http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Central America Caribbean , Guatemala , El Peten en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:21:20 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:21:20 UTC The Night of Terror began at dinner. It was the first night since staying with our host family in San Jose that I parted from being veggie. I had a traditional Guatemalan dish a bowl of soup containing a whole fish its head and tail sticking up out of the soup at either side. Well I asked for it The disection began. As the fish gave me a look of defiance I glanced up at the rafter over the ki http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/blog-349782.html Theres nothing wrong with a beer and a slice of lime. It must have taken off in Eire around the 90s. First consumed by the cool ones. And then the suits on Friday nights in town stuffing city bars after a weeks work. Now beer and lime is popular almost everywhere. I quite like a cool bottle of beer with lime.But when youre given beer lime AND salt on the sideJessica and I looked at one anot http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/blog-349776.html Bundled into a colectivo 10seater minivans that act as buses crammed with 24 Guatemalans James and I found our way to San Jose a half hour around the Peten Itza lake from Santa Elena. We headed out to the small quiet town to learn Spanish and stay with a family.Les gustan los nios Do you like children asked the school director Glenda a lady who had an unnerving constant surprised smil http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/blog-349442.html Ran out of time yesterday so will fill you in on the last 24 We were planning to go to a reserve in El Remate yesterday and camp there the night but we got talking to a local who said it's pretty dodgy and there have been cases of muggings and assault as it is pretty isolated. We headed there just for the day instead and felt quite disappointed at the entrance as prices had doubled and the beach http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Flores/blog-349405.html HiGot to Belize City late night and met some pretty crazy people including Prince Charles Paris III who sounded like one of the most educated people I have ever met not too mention one of the most insane. The hostel we stayed at was right over the river and the people were really friendly in fact everyone in Belize is It is an absolutely fantastic city and beautiful in a very different way.W http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Flores/blog-349160.html We stayed in a beautiful hotel by Lake Peten for a night before taking off for the jungle ruins. http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/blog-348363.html 30 Grad im Schatten und tglich 12 Stunden Sonne...das meine Freunde ist MexicoGlaubt mir da mcht ich einen von euch sehen der sich freiwillig den ganzen Tag im Auto oder Bus rum qult. Ich habs nicht gemacht und der Versuch das Ntzliche mit dem Angenehmen zu verbinden sprich zu trampen ist klglich gescheitert.Nach dem mich nach 2 Stunden immer noch keiner mit nehmen wollte und die mexika http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Poptun/blog-343797.html Whoever said the mountains were quiet was mistaken but tranquill and peaceful definately Other than being woken by a loco 3am rooster and the occasional hocking guatemateca clearing thier throat its birdsong the twitching of bugs and insects and the putt putt of the little fishing boat that fill my ears as i lay swinging in a hammock transposed to the pine studded volcanic mountain with an out http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Flores/blog-341276.html After a stern telling off from my mum for not updating this I thought I better make an entry. So to update you the one about chicken buses to Guatemala City ends up with an unmemorable journey with nothing of interest to report. So now you know. Semuc Champey So after a dull journey listening to what I think was the same song about 300 times we arrived in Lanquin. In Lanquin there exists http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Flores/blog-330860.html So we wake up in our Belie hotie with no AC and passing out half drunk but not really drunk at all... we end up getting not the best sleep in the world. When our alarm goes off for 730 am we are both pretty trhilled. We grab some coffee from down stairs and sit out on our blacony watching the sun rise and shooting the shit. Eventually we pack up and head to the bus terminal only to find that we http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Tikal/blog-329195.html Dear FriendsToday I write from a hostel that could be the set of a movie. A multicolored place filled with white kids from all over the world. Next to me a Briton who said cheers when I moved my chair for him. Behind me two Israelis using Skype. There is a table of Germans playing Risk and an American reading The Life of Pi in a hammock. That American is Jin...The place is half indoor http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Flores/blog-320633.html Dear FriendsSometime you make a decision and it implies some obligations. Along with our decision to go to Soloma came many many days of buses. Jin and I took two days of solid bus riding to get in and out of that scary town we spent two in Xela and now weve spent two getting here to the heart of the Guatemalan Jungle Flores City outside of the Mayan ruins of Tikal.Buses can be a wonderful http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/El-Remate/blog-319491.html Hi Chicos and welcome to another update by David this time the focus will be on our time spent in Guatemala. Our first destination in Guatemala was the town of Livingston a wonderful quaint port town situated on the mouth of the Rio Dulce River at the gulf of Honduras. Our journey commenced with a sense of urgency as soon as we disembarked from the ferry from Roatan at La Ceiba in Honduras http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Flores/blog-312261.html NB. I should point out straight away that over my time in Tikal I took over 200 photos and a fair few videos too. The ones I've put up are ones that I think provide a fairly good flavour of the place but it you want to see more send me a message and I'll try to email you some. Gareth x Some history on TikalBear in mind that this is an overview so i'll try not to ramble on for too long The ear http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Tikal/blog-310958.html After leaving Flores I've taken a slight diversion and instead of heading directly to Tikal I've stopped for the night in a small village on the NW side of the lake called El Remate. It's a small village that extends along the lakeshore and is about a 20 minute minibus trip from the terminal in Santa Elena you can get there easily enough by catching a Tuk Tuk from Flores.An easy going villa http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/El-Remate/blog-310938.html Buenas Dias from the tropical city of Flores regional capital of El Peten in the North East of GuatemalaI left Xela on a chicken bus around 8 in the morning and we arrived in Guat city just after midday. From there a quick bus up to antigua where I met up with my host family in order to drop a few things off with them so I have a bit less to carry around with me. It actually worked out that ta http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Flores/blog-309421.html Uaxactun pronounced is an ancient ruin of the Maya civilization located in the Petn Basin region of the Maya lowlands in the presentday department of Petn Guatemala. The site lies some 40 km 24.9 mi north of the major center of Tikal. The name is sometimes spelled as Waxaktun.With recent achievements in the decipherment of the ancient Maya hieroglyphic writing system it has been determ http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Flores/blog-303428.html Tikal Tikal We woke up at 5am for the sunrise tour this morning at Tikal. The shuttle was a little late but it was light at 515 when we walked out to catch it and the sun was surprisingly high at 6am when we neared the outskirts of the park. While waiting we had a nice chat with a fellow staying here at don david who lives in Santa Fe but comes to Portland twice a year to tango. He went to T http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Tikal/blog-298883.html I realize it has been awhile since I last wrote...and wow so much has passed since then I am now in Xela my Guatemalan home town The day after I wrote my last blog Pat and I spent the day exploring Tikal. That place is spectacular. I feel I was able to appreciate it much more than I would have if I had gone last summer because I recognized a lot of things from my Anthropology class. http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Tikal/blog-288202.html Hi AllSo after the BIG rains and Hurricane we went to see the great pyramids of Tikal and did a 7 day Trek in the Jungle where we also saw loads of ruins.Now I have to tell you something Technical. We can only post pictures taken with the small camera so youll see loads of jungle but not many pyramids they are in the other cameraAnyway the trek was WOAW though.We had a lot of Mud Mud Mud http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Tikal/blog-286964.html We have a few minutes b4 we will be leaving for Tikal so Frederic is downloading some photos for the blog and I'm allowed to write on his blog. As Frederic said we have had 5 days of continuous PISS weather but we were lucky that we only saw the rainy side of the tropical storm... First we spent a few days in Livingston the Carribean side of Guatemala and a place where the Garifuna peopl http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Flores/blog-283325.html HiA quick note to tell you we had about 5 days of continuous tropical rainThere was a Hurricane with tropical depression in Costa Rica called Alma and apparently now there is one called Arturo in the Yucatan.We are just in the middle of these location so we got A LOT of rainIt started in Livingston Carribean town. So we moved on hoping to avoid the rain but it is all over Guatemala and even http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Flores/blog-283303.html From Tikal we drove through Flores and San Andres stopping to restock on supplies. We then headed north toward the remote Mayan ruins of El Mirador which contains the tallest Mayan temple El Tigre. The sun was setting so we pulled off onto an abandoned road that was blocked by some logs. We moved the logs and parked out of sight from the main road. In the morning we packed our backpacking b http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/blog-280921.html I opened my eyes to see a large hairy spider resting on top of my mosquito net a foot above my face. The sky had lightened slightly so I carefully slid out from under my bug shelter to check the time. Five forty time to go to the ruins. We bought tickets and entered with the opening of the gate at ten till six. The plan was to catch the tail end of the sun rise from he top of the tallest te http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Tikal/blog-280912.html Since my mom was coming a few days ahead of my sister and her family we decided to head up to Petn together. It was the first time that we've ever traveled just the two of us and I think it was awesome. I had just been to Tikal a few weeks earlier with my family and our visiting friends so I thought that I was mostly going to show my mom around. Well it turned out to be a very different trip http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Tikal/blog-255232.html Hi everyone We've been really slacking on the blogging and I wanted to assure you all we're all still alive and having a great time.We left Antigua the day after our last entry and headed for San Pedro on Lago de Atitlan a huge beautiful lake surrounded by volcanoes. The next few days are a blur of volcano hiking swimming yoga massage tarot cards there's quite the hippie town just across t http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Poptun/blog-252839.html Here it is. Pics of the six day adventure through the rainforest. http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/blog-252810.html Another long day trip to see the moon eclipse in Tikal withouth knowing if I would be able to get inside the ruines. The trip begun at 7 in the morning and I was around 4 in the afternoon right at time at Tikal ruines. As usual I got lucky and was able to get one of the only two rooms left there. No hamuck no tent no dormitory was available. About 400 to 500 people were gathered to see the ecli http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Tikal/blog-252118.html Been back in the States now since Sunday. But the adventure of my return trip will wait until the next entry. For now I'll give a quick rundown of the 6 day hike through the rainforest.It was to say the least unbelievable After doing the Inca Trail I thought I'd been through the most physically challenging experience of my life. Turned out not to be so. That trail was baby steps compared to t http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Flores/blog-251385.html There's something about getting up ridiculously early in the morning that adds to the atmosphere of a day's outing. So I resisted the urge to break my alarm clock when it went off at 3.15am telling me it was time to get downstairs and wait for the bus for the sunrise tour of Tikal one of the greatest sets of Mayan ruins set in dense Guatemalan jungle. An hour's bus ride and a half hour walk http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/El-Peten/Tikal/blog-250368.html