Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
El Petén Highlights
Gazing over the jungle canopy from towering Temple IV at
Tikal
(
Click here
)
Trekking through the jungle to the vast, though still scarcely excavated, Maya city of
El Mirador
(
Click here
)
Awakening to the sound of howler monkeys at
Laguna Petexbatún
(
Click here
)
Night cruising for crocodiles and spotting macaws at the
Estación Biológica Las Guacamayas
(
Click here
)
Lounging lakeside over evening cocktails on the picturesque island/town of
Flores
(
Click here
)
Admiring the sunset over
Lago de Petén Itzá
from laid-back El Remate (
Click here
)
Breaking bread with fellow travelers at the rural retreat of
Finca Ixobel
(
Click here
)
Rolling down the
Río de la Pasión
to
Ceibal
(
Click here
)
, a remote riverside ruin with intricately carved stelae
of past Maya rulers
History
Often referred to as the cradle of Maya civilization, El Petén has historically been isolated
from the rest of present-day Guatemala, a situation that continued until quite recently. The
major Maya population centers - Tikal and El Mirador - had more contact with neighbor-
ing settlements in Belize and Mexico than with those down south.
The arrival of the Spanish changed little in this regard. The Itzá, who lived on the island
now known as Flores, earned a reputation for cruelty and ferocity which, along with El
Petén's impenetrable jungles and fierce wildlife, kept the Spanish at a distance until 1697,
about 150 years after the rest of the country had been conquered.
Even after conquest, the Spanish had no great love for El Petén. The island of Flores was
a penal colony before a small city was founded, mostly to facilitate the trade in chicle,
hardwood, sugarcane and rubber that had been planted in the region.
The big change came in 1970, when the Guatemalan government saw the opportunity to
market Tikal as a tourist destination and work began on a decent road network.
El Petén's population boom - largely a result of government incentives for farmers to re-
locate - has seen the population increase from 15,000 to a staggering 500,000 in the last 50
years.
Some of the new neighbors are not entirely welcome, however - large tracts of land, par-
ticularly in the northwest corner and in the Parque Nacional Laguna del Tigre, have been
taken over by drug traffickers and people smugglers, capitalizing on the unpatroled border
with Mexico.
