Is it is possible to cross into Guatamala near Palenque and continue by road to Tikal? My guidebook isnt forthcoming.

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Simon Kennedy
Around the world 2000-2004, on a 1993 Honda Transalp

Simon, you can cross at La Mesilla. You can't really get to Tikal directly. Okay, I dug out the map. It shows some small dotted lines from the north border with Mexico, but the only "real" road is the main highway down to Guatemala City and then north to El Ruidosa and on to Tikal. Remember, there is no maps for GPS download, so it's paper or nothing.I wouldn't try the dirt routes, especially now that the elections are near with Montt running again. He is the one responsible for as many as 25,000 deaths the last time he was President.
John Kennedy

Yes, there is a way, I did it in '93 on my KLR 650. Here's the story:

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One of my goals for this trip was to see the famous Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala. Unfortunately, a Guatemalan border guard would not let me enter Guatemala from Belize. I spent several days trying to resolve this, including trips to the Guatemalan consul in Belize, to no avail.

As a result, I had to ride 350 miles back through Belize the way I came and west through Mexico to Tenosique/La Palma (40 miles east of Palenque). Here I put the KLR 650 on a boat the size of two canoes and floated down the deserted jungle river of the San Pedro for four hours to the rarely used Guatemalan border crossing of El Naranjo.

Arriving there in the evening, with the nearest town 100 dirt road miles away, I had little choice but to spend the night at El Naranjo's only accomodations - a brothel for the nearby military base with sheets that had not been changed in six months. Luckily, I had my sleeping bag. Unfortunately, the room dividers of this barracks only went part way up to the ceiling, so I heard everything going on in all the rooms all night - yeah, everything. The prostitutes come from the town of Flores, so when the bus for them arrived at 4 am, all the room doors flew open as the women chattered and ran out to the bus.

More fun in the morning. With no working bathrooms or running water, I used the river for a quick bath and swim. Unfortunately, the manager, who was apparently selected for brothel managing due to his non-heterosexual tendencies, watched me bath and got excited. While he made some extremely well animated passes, I hurriedly dressed, packed, and got the hell outa there.

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Keep in mind this was in '93, things may or may not have changed a lot. From El Naranjo, you can ride dirt roads to Flores, but be prepared for sections of slash & burn smoke.
I wouldn't worry about Rios Montt at this point, he has been president of the legislature for many years, and he is way behind in the polls for the executive branch presidency.

Now that, Mike is an adventure. After reading your account, I stand by my statement, you can't get there from here!
John

Hi,
My travel partner and I were about to do the same thing, cross into Guatemala from the Palenque area for a straight shot at Tikal, (not the brothel bit). It was physically possible to cross the border, by boat as Mike describes, but on the Mexican side there's no customs office, so we couldn't officially check out our vehicle permits. Although this doesn't mean you can't cross the border there, it MIGHT mean hassles when re-entering Mexico. They had our credit card numbers. We decided not to risk it and carried on to La Mesilla for a smooth crossing.
Arne

Hallo Simon!

I dit it last year from Guatemala into mexiko! It was no Problem at all, i went through the riverroute whats most popular beetween Tikal and Palenque and the only little problem you will may be have by getting of the bike on the Guatemalan side, but don't worry the lokals will help you!
You have to but the bike on one of those boats but don't worry they are more than a meter wide so its no problem at all, you can but it also on the sidestand and walk around on the small boat! I crossed also once the Senegal Rivr on a Canu, but that was just 50cm wide and it worked as well!
Don't worry i payed last year 35 Pesos to cross the river for the short distance (only five minits, but you will have a hard time to get off or you a really good driver, without your boxes and lot of praxis on Off Road not a big Problem, but very steep and it haves to be dry), into Guatemala i would take the longer boattrip down the river, its easy to get of the boat!
If you take the short botride don't forget to get your passport stamped after about 10 km you have to turn left and go back to the river, there you will find it!

It's a great way and not many people do it!
Enjoy it!
Appie