I spent almost a month in Guatemala last year but was in only in the highland region in the southern part of the country. The Highlands have the fertile soil, pleasant climate, and most of the nation's population. One of Guatemala’s top tourist sights, Tikal, is in the far northern part of the country and quite a long distance from where I was last year. I figured then that instead of traveling a great distance over land or joining an expensive flight tour to Tikal, I’d just hit it whenever I eventually made it to Belize and the Yucatan. I didn’t expect that would be in only one year.

Tikal is considered to have been one of the most important Mayan city states and its ruins are a top destination . Being quite close to Belize, it’s often featured on travel itineraries to that country. On my trip we had about 26 hours in Guatemala to visit Tikal and then return to Belize. Northern Guatemala is lowland country that used to consist of sparsely-populated rainforest. Like most places in the developing world, though, once you build a road it doesn’t take very long for people to follow, squat on the land, and clear it for agriculture and pasture land. That’s the case in northern Guatemala. Except for the land protected in Tikal National Park, most of what I saw through northern Guatemala was deforested and denuded land – very sad.

We had a short stop at Flores, the main urban center in northern Guatemala. Although most of the modern city is on the mainland, the old city of Flores is picturesquely located on a hilly island in Lake Peten, the third largest lake in the country. The island is now connected to the mainland by a causeway, so it’s more of a peninsula, and it’s mostly given over to tourism-related businesses. It’s still quite scenic and colorful, though. Flores is sort of a backpacker hub to Tikal and the other recreational and archaeological sites around northern Guatemala, of which there are many. While Tikal is accessible enough, other Mayan ruined sites in the jungle are more remote and require backpacking or horseback riding trips of several days to get to. That’s a little more adventure than I’ve planned for this trip, though.