After walking across the boarder from Belize – which was much easier without a vehicle, we got on a “collectivo” to Flores. A Collectivo is a unique Central American mode of transport. Basically you get your trusty old Toyota Hiace van that has been around the clock once already and stuff it full with people, chickens, puppies, bags, wire, kids and anything else that will fit. Then drive it to your destination, collecting and dropping off people along the way. It is a great and inexpensive way to travel, although I wouldn’t want to do it for a long distance.

We arrived at the bus station in Santa Elena, dodged past all the taxis and people trying to sell you shit and started walking the 15 minutes down the road to Flores. We got chatting to a cool lady who was going our way and she recommended and showed us a hostel where we stayed.

Flores is a town in Guatemala’s northern Petén region. It’s on an island on Lake Petén Itzá, linked by a causeway to the town of Santa Elena. It consists pretty much of accommodation, restaurants, bars, shops and tour operations. The lake levels are rising so some of the footpaths around Flores are now under water. The locals have come up with some ingenious ways around this. The main reason people come to Flores is to visit the Mayan ruins at Tikal.

Tikal – Mayan Temples

We couldn’t be arsed getting out of bed at 4am to do the Tikal sunrise tour with every other tourist and his dog. So we got up at a normal hour, had a leisurely breakfast and hopped on the tour bus around midday for the one and a half hour drive out to the ruins. It was the heat of the day, but as it was rainy season there were clouds, and plenty of trees for shade.

Tikal is an amazing place, and it was definitely our favourite ruin we saw on our trip. It was once the largest city of the Mayan Civilisation, with an estimated 120,000 people living within a 12km radius. Today only 20% of the city has been unearthed, the rest is covered in jungle. It takes about 10 years to restore one pyramid/temple as the roots of the trees have to rot away before the unearthing can begin. The temples are up to 60m high and jut out of the jungle, giving it a “out of this world” feel. This is probably why Tikal was used as a location in the Star Wars movie Episode IV.

As Tikal is in the Jungle there is a lot of wildlife, which make visiting these ruins a magical experience.  We saw Toucans, Howler and Spider Monkeys, Turkeys, and lots of other crawly critters like the one below which had Glen by the neck.

We were the last group to leave Tikal and got on the bus just before dark when a thunder storm set in. We saw a spectacular lightening show on the bus ride back to Flores.

We had heard about an amazing place called Sumac Champey which is on the tourist trail in northern Guatemala – a turquoise blue river with caves. As luck would have it we bumped into a fellow traveler  (Harriot) we had met in Panama who had just come from there. Harriet said the bus ride was 13 hrs. The river is beautiful but over run with people, and there is nothing else to do there. As Glen is allergic to crowded places, and Jeanette couldn’t stay on a bus for 13hrs on rough roads we decided to flag Sumac Champey and go straight to Rio Dulce and explore the river and nature there. We got a nice air-conditioned bus from nearby Santa Elena to Rio Dulce, it only took four hours.

Rio Dulce is a major river system that goes over 40km inland from the sea. What really surprised us was that every sailor and his parrot in the caribbean was moored up here for the hurricane season. There were yachts everywhere you looked, and most of the local economy is based around this and tourism.

From our trusty iOverland app we found a geothermal waterfall near the town of Rio Dulce, so we had to go and check it out. We jumped on a collectivo and drive 20 minutes to Cascadas Calientes El Paraiso.

The local community charge a small entrance fee at the gate. Then it is a lovely walk along the river up to the falls. It was really rustic and fun and we hung out for a couple of hours soaking and enjoying the pools.

On our way to get the collectivo back to town we met two sisters selling coconuts. Delia and Sylvia were local entrepreneurs making a few dollars selling coconuts to the tourists. Delia would deftly wield a knife and chop open the coconut in seconds while balancing it on her knee, super impressive! We had a yarn to them while waiting for the collectivo back to Rio Dulce, despite having not much in the way of possessions they were happy and laughing along with us. They asked for a pen, and Jeanette had two on her which she gave to the sisters, they were stoked.

We had heard of a boutique hotel on the Rio Dulce River from the crew at Pasajcap where we camped in at Lake Atitlan. Hotelito Perdido is a magical slice of paradise located right on the river. The small boutique hotel consists of five cabanas, a shared dorm room, yoga space, communal lounge and restaurant area. It is very relaxed. We settled in for a few days and enjoyed the amazing food, kayaking to the hot springs, exploring the river via kayak, and generally hanging out with Rasta the hotel dog.

The only downside with river living were the mosquitoes, river on one side and jungle on the other – we got munched!

On our last day in Guatemala we enjoyed a scenic boat ride out through the Rio Dulce gorge to the coastal town of Livingston. We had heard bad reports of Livingston, but we found it friendly and easy going. Jeanette managed to do some last minute shopping to use up her quetzals. Then we headed to the immigration office to pay our departure tax and get the exit stamp in our passports.

The boat ride from Livingston, Guatemala to Punta Gorda, Belize was really calm and only took just over an hour. Much quicker than driving.