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Blogs from Flores, Petén Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 23
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Mo{s Tikal Experience
Published: July 10th 2007Central America Caribbean » Guatemala » Petén Region » Flores
July 10th 2007
Hello Friends, Sorry for the long absence. Russ, Nicole, David (Nicole´s boyfriend), and I had a GREAT time together on Ambergris Caye. We rented a beautiful condo with A/C and basically never left the place. We cooked, made jugo de sandia and pina, and played cribbage for hours. Russ leaving was about one of the saddest things I´ve ever seen. You all know how much I used to enjoy traveling alone, but things are completely different now that I¨m carrying around a little piece of Russ with my everywhere I go. The biggest sadness of this trip was my loss of Russ´ camera, including all of his memories of Tikal and Flores. We sent e-mails, filed a police report, and put an add in the San Pedro paper, but to no avail. We even offered a ... read more
A long day gets longer
Published: July 10th 2007Central America Caribbean » Guatemala » Petén Region » FloresJuly 10th 2007
We headed out for Tikal on the 9th. After a long bus ride, the first hour of which Dave was standing up with his head pressed against the ceiling, and a transfer to a camieneta (shuttle), we found ourselves at a hotel near the entrance to the park (Tikal Inn) where the swimming pool beckoned. Mo retired to the room, while Dave and I took a walk to a nearby restaurant. On the way there I stopped, dumbfounded by the brilliance of the night sky. In all my years camping and hanging out in mountains, I don´t believe I have ever seen as many stars filling the night sky. It was truly a sight to behold (although neither of us were able to identify more than one or two constellations). We went straight to bed, because ... read more
21st - 26th June - Flores & Tikal
Published: August 8th 2007Central America Caribbean » Guatemala » Petén Region » Flores
July 1st 2007
Hey up everyone, hows good old blighty this fine summer? Is it all good? Just to make you feel better I can report that it's not always fair and rosy here either. We are currently in the mountains again and I'm writing this in retrospect, but we have experienced some very cold nights, epic tropical storms, an attack of killer hail stones (the size of chick peas) and I'm happy to say that I've survived my first earthquake (it was only a tiny tremor - but still made you think... OMG!) anyway back to the plot.... We left Belize and the lovely Cahal Pech Village Resort in San Ignacio, and made our way over the border into Guatemala - goodbye English speakers, hola Español! We headed west to Flores which is a picturesque little island in ... read more
non-stop movement
Published: June 27th 2007Central America Caribbean » Guatemala » Petén Region » Flores
June 27th 2007
Hello all!! Sorry we have been so bad at updating this blog. Its actually really difficult to find time to write what we have been doing everyday but this afternoon is a chill one so I will make the update. What were we doing when I last wrote...oh yeah, we had hiked Pacaya and finished our second day of language classes, man that seems like forever ago, haha! The third day in Antigua we slept in (finally) and walked around the town exploring the shops and finding out what else was around each little corner. We ended up finding this really cool church that was undergoing a facelift that was about 75-100 years past due. For about .40 cents we got to walk through the ruins and down in to the catacombs and see the ... read more
arriba arriba!
Published: June 27th 2007Central America Caribbean » Guatemala » Petén Region » FloresJune 27th 2007
well. this is my first entry. so i guess em caught all y'all up on most of our travels. its been really awesome. maximon has been one of the most amazing experiences thus far. that blind faith, gets me every time. SOOOO.... we did tikal this morning. we got picked up at our hotel from this dynamic guy Cesar that we met at the train station in guate city. he immidiately knew we wanted to go to tikal and so when we got to flores (where we are staying) he actually took us around to different hotels to see which one we wanted to stay in. we were with two other american girls and a couple from france. we were all a bit tired from the traveling for 12 hours on a bus. we booked out ... read more
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Flores-Tikal-San Ignacio
Published: June 22nd 2007Central America Caribbean » Guatemala » Petén Region » Flores
June 22nd 2007
Got up bright and early leaving for Tikal with our guide at 6am. The ride was quite long, but the last part was within the jungle/rain forest. Our guide was great, although his english wasn't quite as good as the one at Copan. I found it hard to believe they have only excavated 20% of the buildings! There were so many buildings and temples! One temple was the one they used in Star Wars for the rebel base. We both climbed that one. Although many of the buildings weren't fully excavated and lacked for the most part the decorations and statues of Copan, the size was impressive. Soon after we entered the ticket gate, we spotted two foxes, and saw several spider monkeys along the way. While exploring the central acropolis, a cottamundi (sp) ran ... read more
June 21st 2007
This morning we left paradise, aka Hotel Catamaran, for Flores. After one stretch break and the fruit fly search upon entering Peten department, we reached the little island of Flores. Flores is connected to the mainland by a causeway and has about 2,000 people, most of which probably work for one of the hotels, restaurants, or souvenir shops. A very quaint, laid-back town. After settling in to Hotel Sabana, Lisa gave us a short guided walk around the town, showing us the best restaurants and where we'd find an ATM. After calling home, we checked out some of the souvenir shops and then had lunch at Capitan Tortuga. Manoli had a fruit salad that was awesome. Several types of fresh fruit artisitically cut and arranged to look like 2 fish! I had a plate of ... read more
Visa Squeezer
Published: August 7th 2007Central America Caribbean » Guatemala » Petén Region » Flores
June 21st 2007
The border crossing cost $37 Belize dollars to leave the country. This was the cheapest thing I bought there. I was barely one toe into Guatemala when crafty money exchangers that had official looking homemade Blue Peter type badges ambushed me. The border guards assured me with a confirming wink followed by a nod that they were kosher. Let me tell you they were as kosher as a full fat cheese and bloody roast beef sandwich. I wished to change a £50, as we had no cash on us to go through to Flores and we didn’t know that there was a cash point machine just the other side of no man’s land, they told me the rate was 8.5 Quetzals to the pound. How they fibbed. What they meant was 8.5Q was for the Euro ... read more
Belize to Tikal
Published: June 20th 2007Central America Caribbean » Guatemala » Petén Region » Flores
June 20th 2007
We reluctantly left Caye Caulker, Belize. It isn´t easy leaving paradise, but there were different Gods dragging us to Guatamala. We arrive in Flores, Guatamala with little trouble, although I was very scared at some points. Guatamala is beautiful, but more importantly VERY CHEAP! We got 2 beds 2 huge meals and 2 drinks for less than 20 us dollars. We met a very nice man from France and will party with him in Antigua in a few days. Tomorrow we will be headed to Rio Dulce and maybe livingston, Guatamala. This morning we went to Tikal to see ginormious Mayan ruins. We had a wonderful time. It was in a very remote location so we had to walk through the jungle to get to the ruins. We were able to see some monkeys in ... read more
Tikal and Flores
Published: May 24th 2007Central America Caribbean » Guatemala » Petén Region » Flores
May 24th 2007
Flores, Guatemala. We left Palenque (Mexico) to begin on a trip I would possibly not considered unless it had been for my two energetic travelling companions - a trip to Guatemala to see the Mayan ruins at Tikal. It was a very obscure an loooooong journey to get to our destination Flores, from Palenque we were up at sunrise to catch a small minibus which would take us to the "lancha" (small, long, thin boat) at the border which skimmed across the mostly deserted river that runs between Mexico and Guatemala, a novel mode of transport and a great way to pass a Saturday morning! A long tedious wait at the other bank ensued whilst we waited for this totally ghetto minibus to get going and take us from the Guat border to Flores, this ... read more
