Tag Archives: Peten

We had originally wanted to visit Yaxha and La Blanca together as a full day tour, but as the low season was in full swing it was a struggle to get numbers together for a tour. Plus, it also turned out that the archeologists working on La Blanca weren’t due back until September. So a half day trip to Yaxha it was.

The site itself is located within the cultural triangle national park along with 2 other sites, Naranjo and Nakum. Entry fees to the park include access to all 3 sites, however they are not a stroll apart and you would have to camp inside the park if you wanted to see all of them on your trip.

The national park is located an hour and a half from Flores along a good paved road until you arrive at the park which has an unpaved entrance road.

Although this site was one of the smallest we visited, it still offered impressive views across the park from various temples.

You really have to observe your surroundings as you walk through Yaxha as a lot of the site has been left unexcavated or partially excavated on purpose. Once you start to identify all the hidden structures you get a feel for just how big a site it had once been.

A nice thing about Yaxha is that it has a very laid back feel to it and you are able to climb nearly all the structures, allowing you to walk around without feeling you are held back from immersing yourself.

We were especially lucky during our visit to be sharing the site with only 2 other tourists, leaving us to only come across the odd bored looking guard on our walk.

We decided to visit Yaxha in the afternoon, as the site only requires a few hours to view, but the real bonus is you can sit on temple 216 and watch the sunset over the lagoon.

One thing we did realise during this visit was that for us, we had now seen enough Mayan sites for the time being and that it was time to see more of modern Mayan culture, so we decided to head towards Antigua.

Tikal is located about an hour and a half away from Flores and can be easily reached with a shuttle bus, tickets can be bought from any of the agencies or hotels and are around 60 quetzales for a return ticket.

The only thing to check is that you have a late return as there are 2 companies that run services and one has returns at lunchtime whereas the other allows you to come back at 5pm.

We took the 5am shuttle and arrived at 6.30am at the entrance to Tikal. There are several places to eat around the entrance but they are obviously more costly than outside the park. As you will need at least 8 hours to see the site it is wise to bring lunch. Drinks can be bought at several points within the park and are not too expensive.

View of the West Plaza:

In terms of size, Tikal is the most impressive we have seen. Still set amongst the jungle you really have no idea of the sheer size of the place until you have spent the day walking it. As every group of structures is hidden from the next until you reach the end of the path it is hard to imagine what is around the next corner.

Temple 5:

We had the added luck of being there during the low season which meant we saw very few people and were able to climb the temples without having to compete with tours.

View from the North Acropolis:

Most of the site is accessible either directly or via wooden ladders attached to the sides of buildings, allowing tourists to experience the temples even when the steps have long since deteriorated.

View of the Gran Plaza:

The most impressive temples for us were the Jaguar temple and temple 4 due to their views, with temple 4 offering a panoramic view of the whole site.

View of Tikal:

As well as the ruins of Tikal the park itself is host to numerous jungle animals from wild turkeys to screeching monkeys jumping from branch to branch above your head.

Wild Turkey:

Spider monkey:

A pizote (like a brown raccoon):

Howler monkey: