Guatemala: Lost in the jungle at Tikal

Tall limestone pyramids peeking above the jungle entangled in vines and covered in moss, with steps from top to bottom. If this is how you imagine your Mayan ruins, then Tikal is the place for you. The first archaeological remains in the area are from around 1000 BC and the site was the thriving centre of the Classic Mayan world for around 1200 years from 300BC. At its peak, Tikal was home to 100,000 people. However, it was abandoned and left for the jungle to reclaim around 900AD, long before the Spanish arrived in Central America. Current thinking is the decline was caused by over population, drought, deforestation, pressure on natural resources and fighting between neighbouring Mayan groups. The usual population decline stuff.

Luckily for us, the Mayans built the temples just a little taller than the height the jungle canopy reaches, so the main temples could be glimpsed above the trees when it was rediscovered in 1848. With the area so remote, the site was not properly explored until the 1950s when an airstrip was built. The National Park was created in 1955, and declared a world heritage site in 1979, the first site in the world to be accredited for both cultural and natural criteria with both extraordinary biodiversity and archaeological importance. Countless monkeys, coatis, exotic birds, bitey bugs and plenty of other unseen animals accompanied us as we explored the site. The toucans, parrots and turkeys were particular highlights, although we didn’t glimpse the illusive jaguar. The National Park is 57,600 hectares in size with thousands of archaeological sites, most unexcavated. Within this, the central site is (just) 1200 hectares with around 3000 temples, plazas, residential and ceremonial sites.

The crowd pleasers

The classic view from Tikal is of Tempolo I, or Tempolo del Gran Jaguar, 47 metres tall and named after a lintel depicting a king sitting on a jaguar throne, located in the Gran Plaza at the heart of Tikal. You can’t climb this icon of Classic Mayan architecture, but you can climb the 38m tall Tempolo II opposite for views of the plaza. Disappointingly, the climb is up a set of wooden stairs around the back of the temple, rather than up the tempting stone stairs at the front. Still, there’s a good view from the top. On either side of the Gran Plaza, visitors can climb about and explore the Central and North Acropoleis. There’s also one of Tikal’s five ball courts here, where the Mesoamerican game called ‘Ball Game’ was played. Players hit the ball with their torso, rather than hands or feet and losers were regularly used for human sacrifice, so that’s fun.

There are two other tall temples at Tikal which can be climbed, Tempolo IV and the Great Pyramid of Mundo Perdito. The view from Tempolo IV (Temple of the two headed snake) was chosen by George Lucas as the location for the moon Yavin 4 in Star Wars- A New Hope. It was here in the Guatemalan jungle that the Rebels placed their military bases and trained their students. Built in around 741AD, It’s the tallest structure at Tikal (at 65m) and the second tallest pre-Columbian structure still standing in the Americas. After a steep climb up rickety wooden stairs, the views from the top are mystical and extraordinary. Sunrise and sunset tours usually head here for the view. Mornings tend to be misty, so although atmospheric, a good view of the sunrise is disappointingly rare after that early start and hike.

Mundo Perdito, or Lost World refers to the style of building in this part of the park, which is older and different to the rest of Tikal, with lower, flat topped structures built in preclassic times. There are nearly 40 structures here with one large pyramid, the Great Pyramid. The views from this temple were our favourites of the whole park, with huge numbers of birds rustling about and monkeys swinging in the trees as we looked out at the rest of the temples peeking out from the forest.

The hidden corners

Now, you absolutely should visit the main attractions at Tikal, but with the luxury of a few days at the park, we enjoyed our time most poking about in some of the less visited corners. While Tikal never felt busy, there were other people around when we visited the Gran Plaza and Tempolo IV. However, it’s a huge site which attracts around 200,000 visitors a year, compared to over 2 million who visit the much smaller site of Chichen Itza in Mexico yearly. As soon as we headed off to see some of the less famous parts of the park, we found we could explore completely alone.

To the north of the park, Zona Norte is a complex of small but well preserved stepped structures. We also enjoyed exploring the jungle paths in this area around a number of complexes which have not been restored and remain as eerie plant covered mounds.

Off to the south, grupo G, or the Palacio de las Acanalduras (The grooved palace) was great fun. Built as a residential complex, the kids were in their element here being able to climb about and explore, as if they were Indiana Jones or Lara Croft discovering the site for the first time. Just nearby, at 57m high and precipitously steep, Tempolo V is the archetypal Mayan temple, making it all the more disappointing that you’re not allowed to run up those stone stairs. Still, it was quite the experience to see the structure loom out of the jungle as we approached.

How we did it

Tikal is easily accessed from the pretty town of Flores, situated on an island in Lago Petén Itzá, Guatemala’s second largest lake, around an hour’s drive to the south. The smooth road from Flores to Tikal was the best paved road we’d encountered in the whole country. We flew to Flores from Guatemala city. At $50 return per person, this was the same price as the eight hour bus and seemed like the sensible option, although obviously we all love a lengthy and bumpy bus journey. Tikal is often visited as a day trip from Flores, but for flexibility, we decided to stay inside the national park, at Jungle Lodge which is at the base camp built for the original archaeologists who worked to uncover the site in the 1950s. This was an inspired as it allowed us to come and go from the park as we pleased, including going in the afternoon when there were very few other visitors, and we had time to visit some corners of the park which the bus trips don’t go to- we didn’t see anyone else when we visited the southern side of the park. The hotel is located right by the entrance point where tickets are checked before entering the park and the walk from here to main plaza at the centre of the park is an easy twenty minutes.

We were in Guatemala during the Easter holidays/ spring break time and the Jungle Lodge is a great choice for families. Within seconds of us arriving in the open sided reception area, Rafe had already made friends with a Dutch boy and challenged him to a game of pool. The games room, board games and swimming pool were all big hits with the kids. The next day, Dessa made a chum in the pool, and soon our kids were best friends with an American family from Connecticut. We had kids and adult tables for dinner where they could talk about kid things and we could have interesting adult conversation and cocktails. Excellent.

You have to buy all your tickets online in advance of entering the park – and note that there is no wifi and little cell service at the entry gate to buy on arrival. We just showed ours on a phone and were given bracelets which allowed us access for the whole day. The official ticket site is here –Tikal Tickets. For international visitors, the entrance cost is 150 Quetzales and children under 12 are free to enter. You can also buy sunrise or sunset tickets for an additional 100Q each. You need to employ a guide for the sunset or sunrise visits at an additional cost (due to some tourists wandering off in the thick jungle never to be seen again). With the general entrance ticket, you can roam the park freely between the hours of 6am and 5pm. You also need to book tickets for the museum online, at 30Q per adult. We bought a map for a hefty 25Q which while not strictly geographically accurate was pretty useful and included walk times between the different sites.