Tikal

---

So the evening of my last entry I had booked a bus ticket to Flores, about 500km north of Antigua. It is a small island town joined to the mainland by a bridge, and it is in close proximity to the Tikal Mayan ruins. At 6:30 I took a shuttle to Guatemala City, then got on the actual bus heading for Flores. It was a pretty uneventful ride, except for when another tourist accidentally pulled the emergency window release when he tried to open the window. The window almost fell out and it took an hour to rig it back into place, with a makeshift system of ropes and knots.

I arrived in Flores at around 6:30 am. It's quite cold in northern Guatemala, and the sky was covered in clouds. I walked around the small town until I found a hostel, then booked in and passed out. I didn't get much sleep, and was exhausted at this point. When I finally woke up at 9:30 I decided to head out and see what was happening on the town. But when I got to the reception area the guy running the place asked me if I wanted to go to Tikal. I originally thought it was a bit late to be going there, but it turned out I could catch the 10:00 AM shuttle. So that's what I did. A shuttle picked me up at my hostel, then dropped me off at one of it's tourism branches where I switched on to another shuttle. Low and behold, there was Tamara, and a few other people who I would be spending the rest of the day with. There was Ian and Corrina, a brit and german couple, and Serena, another Canadian. The ride to Tikal was filled with some pretty funny, yet disturbing conversations which I won't recount here.

We arrived at Tikal an hour or so later, and instead of heading off to see the ruins, we decided to eat. Then, we went and looked at the gift shop/market. Then we headed to the ruins. The ruins were pretty amazing, the highlight being Temple V. We climbed up a huge steep wooden staircase to reach the top, where we then sat for the next hour. Serena, who has been trained in opera, sang us a song from the top of the temple, and people at the bottom gathered around and clapped when she finished. I really can't write too much about Tikal, it would be better to show in pictures, but my camera ran out of batteries after half an hour of being there. Anyways, after Tikal, we ate dinner at their hostel, Los Amigos, and they introduced me to another friend of theirs, Scott. Scott was heading to Belize the next day to go scuba diving, which was what I was thinking of doing. So I booked my ticket that night for the next morning.

The ride to Belize City was slow and boring, and the road quality wasn't the best. On the ride I met Mike, an ecologist who was going to Belize to study bats, and Dave, an Irish bloke. We were all planning on heading to Caye Caulker. A small island off the coast of Belize. Mike and Dave got on the taxi boat as soon as we got in, but Scott and I went to a supermarket to stock up on food, and ate a weird type of meat at a roadside stand. The water taxi was a bumpy, windy, somewhat exhilarating hour long ride to the Caye. Caye Caulker is a beautiful island. Sand road, golf carts instead of cars, and a large variety of restaurants, supermarkets, and hotels situated in the clear, turquoise water. The only downside is that for the next 3 days it alternated between cloudy and windy, and cloudy and windy and raining. All the dive shops were closed and there wasn't much to do. We were all staying at a cute little place called Tina's. It's a 3 story house, painted in a rainbow of colors. With kitchens downstairs and upstairs, and our dorms in the attic. It has a nice charm to it, and there are tonnes of people staying here. So mostly all I've been doing for the past couple of days is cooking food, reading, talking, sleeping, and watching tv. It's been good. But today the sun is out, and I plan on booking a dive for "The Blue Hole" tomorrow.

Alright, no pictures right now because the computer won't let me upload them. And sorry for the crappiness of this entry. I'm sick of writing.

Adios.

---