| Monday 1/15 |
| 4:30 AM | Iberostar Quetzal Wakeup Call |
| 5:15 AM | Shuttle Car Pickup at hotel to take us to Cancun Airport |
| 6:00 AM | Arrival at Airport - met there by someone who assisted had our tickets and
assisted in our departure. We had to pay a Mexico departure tax (I forget the exact amount, but it seems
it was around 60.00) and turn in our Mexico tourists cards.
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| 7:50 AM | Depart Cancun for Flores, Guatemala. The flight was a commerical flight. The plane was a newer, 19 seat, twin prop. It was clean and the flight was smooth. We were the only two Americans on the flight and the only two who had arranged the tour of Tikal through Turquoise Reef Travel. During the flight the weather was clear and we flew down along the Mexico coast line. Nice views along the way. Upon arrival in Flores (about 1 hr..30 min) we passed over Tikal. You could see a few of the temples standing above the forest canopy. |
| 9:30 AM | Arrival and Customs in Guatemala. The airport in Flores is rather small. I did see one larger jet (737) land there, but the terminal consists of one rather small building. Customs was uneventful, one man stamping passports and looking over the paperwork we had filled out on the flight. After clearing customs our Tikal guide and driver were waiting immediately outside the customs area. We handed them our paperwork (passports/tickets/etc.) and were told they would arrange everything for the return trip (whatever that meant). |
| 10:00 AM | Departed the Flores airport by van and drove about 50 minutes to Tikal. The drive was rather uneventful. Some pretty country side views and some small towns, but nothing too exciting. We arrived at Tikal and the guide paid our entry fee. |
| 11:00-4:00 PM | Our Tikal tour was somewhat unique in that it was just the two of us and our guide. The led to a lot more face time and a lot more questions. He spoke very good English and was very informative. We hiked approximately 4 miles through the jungle to various ruins. Some of the ruins were quite magnificent (125-200 feet tall). The jungle was quite dense in some spots (shortcuts through the jungle to other roads). We did see spider monkeys, toucans, turkeys, fox, the unique Lemur kind of animal and various other birds. We climbed to the top of the Temple of the Mask (125 feet) and also to the top of the 200ft temple (via a series of ladders and steps). The weather was nice, but hot. We concluded the tour with lunch which consisted of Chicken, rice, vegetables and bread. We also sampled some of the local beer (Gallo..which wasn't too bad). |
| 5:00 PM | We made a short stop in Flores. We took the water taxi over and walked back. They were in the middle of a festival or carnival of some sort. Many locals were coming to Flores for the evening events. We did a little shopping and walking around before returning to the airport for the return flight. The return was also very smooth. Customs and then a 7:00 departure back to Cancun. We did speak to the guide about trouble spots in the area and we were told that there were still some problems, but not in the areas we would be visiting. I did notice a missing poster in Flores for a female jungle hiker that had never returned. Even though there are still some trouble spots in the region we had a very nice time and had no problems during our visit. I'd highly recommend the trip, just use some caution and common sense. |