Tikal – An Adventure Over 20 Years In The Making
Introduction To Tikal
Back in 1998, I was just returning from Peru after a number of months there, working with CARE International. It had been a thoroughly life-changing experience, and I wanted more.
So I made a list of places that I wanted to see in the next few years. I don’t have the original paper with me anymore, but I remember the list like I wrote it last week.
PLACES THAT I WANT TO SEE (circa 1999)
- Machu Picchu (I missed it while in Peru..)
- Teotihuacan, Mexico
- Tikal, Guatemala
- Egyptian Pyramids
- Palmyra, Syria
- Stonehenge, UK
- Angkor Wat, Cambodia
- Grand Canyon
- Tokyo, Japan
- Petra, Jordan
- Pompeii, Italy
- Auschwitz, Poland
So I was determined to see them all in the next few years…
It’s funny how life gets in the way sometimes. You have all these dreams and plans, and you’re young and FULL of ambition. But then getting a job comes along, and settling down, and all those “normal” things.
Suddenly it was 10 years later, then 20 years later. I’d scratched a few off my list here and there, but I was really missing some of the “big” ones that I really wanted to see.
So this brings us to my current travels. I’ve scratched Teotihucan and now Tikal off my list in pretty rapid succession, with a return to Machu Picchu in the cards down the road.
So now being in Guatemala, Tikal was one of my most anticipated stops. I went on a tourist shuttle from Flores for Q100, and arrived just around noon time. Maybe later than most recommend, but the other option was at like 6am, and there was no way I’d enjoy anything that early in the morning.
Getting To Tikal
So we arrived around 12:00pm, and the majority of the group traveling that day were part of a tour. Myself and another guy were only taking the trip portion up and back, preferring to explore on our own.
I had purchased my tickets online, through the official website, https://boletos.culturaguate.com/, at a cost of Q150, same price as in-person. Truth is, if you’re traveling with a group of strangers as I was, there’s not a lot of benefit to buying in advance, since they all had to go to the ticket booth at the entrance anyway, and I had to hang around and wait.
The entrance to the actual ruins is still another 10km or so up the road, so you can’t even just start walking from there if you have a ticket in advance.
Eventually we headed into the actual park itself, and when we arrived at the parking area, I was told that I had to be back by 3:30pm for the return shuttle, so it gave me three and a half hours to freely explore the site.
So off I went, I picked up my entry bracelet at the gate, and headed in.
Getting Around Tikal
Tikal is BIG. Like, VERY BIG.
Any idea that you’d be able to see everything in one day, well, forget that. 24 sq km for the main ruins and then over 200sq km for the larger park.
So I did some research to determine the best path through the park to see the majority of the highlights in the time that I had, and I think it worked out really well.
Basically, this route will give you enough time to see the main sites within Tikal, and doing the long walk up towards the back first, allows you to really enjoy all the main stops on the way back. This was my route, and talking to tour guides after I finished, they said it was a great way to go, and some of them even take their tours the same way.
There, I just saved you $50 or whatever it is for a tour guide. ????
If you’d like to watch the tour, please see the YouTube video linked below. But in the meantime, enjoy some of these photos from Tikal as well.
Final Thoughts
It was an incredibly rewarding day, and one I’ll not forget for the rest of my life. The three and a half hours was enough time to get to see all these sites. IF you go for a full day, I would recommend adding the North Group, (on the East side of the map above), along with Complex P and Q, which naturally fit towards the end of your exploration.
After returning to Flores on the afternoon shuttle, I was in desperate need of some food. I stopped at Teengo’s for some food, and the place was awesome. It’s only a block from where the shuttle drops you off at the Yo Amo Peten sign in Flores.
