Introduction 

The region around Sayaxche is often overlooked by people rushing to Tikal and bach to Guate. However, I dare say it was one of the highlights of our trip. Not to be compared with Tikal of course, but getting to the Maya sites deep in the jungle was great and gives you a kind of "Indiana Jones feeling". 

Getting to Sayaxche and around 

The cheapest way by far is of course public bus to Sayaxche. It leaves at the market of Santa Elena at 6 am and arrives in Sayaxche at 8 am.   If you're lucky, there will be other tourists on the bus, so you can share the costs of the boat. 

Hotel 

Across the river arriving in Sayaxche, there's 1 hotel which has rooms of different quality. They will probably lure you into one of their more expensive rooms. From the restaurant balcony, you have a great view on the activity on the river. 

Vis

iting Mayan ruins 

First day we visited Ceibal. We hired a boat for 30 US$ which is of course expensive. Bargaining was not possible since the guy at the hotel had the monopoly on these boats. However, if you book a tour in Flores, you will pay 30 US$ pp !! The trip to Ceibal goes over a large river with jungle at the borders. It's a 30 minutes walk to the ruins. The ruins are OK, but nothing spectacular.  

Second day we rented a very small boat to go to Aguateca. This trip takes a smaller sideriver before coming on a large lake. At the end, the river becomes very small and shallow. The ruins itself were not really excavated yet at the time (3/94), but the guard gave us a great jungle trip which was worth going there. 

Going to Mexico 

It is possible now to take a boat to the Mexican border, and take the bus to palenque form there, visiting some other ruins on the way.   If someone has info on this, I'll be glad to put it on this page.