To Tikal and Back

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Well I did just have a huge blog post done which the computer decided to delete! So take 2 is going to be considerably smaller than I intended. I'll make up for the short blog with pictures.

So yeah Tikal was incredible (despite the 8 hour drive taking 14). The ruins are absolutely amazing and the Mayan guide we had gave lots of very insightful information on the site. Ps he says the world isn't going to end in 2012, the calender just goes back to zero and we enter a more enlightened phase economically and environmentally. He wants everyone to visit Tikal on 21/12/2011 so he makes a bit of extra coin and everyone can have a beer when the world doesn't end. Saw many animals such as spider-monkey and a range of birds amongst the ruins and the view of the Peten jungle from atop of Temple 4 was stunning.

From Tikal it was to Rio Dulce for the night and dinner on a river island restuarant of Mexican/Australian cuisine, yeah strange mix I know. Next day was caving (which I learned isn't my thing, but I tried it 😊), lots of swimming in hot springs, rivers and jumping off things over 5m into rockpools. Had lunch at Livingston on the Carribean which definitely felt more Carribean than Latino. Drive home thankfully was nowhere near as bad as the drive there!

Monday as you know was shit as I realised 7000 Quetzales (close to $1000) had been taken from my locked room where it had been hidden. A new host family and after dealing with the police later I have learned that leaving any amount of money anywhere is just stupid.

Now more positive things...started teaching the kids this week after mostly observing last week. Thankfully I'm not teaching alone either like originally planned as an 18 year old called Thea from Sydney has been put on the project with me. The young kids are quite hard to teach as they struggle to read but I think after a few months we'll make progress with them. The older kids on the other hand understand a lot and its so rewarding to work with them and see that they're making sense of it all. Theres a 14 year old called Daniel who reminds me of me when I was his age i.e. a little shit trying to be the class clown. I pick on him a lot (in a good way) and it seems to be engaging him which is good. But yeah I definitely see these older kids making a shit load of progress by the time the project finishes which is great 😊.

Anyways like I said much shorter than I intended but I need to get to a bar to watch the Real Madrid v Barcelona game as I have 2 litres of Gallo (Guatemala's main cerveza) riding on a Barca victory. Oh did I mention a litre of beer here costs 25Q which is under $3. Do I seriously have to come home eventually?

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Photos

Temple
Yeah it's pretty awesome.

More ruins
Me in front of some ruins.

Tikal Crew plus some Guatemalans
Carlos (on the left the tour operator), a few of his mates and the people I went to Tikal with.

Some of the Tikal Crew
Minus the curly girl Thea who I'm teaching and learning Spanish with.

Spider Monkey
Look hard and you can see it!

Volcan de Agua under cloud
Just thought the Volcano looked pretty this morning.