The van cruises on for several hours, through the border checkpoint and on to Flores. The scenery changes from sandy and palm trees to a red earth with lush greenery at every bend. Small fertile looking farms dot the landscape. Flores, is a small little town thats got a unique feature of a bridged island as the tourist section sitting in the middle of a scenic lake. We are here for its proximity to Tikal – the ancient Mayan city buried in the jungle in the nearby Biosfera Reserve.
It a beautiful little island, almost european in style of building and in how close its built. A few jetties stick out into the lake where we see local kids and the odd traveller swimming and sun baking. Its damn hot so we make this a priority for our afternoon. But first, find a hotel, negotiate for a room and get some food. Either way, before long we a swimming in the cool clean waters of Lago Peten Itza and sipping on slushied mojitos from a balcony as we watch the sun set over the lake to the west.
We’re up at 4am the next day standing under the overhang for shelter as a rainy wind gust around us on a dim lit street. We are waiting for our transport to pick us up and take us to Tikal.
Tikal is an ancient citadel and city that dates back as far as the 4th century BC and was inhabited up until around the 10th century AD. It was one of the largest most powerful kingdoms of the Maya and includes around 3000 structures over 16 square kms. Up to 100,000 people used to call this home at the height of its lifespan. Its also planet of the Ewoks from Star Wars – you know that scene where Darth Vader’s plane flies down in Return of the Jedi over a jungle clad plant with temples jutting through the canopies? Yep thats Tikal.
The rain abates somewhat, but it just makes it steamy and its still hanging around. We pass the entry point and start exploring the mud tracks. Tikal is huge and it IS a lost city in the jungle. Unlike Machu Pichu, or Chichen Iza, there are very few clear area’s with manicured lawns and theres maybe a few hundred tourists at the most vs the thousands that pass through those. There are dozens of 60m high temples climbing up at clearings through the jungle canopies, and some you can climb giving you this eerie mystical view across the tree tops to a dozen other temples through the rainy mist. Add in the screaming howler monkeys and this is the lost city experience Ive been longing for.
At many parts you see half buried structures, covered in moss and reclaimed by the slow ever-present growth of the jungle. Its awe inspiring to hear the stories of what went on here, and to see the type of structures these people lived in and then to see it corroded yet still surviving the march of time.
