Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
more basic rooms that share bathrooms, and a five-bed
dorm. The reasonable restaurant
and
bar features
intern
ational
and local dishes.
Dorms
US$15
, shared-bath
rooms
US$40
, en-suite rooms
US$80
★
bungalows arranged around a pool, plus various buildings
that hold more conventional rooms. The cheery restaurant
serves up simple meals of grilled chicken, pastas, burgers
and omelettes. All-inclusive rates include breakfast &
dinner p
lus a free su
nrise or
daytime guided tour. Rooms
US$120
, bungalows
US$140
Tikal Inn
T
3038 9373,
W
tikalinn.com.
Welcoming
little hotel, with helpful staff and individual thatched
EATING
It's essential to be aware that almost no food is available on the site itself, other than perhaps a small packet of biscuits and
a bottle of water from the little kiosks near Temples II and IV. However, a number of
comedores
at the park entrance serve
limited menus of traditional Guatemalan specialities - eggs, beans, grilled meat and a few “tourist” dishes - while the
hotel restaurants offer longer (and pricier) menus.
★
Café Ital-Espresso
Visitor centre.
One of the greatest
wonders of Tikal - genuine Italian-style coffee served by a
genuine Italian, using a gas-powered espresso machine.
Daily 6.30am-4.30pm.
Comedor Tikal
Opposite the visitor centre
T
7926
2788.
This relatively secluded bar/restaurant, tucked away
in a covered garden, is a popular rendezvous for guides and
other locals, and sells burgers and nachos for Q25-40, and
chicken or meat dishes, including fajitas, for Q50-60.
Daily
6.30am-8.30pm.
Flores
Prettily poised on a tiny island in Lago Petén Itzá, very close to the mainland and
connected by a causeway,
FLORES
is a sedate and easy-going place with an
old-fashioned atmosphere. A delightful circular cluster of cobbled streets and ageing
houses, rising on all sides to the white, twin-domed church of Nuestra Señora de Los
Remedios at its pinnacle, it's a popular stopping point for independent travellers en
route to or from Tikal, and well worth visiting even if you're just making a short
side-trip from Belize.
Even though it's the capital of Petén, Flores itself is utterly different from the rough,
bustling commercialism of the region's other towns, largely because most of its of
cial
business is conducted in its sprawling, chaotic, ugly-sister communities of
Santa Elena
and
San Benito
, on the mainland.
This spot boasts a remarkable historical role, as the final holdout of the
ancient Maya
.
The water level is thought to have been as much as 50ft higher in Maya times; when
Cortés, the conqueror of Mexico, passed through in 1525, the lake held five separate
islands. The largest of these,
Noh Petén
or “great island”, also known as Tayasal, was the
capital of the Itzá, an independent Maya kingdom that the Spaniards only managed to
conquer and destroy in 1697. While Flores was certainly occupied, the actual site of
the Maya stronghold may well have been on what's now the
Tayasal peninsula
, just
across the water, which would indeed have then been a sizeable island.
Today Flores retains the air of a genteel holiday resort, and offers pleasant
surroundings for a steady stream of tourists from Guatemala and further afield to sleep,
eat and drink. If you're not going to the Guatemalan highlands but want to buy
típica
clothing and
gifts
, you'll find the shops here have better prices than at Tikal.
The Tayasal peninsula
San Miguel is served by regular lanchas from the northeast side of Flores
The attractive
Tayasal peninsula
, just five minutes by boat from Flores in the opposite
direction to the causeway, is surprisingly overlooked by many visitors. From the
lakeshore village of
San Miguel
, where the boats arrive, a twenty-minute, fairly isolated
walk leads to wonderful views of the lake and its settlements. Follow the shoreline west,
turn uphill after the last buildings, keep going until the track evens out to a shaded
