Blogs from Flores, Petén Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 6

And for our next adventure, we are taking a 5 day trek into the jungle to see the Mayan ruins of El Mirador! I hadn´t heard of this trip until we actually arrived here in Flores. A sign at our hostel announced a 5 day jungle trek to visited a recently discovered Mayan city. Of course, my curiosity was aroused! Turns out to be a place under excavation and hard to get because there is no drivable road, only a mule trail. Or you could be like that loser Mel Gibson and helicopter there. But where´s the fun in that? As we starting talking about it around the hostel we realized that quite a few people wanted to do this trip. It´s going to quite the international crew: 3 Americans, 2 Irish, 2 Dutch, 1 Brit ... read more

Flores and Tikal Monday 9th August This morning I feel like I’m back on holiday again. I have to be packed, checked out of the hotel and on the bus by 5a.m. Today is a very long day’s travelling, crossing much of Guatemala from Antigua to Flores which is going to be our base for visiting the Mayan ruins at Tikal. The theory behind the really early start is that we have to drive through Guatemala City and we hope to get through before the city becomes gridlocked with the rush hour traffic. The group are all wide awake and on the bus on time and we are introduced to our driver, Pedro. Pedro is an optimist. He doesn’t have a sense of direction, he doesn’t have a GPS device and he doesn’t have a map. ... read more

We woke up this morning at 6.30am. It is now 10.18pm. All we have done today is been on a fucking bus!!! The 9 hour trip from Antigua to Flores began at half 8..only it didnt because the first shuttle bus was half an hour late and the mentalist driver had to do a few more pick ups around Antigua. Got to the bus stop in Guatemala City and then had to wait an hour and a half before the driver had decided he had filled his belly enough/shined his shoes enough! So we left Guats at about half 12, on a smelly, hot, busy bus.. without the promised Air conditioning, and presumably pissing out of the window isnt acceptable, so no toilet facility either! So, it took a lot longer than we thought, but the ... read more

HEYYY!!! So I made it in yesterday BUT it's hard to find a place in the middle of the jungle that has wi-fi! I'm running on Guatemalan coffee(and man is it amazing here) and my uncle's high spirits :) Yesterday we didnt do much, I flew from Myrtle Beach to Fort Lauderdale...FL to Guatemala and then took a little plane into Flores, Guatemala...and then from there took about an hour ride in a taxi bus to Tikal and that ride made me feel more appreciative than ever that I live in the U.S., there were people living in houses with 7 or more people and the house was approxiamately the size of your living room, there were anorexic horses walking free along the rode, a gutter like thing along the side of the rodes that are ... read more

Ashley reprimanded me because I forgot to say how, the night before last, the ground failed to rise up to meet his foot and he fell out of a restaurant. This scared me a lot but, fortunately, he did not hurt himself. We didn´t do much yesterday. We watched Central American fishes in their natural environment. There are lots of some kind of livebearer here, reminded us of the Amica. Also, some cichlides which we think are Nicaraguans. Not sure though. They are yellow but darker beneath. Some others also seen but not identified. Guarding fry. Acting very similar to the way the Central American cichlids act in our tanks. Today we went to Yaxcha. It´s a hard place to get to independently - the last 11 Km being down an unmade road where buses do ... read more