Our first bus journey once it finally left Belize City proved to be mega easy. The driver did not believe in hanging about so we arrived in Flores in about 4.5 hours. Loved Belize but it was time to move on and by going by bus you get so see so much of the countryside along the way. It was also nice to see the war memorials just outside the city still with their poppies in place. The border was a piece of cake and as there was only four of us on the bus it meant we got through the [View Full Entry]

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For travel journal click here: To view a photo in a larger size please click on it. [View Full Entry]

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Alright peeps....sorry I´ve been none existant but internet access has been limited. So I left belize and went back into guatemala. Did my second border crossing..this one by foot. Took a bus to the Belizean Border...did the imigracion business, walked across a bridge and did the guatemalan imigracion business and then hoped on a shuttle to Las Flores. I ended up being the only person on the shuttle so I sat up front with the driver and practiced my spanish for a good 1.5 hours straight. He was a nice guy at first then he got a little creppy when he [View Full Entry]

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Tourist hassle From Lanquin I went to a small town Flores. This was the first time I took one of the tourist shuttles. So the busride was less interesting but surely much faster. After six or seven hours we reached the destination. But just before the busdriver stopped at an ATM nearby and said the ATM’s at Flores didn’t work. Kind of strange, especially when I saw later that the ATM’s did work. The guy that stepped in the bus said he was from the same company and wanted to drop us at a hostel and most people followed him. Of [View Full Entry]

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We must confess we hardly gave Guatemala city a chance. We arrived from San Pedro on Monday afternoon, September 21. About an hour later we were sheltering from the worst rain storm we had seen yet. The streets flooded in a matter of minutes. After an evening meal of decent pizza (again!) we left the dark and dangerous night and hid in our hotel until morning. We arose early, took a few pictures in the Parque Central, and then boarded a nice air-conditioned bus to Santa Elena. At the Santa Elena bus terminal, we were greeted warmly by a horde of [View Full Entry]

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Another interesting border crossing where you queue to pay and leave one country and then walk a few hundred metres to the next border, where you queue and pay to enter it. Guatemela is immediately different, with lots of ranches/farms, white cowboy-hatted farmers on horses and fields of maize on cleared jungle hills. After arriving on the small pretty island of Flores, we spent the afternoon cooling down in a hotel pool (our tour leader has connections!) drinking cocktails. I normally don't like margaritas but somehow they taste a lot lot better over here! The mayan riuns of Tikal deep in [View Full Entry]

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After a short mini bus ride back to Guatemala City, we jumped on to the bus to Flores, armed with jumpers in case it was cold. Unfortunately, jumpers weren´t enough and we found ourselves shivering in our seats and praying that the journey would go quickly. It wasn´t to be, and we arrived virtually sleepless in Flores early the next morning. As soon as we got off the bus, we were surrounded by taxi drivers offering to take us straight to the Tikal ruins. As we wanted to dump our stuff at a hostel and get a couple of hours rest [View Full Entry]

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Waking up before sunrise to animal noises, working all day cleaning up poop and dodging the monkeys peeing on you from above, eating tasteless horrible food, covered in bug bites, mopping up toilet and rain water from the bedroom floor daily, and at night checking each other´s hair for lice while the girls seperated by paper thin walls in the room nextdoor have dance parties listening to horrible music... Ah, the life of being an ARCAS volunteer. At 5:30 am every morning we get to awaken to the noisy squawks of rescued scarlet red macaws. Occasionally we hear the loud hooting, [View Full Entry]

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Situated in the northern part of Guatemala, the ruins of Tikal are considered by many to be the best remaining examples of Mayan architecture around. They are certainly the hottest. As we climbed onboard the battered minibus in Flores at 5am the air was thick with anticipation. Even the driver, slumped half-asleep over the wheel with headphones hanging from his ears, failed to quell the feeling of adventure. Each traveller was lost in their own thoughts and the conversation was minimal as we left the small town and headed out into morning mist. As the bus, laden with well-fed westerners [View Full Entry]

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Health Alert... From the looks of it my frequent, painful battles with gastrointestinal complications are a thing of the past, if you don´t count my erosive esopheghitis. My system is as strong as a donkey. I´m back to the good ol´days of devouring any type of street food Hondu and Guate can throw at me. Once again I´m living an intrepid, gastronomic free for all. Over all, movements are solid, frequent and of a mocca color. However, for the second year in a row I´m battling some odd skin condition. In the Middle East last summer 3 mysterious concentric circles appeared [View Full Entry]

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