maps of Peten - roads to ruins

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/guatemala/

Those official topo maps might be useful in some cases but are likely to get you lost in others--they're not based on much, despite the precise contour lines.

I think your best bet is Open Cycle Map. The topo content is based on SRTM data so at least it'll have all the hills in the right place, and I've found the marked roads and paths to be reasonably accurate, although they do show a number of "airports" throughout northern Peten that as far as I know have never existed.

Tell me oh enlightened ones what am I missing. The topo maps are from pictures taken from aeroplanes at low altitude by actual people. They could "see" an actual airstrip on the ground and make note of it. Drugstore travel and drugstore technology.

Paulschmidtart, I'll answer your question with another question:

If the maps derived from airplane flyovers are so reliable, then how is it we're still finding large sites with 45-meter pyramids in areas where those maps show nothing?

The DMA maps for Peten are notoriously innacurate, although of course they're better than nothing because the towns are mostly in the right place. But given the choice between a topo map derived from a highly sensitive NASA instrument and one stitched together based on airplane flyovers in the early 90s with best-guess contour lines, I think it wise to go with the former. Especially when it's free.

I don't know if the OP has a smartphone, but I highly recommend getting the GaiaGPS app or its pared-down cousin, Offline Topo Maps. Both have great topo data (SRTM) as well as user-contributed trails and landmarks, and you can download a variety of maps for use offline. Most phones these days have GPS and GLONASS, so you can track your location with impressive precision, even under forest cover.

You could also, of course, just pull up the portion of NW Peten you need on Open Cycle Map, print it out in chunks, and tape the sheets together. I've done this before and it works out pretty well.

the open cycle map does not show the roads or trails NE of Uaxactun. Which map does show the roads and trails from Uaxactun to Rio Azul?

¨map derived from a highly sensitive NASA instrument ¨
which maps are these?

What I need is a paper map that shows the roads and trails. I like the utm grid better, but can get buy with gps grid.
Can get by without lines showing elevation between 100 and 150 meters.

My goal is to visit and photograph ruins. So, what is the best source of info for finding ruins in the NE corner of Peten? I typed NW eariler, sorry. As far as phones, etc. I try to avoid bringing fancy things along. The best way to avoid problems, don´t have something that attracts attention, a thief would want badly.

aslukas, which ruins would you recommend visiting?

In NE Peten, the major sites that are at least reasonably accessible are (in no particular order):

Holmul/Cival
Naranjo
Rio Azul (you're obviously planning on this already)
Xultun
Naachtun

I've heard Kinal, near Rio Azul, has a really impressive acropolis (like the one at Nakum) but I don't really know anything more about it.

I'll have to think about reliable road maps for that area. My instinct is to say that there simply aren't any, since most of the roads are semi-official at best and used only by locals who don't have much interest in letting the government tally up all the road miles.

The NASA instrument maps I referred to are the ones created with data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). The elevation data from this mission is what Google, OSM, etc. use in all their mapping applications, and believe me, they're the best thing going for this part of the world.

If what you want is something giving you the general track of the road from Uaxactun to Rio Azul specifically, then a set of the maps Paulschmidtart linked to is probably your best option (although you'll notice that even these have "alineamiento aproximado" marked along the road every couple kilometers). If you get to Uaxactun and ask for directions to Rio Azul, you'll probably get as good a sense of what to do as you would've gotten from a map.

As always, locals are a far more reliable guide to the Peten than are government or academic maps.

This is a much better answer than an internet user could expect! It will take some time to look into these ideas.
Always ask the locals. If they tell you not to go a certain way, don´t.

Has anyone looked at a
http://www.amazon.com/Guatemala-National-Geographic-Adventure-Map/dp/1566956544/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HRWS938ASBMX3R86G5P
If youo click the image, youo can see the Peten part of the map. Is that good enough?

What about river crossings? What about crocodiles? yikes

That map will probably due, yes. Though again, take it with a grain of salt as it's hard to know what all a map like that is based on.