Mayan Ruins

It has been a long time since the last time I wrote and there have been several days of crazy adventures and Mayan Ruins. From Belize we traveled back to Guatemala... to Flores, which is an island on a lake in Northern Guatemala. The main reason people go to Flores is to visit the famous Mayan Ruins, Tikal, although the little town is nice (but expensive). The ruins are more then I would have ever expected, what makes them even more amazing is the jungle that surrounds them. As you climb to the top of a ruin you can hear all sorts of animals, growling, howling, chirping, etc. (I promise to put up pictures soon). Aditionally, it was quite incredible that they had almost the whole village uncovered... there was like a central area and then several other ruins scattered through out. Pato and I took the long trail around (by accident-- we all know we would not do that on purpose), but it actually turned out really cool and we saw more monkeys.

After Flores, we traveled to Antigua, Guatemala... which is like the main tourist destination in the country. That became very evident when I finally arrived there. The loney planet describes it best by saying its the ¨Disneyland¨of Guatemala. Many of the buildings were kept in a old fashion style and seemed very much fake and as if you were seeing a produced version of Guatemala. From Antigua, there were several day trips and few day trips that were very touristy oriented... and much more expensive then doing it on your own. Pato and I are much more attracted to stuff of typical tourist trail... therefore this wasn´t the place for us.

We quickly moved on to Copan, Honduras... to arrive there we woke up at 4am to take a ¨tourist¨shuttle to Copan. We arrived there around 10am and went to explore the Mayan Ruins, for which the city is famous for. These were very different from Tikal, they were much more detailed oriented and set up like an outdoor musem. The details and the hyrogrphics were incredible. It was definately worth the price to enter and it was even more worth it knowing that the price paid would be put towards restoring and protecting the ruins. In Copan I was suprised about the amount of freedom that tourist were given to trample over what had been discovered. I feel like they should be protected more... of course, the most prized pieces were covered by shelteres... but there were other parts that we were allowed to trample over like little kids in a play ground.

Anyways... from Copan, we traveled to Tegucigalpa.. which is the capital of Honduras. We were going to stay in San Pedro de la Sula, but once we arrived there we decided to continue traveling. We are starting to arrive at the conclusion that much of Central America is similar in the sense that they have the same geographic features, the same wildlife, the same little towns. Although, I am sure each country has its own special charm and differences... being a traveler and passing through each country quickly... they all seem similar. We are in search for something different.

We love you all...

the searchers

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