A bit of history...

After my first visit to El Mirador in 1997, I have returned at least a dozen times. Inspiration was plenty: guiding some friends, looking at recent excavations or just enjoying the lush rainforests of Peten. In the past few years I guided some hardy backpackers to the ruins, in exchange for reimbursing my costs. During all these trips I met scores of hikers who complained about the lack of info, inflated prices and difficulties with locals or such. This year, after witnessing a Carmelita guide charging Q1800 (250 US$) for an emergency trip to Flores for an injured tourist, me and a few friends decided to donate some time and inform the 3-4000 annual visitors to El Mirador about facts that are not readily available, not even on the Internet.