Flores is known as the jump-off point, it's still 70 km away. There
are a couple of hotels at the main gate to Tikal, and you can camp at
Jaguar Inn. We camped, with the ants. You can go into the ruins after
4pm when you buy your ticket for the following day. We arrived too
late to do this. We woke up at 5:30 to try and watch the sunrise over
the complex. We hurried through the jungle, howler monkeys shrieking,
and stumbled into the main plaza complex...soooo misty and still
pretty dark - nobody around, very creepy! We finally made it to temple
4, the highest temple, but the mist hung around for hours, our view
was limited to about 3 metres, we were frozen and hungry so went back
to get breakfast and a picnic. We spent the rest of the day wandering
around the temples and jungly mounds - 85% of Tikal is still to be
uncovered! They have done a good job on the current restorations but
it'll be amazing to come back here years later once they have
uncovered more. All very mysterious. On one of the paths between
temples we spotted an ant trail, then another, then another, then they
all merged into one huge mass of ants - they were taking over the
entire footpath, all heading in the same direction, a sea of ants.
I've never seen anything like it! Big ants!
So many people just come for the day, but because we were camping we
could stay until the park closed at 6pm, again we found ourselves
alone at sunset - just the zillions of birds and monkeys for company.
This morning we went to the 2 museums at Tikal. They show lots of
photos pre-restoration - the jungle had totally taken over, it's taken
them decades to clear! Also, lots of original limestone carvings and
ceramics found on the site. Very lucky to have made it up here, was
really worth it.
We're now trying to get an overnight bus to the south of Guatemala,
looking for surfing waves, we seem to be ahead of schedule!
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