot of noise. I tried posting a video with their howls, but I can’t get it to upload for some reason. Sorry. Trust me though, it’s a really terrifying sound, especially when several of them are howling at each other.

Yaxha sits near the shore of Laguna Yaxha and means “blue green water” in Mayan. From the top of Temple 216 there is a really amazing view of the lake. I’m not sure where the number 216 comes from. I didn’t see anywhere near that many structures here.

Don’t forget the various stelae lying around.

This is the Maya ball court which was right in front of the palace. That way the royalty could watch the game and the eventual beheading from their front porch. Talk about convenience.

A bit later I got a real show from the howler monkeys, along with the best pictures of them yet. I think there was actually two different troops arguing about something. The howls were deafening!

This stelae was the best one I saw. So much detail!

The Acropolis Norte would have been worth the drive and price of admission by itself. Four big pyramids and a crumbling palace forming this very peaceful courtyard.

It was so peaceful in fact and I had the place to myself, so I decided to break out my lunch and enjoy the place properly. It was pretty incredible!

Finally I reached the end of the line, the Plaza de los Sombras with it’s own imposing pyramid.

But that’s not the end of Yaxha. Out in the middle of Laguna Yaxha is the Isla Topoxte, where the Maya built a small ceremonial temple. So I hopped on a little boat and cruised out to have a look.

It’s a pretty small site with just the one temple, but the boat cruise and the wind felt awesome in this heat and humidity. I’m still a disgusting mess at the end of every day.

I had planned to visit another site, Nakum, but it requires a four wheel drive and I just couldn’t figure out the logistics. I doubt my Toyota Yaris would’ve made it, so instead I drove to the other side of Lago Petén Itzá to San Miguel for some better views of Isla Flores and to take in their small Maya Museum.

From the shore of San Miguel I got a better view of Isla Flores, also known as Tourist Island.

I wrapped up my visit to Flores with a visit to Ixpanpajul Nature Park. I thought it would be fun to hike their Hanging Bridges Trail.

As far as hiking goes it was pretty easy, but along the way you cross seven hanging bridges over the jungle canopy. So this is what it’s like to be a howler monkey.

The bridges were pretty high up there. Don’t look down!

Back in Flores, it was time to turn in the rental car, wash the funk off my body, stuff myself with food, and get ready for tomorrow’s journey. Yes, it’s time to head to my next stop on this Central American adventure via a quick one hour flight this time. That will be it for the Mayan ruins for a while too. There’s one more big site coming up in a week or so, but for now it’s time to change it up a bit. Stay tuned…