Tikal and Flores Island

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Beauty ' your name is Guatemala. Today we went over and saw the MAyan ruins of Tikal. A totally profound and sweaty experience. Entering the park is fairly easy as tours are arranged through various travel agencies. The ride takes about an hour from Flores Island and provides a nice introduction to the jungle and the community villages along the way. The ruins were fantastic and the walk through was lovely, even in 80 degree heat. Yeah ' you heard me ' the whitest girl on the planet ' say that 80 degrees in the jungle isn´t too bad. Be still your heart! At a leisurely stroll you can see all that the ruins currently have to offer including the El Grande Jaguar, the Lost City and Temple 4 of Star Wars fame. The ruins are remarkably resilient, especially when you notice how the jungle is actively dragging and holding on to everything it can. Trees are locked in a lovers embrace as the vines and limbs hold tight 30 feet high. Spider monkeys lounge in the canopy and you can often hear those howler monkeys in the distance ' mocking you with how close and just how far out of reach they are. The coatie is a sort of cross between a raccoon and monkey ' bizarre and awesome to say the least. We also saw these weird birds, dubbed ¨turcocks¨by us as they are some weird combination of turkey and peacock, pics to come later when in the city.

Then a ride back to our temporary home, Flores ISland. We are staying in a vacant room above a friend of my friend´s business. The island is tiny and space is limited, so in the pictures I put up in the future you will notice a cute little garden area, complete with a bunny, on the second floor of the apartment building! Very cool. Showers are freezing, but good for building character as I love to say. Margaritas and capaduioaufdia ' or something like that, I don´t really know , it had rum and lime and something else that was freaking awesome in it, were the final lovely stop of our evening before we head home for some relaxtion.

A

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Photos

Photo 3
I could not figure out what was hanging off of this tree.Pears, avocados? Or what could it be.

Tuk Tuks
These are a very common form of transportation throughout Guate. They are cheap and everywhere!