Belize & Tikal General Guide Books: We use Lonely Planet's Belize book (2002) and Vivien Lougheed's Belize guide published by Hunter Travel (2003). Lonely Planet has much better maps but the other info. is getting a little out of date. Lougheed's book seems current as far as prices. Most of her descriptions seem accurate, but a few don't match our experience (one example: Lougheed doesn't like the restaurant at Martha's Guest House in San Ignacio, whereas we enjoyed great food and great service). Also, Lougheed's book seems tailored more toward a self-driving tour, and lacks some of Lonely Planet's public transit information. If you are planning even one night in the Flores/Tikal area, I encourage you to pick up a book specific to Guatemala. Both of our books have brief sections on this area, but it is not enough. Mosquitoes: Everywhere we go we ask about mosquitoes. Everyone tells us they are not a serious problem this time of year. We use Deet (Sawyer's Time Release). We take a mosquito net but never feel a need to use it. Julie gets a couple of mosquito bites (only at times she is not wearing Deet). I never see a mosquito the entire trip. Currency: I don't recall a single person, hotel, restaurant, park, taxi driver or bus company that wouldn't accept U.S. currency. For the most part, however, we rely on traveler's checks converted to local currency. For Belize, the rate is a fixed $2BZ = $1US. Our hotel in Guatemala offers a rate of 7.7Q (quetzales) = $1US. We don't use the credit card once, but service fees are typical at places that do accept credit cards. Smaller amounts are better on traveler's checks - some places even have difficulty converting our $50US checks.Language: In Belize, English is commonly spoken. In Guatemala (at least where we travel), English is limited, so it is helpful to brush up on basic Spanish phrases before visiting.Airfares: We checked with travel agents, direct with the airlines, and all the major internet travel sites. We got the best fare on Hotwire.com (a good 20% below the next lowest fare). Do your homework and shop around until you find the fare and schedule that works for you. Day 1: North Carolina, USA to El Remate, Guatemala Our U.S. Airways flight to Belize City is on-time and uneventful. We arrive at noon local time. It takes about 20 minutes to get through customs. We have a 2-hour layover in the airport, so we have lunch at the restaurant upstairs from the arrival area. It's a nice welcome to the country - for $11US we share a nice plate of stewed chicken, rice and beans, potato salad, fried plantain, and 2 beverages. If you have not had plantain prepared properly, you're missing one of life's great desserts. It's a banana-like fruit that, when done right, has the taste and texture of a sweetbread. We've tried to duplicate this at home and have not succeeded. In May, 2004, Julie and I spent 10 days touring Belize, with a side trip to Tikal. Everything here is based on our one-time experience, but I have tried to be thorough.
Climbing Pyramid V at Tikal (Day 2)
Julie and our Maya Air plane (Day 1)
Horses and peccaries run wild in El Remate (Day 2)
We go to the Maya Air desk to check in for our flight to Flores, Guatemala. We had reserved our flight in advance, for $88US per person one-way. We now have to pay the $35US per person Belize departure tax. The gentleman at Maya Air tells us you have to pay the departure tax "even if you are in Belize for one second." We board a tiny, tiny aircraft. Seats for pilot and co-pilot, plus 5 passengers. For our flight, there is only the pilot, a friend of the pilot, Julie and myself, and one other passenger. We've never flown in this small an aircraft before! It's noisy, and we definitely feel the smallness of the aircraft as we take off. Our cruising altitude is 6,500 feet, and the landscape is remarkable from this altitude.
Walking through Santa Elena (Day 3)
The Great Plaza at Tikal (Day 2)
Julie and Don Douglas (Day 2)
Dining at Miss Lourdes’ (Day 3)
Page 2 During the flight we see a disturbing number of small forest fires. We're later told these are farmers clearing land. The flight to Flores is 45-minutes. We land at Flores and it takes a whole 5 minutes to clear Guatemalan customs. The small airport is practically deserted, and we can't find any place to exchange a traveler's check. Thankfully the taxi driver wandering the airport will accept U.S. currency. He charges us $10/per person for the 20-minute ride to El Remate. It seems steep, but we don't see any other options at this time. During the ride we see the poor living conditions of the area. It's sad at first, but we wonder if our spoiled gringo eyes allow us to see conditions accurately. El Remate has a population of about 500 people, basically just some buildings clustered around a couple of roads. It's roughly halfway between Flores and Tikal, so there appear to be several hotel and restaurant choices. We lack information on this area, so we choose La Casa de Don David, a hotel and restaurant we have read is overpriced for the area, but reliable. The rate is $40 US/night for a room with 2 double beds, a fan and private bath. The fan is wall-mounted, so at night we have to move our bed across the tile floor to feel the breeze. The hotel staff is consistently patient in answering our many questions about the area. Two doors down from the Don David we find Benigno (sp.?), a very friendly gentleman selling handcrafted wood carvings. He has a wide variety of sizes, styles, and prices, and speaks fluent English. He tells us about the carving process, and that he teaches woodcarving to young people. We buy a couple of small carvings for 40Q. We have dinner at the Don David. Our total is 91Q, for two plates (one of chicken, rice/beans, and vegetables, and the second of pork, rice/beans, and vegetables), plus 2 beverages and a bottled water. They tell us the ice in our drinks is made from purified water. We trust them and have no problems. The food is delicious, more so after the long day we've had. We retire to our room for a shower - the Don David offers hot water, but the water heater has exposed copper wires running directly into the shower head. I stick with cold water! Plus the cold water is a relief considering the heat and humidity. We’re in Guatemala! Day 2: Tikal Several El Remate hotels seem to have grouped together to offer minibus service to the Mayan ruins of Tikal.  Our round-trip fare is 30Q per person. We're in an unmarked van, which makes me feel safer than all the vans marked "Turismo" we see. We leave the Don David at 5:30AM. The sun is almost fully up by this time. We reach Tikal at 6AM, when the park opens. Our entry fee is 50Q per person. Our room rate at the Don David includes one complimentary meal. Today we chose a box lunch prepared by the hotel. Since we haven't had breakfast, we break into our "lunch" while sitting at Complex Q at Tikal. A semi-stale peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, bottled water, wafer cookies, and an apple. Not tremendously filling, but we dine surrounded by Mayan ruins, with the sounds of howler monkeys nearby - we're not disappointed! After our "breakfast" we go off to watch the howler monkeys, who give us a nice show climbing around the trees over our heads. I have read that Tikal must be seen to be believed. I have waited years to see this place, and it does not disappoint. Movie buffs already know this: the pyramids of Tikal are seen briefly near the end of the original (1977) Star Wars. We spend the better part of 7 hours hiking around the park. Due to cautions from Lonely Planet, we avoid remote areas of the park, such as Temple VI. Many of the taller pyramids are closed off for climbing, we're told because hikers have fallen and died. One of our highlights is climbing a nearly vertical ladder to the top of Pyramid V, 190 feet tall. This offers dramatic views of the other pyramids and the surrounding jungle. While I personally found Chichen Itza more moving, Tikal is a unique experience and almost overwhelming in its splendor. By early afternoon we are famished, so we head back to the park entrance. When we arrived this morning, the park was nearly empty. By 1PM there appear to be 200 or 300 people milling around the Great Plaza. We stop briefly to watch a coatimundi forage for food. We have lunch at Comedor de Imperio Mayo, one of several "comedores" at the park entrance. Despite some criticism from the guide books, we find the food delicious and the service friendly. For 30Q I have a plate of chicken, rice, salad, and potato wedges. I don't know how it's done, but chicken always seems perfectly prepared in this part of the world. Our minibus picks us up at 2PM for return to El Remate. We explore town some more, surprised at the animals simply running loose - dogs, horses, peccaries (they resemble smallish pot-bellied pigs). They all keep their distance and don't seem harmful. We meet Douglas Tracy, owner of La Casa de Don Douglas, right next to the Don David. Don Douglas has lived in El Remate 12 years, and he has many tales to tell! At 60-something, he says he is the oldest participant in an annual triathlon that concludes with a run through Tikal - and he has a copy of the Prensa Libre article to back it up. If you're in El Remate, I encourage you to stop in and share a cold beverage with Don Douglas. We take a long hike - at least it seems long in the repressive heat - down the road to a tienda selling a variety of hand-crafted goods - textiles, wood carvings, ceramics, etc. A decent place to pick up souvenirs. For our second night at the Don David, we choose dinner as our complimentary meal. This part seems a little chintzy - only in the restaurant do we find our meal vouchers only go to 35Q per person, and we can only choose from a limited area of the menu. This is my only real complaint about the Don David. Tonight two families of missionaries from the U.S. are staying at the Don David. Sadly, they appear to be the stereotypical "dumb American" - loud, arrogant, and completely disinterested in the people and culture around them. And what is this obsession U.S. citizens have with slamming doors loud enough to shake the walls? Regardless, we are tired but thrilled with our experience at Tikal. Day 3:  El Remate to San Ignacio, Belize I understand that in years past, the bus route between El Remate and San Ignacio has been a popular target of attacks against foreigners. We ask several people in El Remate if the route is safe these days. Everyone says yes. We chance it and board a 6:30AM bus. Our fare is $16US per person. The bus seems to be a joint operation between Linea Dorada and Mundo Maya. The bus is comfortable but the air conditioning isn't working. The entire trip takes about 3 hours - this includes the time we stand in line to exit Guatemala (where, for reasons I don't understand, we don't have to pay the expected departure tax; I know it was not included in our bus fare) and a second line to enter Belize. Our bus drivers ask where we are going in S.I. (I'm using San Ignacio to refer to the entire San Ignacio/Santa Elena area). We tell them, honestly, we don't know. They let us out on the Santa Elena side of the Hawksworth Bridge. We are immediately greeted by Elias Galvez. He helps us with our bags and asks where we are staying. We're suspicious at first, but we will learn over the next couple of days what a nice guy Elias is. We tell him we are staying at the Aguada Hotel in Santa Elena, even though we don't have reservations. We have good things about the place. Elias cheerfully drives us to the Aguada at no charge. The Aguada's rate is $35US/night. The room has 2 double beds, a window-unit air conditioner, private bath, and a pool on premises. They have a vacancy, so we check in and immediately sit down for breakfast at the hotel restaurant. After our long bus ride, the breakfast is tremendous! For $10BZ I get eggs, bacon, beans, and a tortilla. Tortillas in Latin America are so much better than we get in the U.S., heartier and with a slight smoky flavor. The staff at the Aguada seems a little stand-offish at first, but they warm up to us during the course of our stay. Our only disappointment is that the Aguada is a considerable distance from the action in S.I.. A taxi into town costs us $3BZ. We walk around, then head back to Elias' place to get some advice. Elias operates Amigos Belize, offering tours and transportation throughout the area. We talk with his lovely wife Gina, then Elias drives us (again at no charge!) up the Mayan ruins of Cahal Pech, on a hill overlooking S.I.. He leaves us his Motorola radio to call him when we're finished. Cahal Pech is a small site, tiny when compared to Tikal. The admission fee is $5US per person. It's very quiet, only a few other people here, and there are plenty of trees for shade while you explore the ruins. A nice place for a picnic lunch. There is a small gift stand where you can also buy sodas and bottled water. We call Elias and he brings us back into town. He recommends a place for dinner. He drives us down to the banks of the Macal River, where it seems over a hundred people are swimming and socializing. He drops us off at a truly local place - a "diner" made up of a circle of boards nailed to posts. The "seats" are 2x4 boards! Our hostess is Miss Lourdes, who serves us each a huge plate of barbecued chicken, rice and beans, potato salad, and plantain. Both plates plus a shared soda cost only $13BZ. Such a deeal, and the setting is truly festive. We misunderstand the price and accidentally overpay. Miss Lourdes or her waitress could easily have kept the money; instead they cheerfully point out our mistake and give us back the extra money. This was a great thing about Belize - we found everyone very honest about prices and exchange rates. Finally we retire back to the Aguada. It is late afternoon and a gentle rain has started. Over the course of a few hours, the rain turns into a torrential downpour. Our power goes out for a couple of hours. There is so much rain, the entire property is flooded, and there is about 3 inches of standing water on the street. We're told this is an unusual amount of rainfall. Fortunately the hotel has a gas stove so we can still eat! We join other guests in the hotel restaurant for dinner by candlelight. For $10BZ I enjoy a heaping plate of spaghetti and meat sauce with garlic bread. 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