Tikal and Semuc Champey

Tikal and Semuc Champey

Tikal was an important Mayan city in the north of Guatemala, near the Belize border. We passed without visiting in our hurry to get to Belize, but on our way back we could not miss this world renowned monument. What’s more, there is a lovely campsite there with plenty of wildlife. After the rain, the Coatis appeared en masse to dig in the softer ground.

The site opened at 6am, and, having camped there, we were first in and had the place to ourselves for a good couple of hours before the tourist buses arrived from the distant towns. It is estimated that only 15% of Tikal has been excavated and it is known for it’s high pyramids – towering temples built as shrines to honour the dead leaders. The city is extensive and we finally returned to Big Bertha in the afternoon, thoroughly exhausted. A fellow overlander, Ursula from South Africa, turned up and we had a good chat. We were travelling in the same direction and we met up again in Antigua and Lake Atitlán.

After two days at Tikal, we drove south intending to visit Semuc Champey, but Francine read about a festival in the small village of Cubulco and we made a long deviation to it, returning to Semuc Champey afterwards On our way south way had to take a barge ferry across the Rio de la Pasion – always a good adventure!

Semuc Champey lies in a gorge with a very long and steep approach road. The temperature and humidity rose as we descended hundreds of meters to the valley floor. We arrived mid afternoon and set off on a hike to ‘the’ mirador that overlooks the natural pools formed by the river below. It was a hard climb and we unfortunately arrived at the mirador after the sun had passed over the pools. It was still a very pretty view. After descending back down to the river, Dave took a refreshing dip in the pools (Francine didn’t like the small nibbly fish and got our pretty quickly!).

We did not stay long, wanting to get upto a higher altitude again and we set off the next day for Antigua.