Updated     30 January 2010

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How to get to and from Carmelita by bus.

Carmelita, Guatemala, is where you will start out on foot or on mule if you want to see the Maya ruins of El Mirador and Nakbé without paying for a helicopter ride. I lists itself as being 70 kilometers from El Mirador and 65 from Nakbé, and it is the closest community to these and many other ruins along the way to, between and from these sites.  Since there are only around 16 or so kilometers distance between El Mirador and Nakbé, it is advisable to see both if you can spare one extra day.  Also, it is not very far out of the way back from Nakbé to see the ruins at Wakná, but you had better arrange with the guide to see that ahead of time.

The village has two comedors, (one with very basic rooms to rent), and cold drinks and solar electricity. According to Rough Guide,  one and a half kilometers before the village is Campamento Nakbé with basic but clean shelters with hammock and netting and campsites as well.  If you just show up on the bus after leaving Santa Elena, most of the food you would want along on the trip will be back in Flores, yet to be ordered. I showed up in Carmelita in January 2010 to find that both comedors in town on a Friday night only had eggs, frijoles and tortillas on the menu.  Guess what was for breakfast. If you can stand that regimen, by all means come in out of the blue.  

 This could be a very good way to go if there are only one or two going and at least one person can communicate in Spanish. By calling ahead and arranging to go on a particular day and arranging a room with them, then a person would just hop one of the buses from Santa Elena to Carmelita. Then there would be an early start  for El Tintal and Mirador the next day. Had either of my groups done it this way, we could have avoided what we called the "Death March" the first time and the "Night Ride" this past one. There would have been no rush back on the last day, because the bus does not leave Carmelita until the next morning at 5 am.

Guide Possibilities

The Cooperativa

I was not terribly impressed with the Cooperative after I showed up at its office and asked for a price list and was given an e-mail address to send my query to. Despite its statement to me that it has 16 guides, the two versions of two info submissions both show the same individual to benefit. Given the animosity in Carmelita, one can only guess, but the phone numbers given were 7861 2640 and 41.  

Beto Machuca is a known guide, who has been mentioned well on the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree. As of contact with him in January 2010, he charges $225 for two people with riding mules $200 without for six days.  If traveling alone, he will take you without a riding mule for $240.

Leave a message at 4948  0596 and call  back.

If you personally had a good experience with a Carmelita guide and would like to see his or her name here, feel free to nominate.

Send info to:

web_ahau at mostlymaya.com.

 with the name Carmelita in the heading.

The Story of Carmelita and El Mirador.

See general thoughts on getting to El Mirador

Happy travelers in

 Carmelita after the trip in July 2002.

Getting to Carmelita by bus

Forget about the bus station.  I rode the 1pm bus to Carmelita, but only by chance. I happened to be in the Santa Elena bus station looking out into the back lot at 11:30, when a bus with Pinita on the side pulled in and parked at the back edge. It said Carmela in front, so I asked the driver if it was for Carmelita. and it was. He had to drop off paperwork and run some errands and he invited me along. When he was ready to pick up passengers, he never returned to the station, but drove into the market, where he did an incredible job pulling into a small space right before 1 pm. Then people started piling into it. Note that as far as I know, the other buses do not say Pinita on the side.

I had the dickens of a time finding the bus stop again.  When I did finally find it, I realized that I should not have just asked about the bus stop for Carmelita, for which no one had a clue. Because there were also colectivos there for Poptun and Sayaxche. I should have asked where the colectivos left from the market. There is a small "Rapi-Pollo" right across from the stop that no one could tell me where it was, but the fried chicken there looked worthy for getting a bite to eat before a long bus ride.

There are two buses to and from Carmelita, each leaving both places at both 5 am and 1 pm and they take about 4.5 hours. . There are apparently two other buses. operated for the villages enroute, which apparently leave Santa Elena and do go to Carmelita, but start the return from one of the cruces along the way.  The other bus leaving Santa Elena is said to leave at 10:30 AM., presumably from the same spot

 

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