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Published: August 8th 2007
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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 the middle of Lake Peten Itza connected to the main land by a causeway. This is a popular destination due to (a) its beautiful location and (b) it's close proximity to the magnificent Tikal Ruins, the later was my reason for choosing to come here. So after finding another great hotel with all the mod cons we have come to expect, we started to explore....
Tikal is about the last Mayan Ruin on my hit list and I'm not going to bore you any further with detailed rantings about architecture or mythology as I'm sure you get the gist of what these amazing people got upto by now. That being said there are some very impressive ruins here, with fabulous pyramids, temples and acropolis's posing against a lush jungle backdrop. One little point for those of you that are unaware... This is where George Lucas filmed the award ceremony at the end of the first Star Wars movie (A New Hope) you know when Chewy, Han & Luke are getting there gongs it pans out over a jungle and there are two ancient structures poking out of the jungle canopy..... That's Tikal... (another anorak moment for you!) I was hoping to get that photograph 'a la movie' but unfortunately you could not climb up the main Jaguar Pyramid to get it - Doh! There were some structures that you could climb up, but it was up rickety wooden scaffolding to the sides of the buildings, which to me felt more dangerous than climbing stone steps - one acropolis had an amazing vista and
as not looking too mad heresuch I've tried to recreate that Star Wars moment. Surprise, Surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it here and due to the size of the site it made for a good afternoons walk with beautiful jungle and more monkeys to laugh at between the scattered groups of ruins, just as we had finished our tour of duty, the heavens opened up and washed all the other tourists away.... hehey!
Following the excursion to Tikal, we spent the rest of the week around beautiful Flores. We didn't get up to a great deal to be honest except a boat tour of Lake Peten which included a visit to the tiny Museum (shack) on the central island of the lake which is family owned. We got a guided tour by the curator and it actually holds a hoard of treasures from Mayan artifacts and bones to early telecommunications equipment and radio transmitters - my highlight was the Tesla Coil (which the curator powered up for us and done the obligatory lighting a florescent bulb with the arc of electricity it emitted) - I'm easily impressed... We continued the tour of the lake with a visit to the Mirador
which is a hike up to a look out point over the lake - apparently there are ruins somewhere yet to be unearthed but they totally escaped my attention. After that bit of exercise we continued over to the zoo which is tucked away on another little island the opposite side of the lake. I'm not a great fan of zoo's as I can't stand to see birds & big animals confined in cramped and unauthentic surroundings. The creatures on display here were at least indigenous to the locale and apparently included rescue animals so the place is serving a well meaning purpose. Exhibits included a sad jaguar, some spider monkeys, a margay (like a small stripped tiger), a crocodile (looked dead), coatimundi (hid real well from us), kinkajou (cute looking little nocturnal mammal - until you got near... scary!) armadillo, wild hogs and caged parrots. The most impressive, yet at the same time saddest sight at the zoo was the jaguar, a majestic and beautiful big cat couped up in a swanky pad with a breathtaking view of the lake but it was definitely not a happy camper, pacing up and down, rolling over on its back, breathing heavily.
This behavior was repeated over trying to get that star wars picand over again.... poor thing had obviously gone mad. There was one other fascinating yet unofficial exhibit - leaf cutter ants going about their business across the pathways like little streams of green - each ant carrying leaf cuttings 2-3 times its own size... 100% natural and fully in their element. You can't beat natures beauty!
So there goes for Flores & Tikal we have since, as previously mentioned, moved south and west into the mountainous regions of this beautiful country, having already stayed a week at Quetzaltenango (Xela - pronounced 'Shela') and have now come to the magnificent Lake Atitlan where we will be staying for a fair bit - going to be learning Spanish here as tutition one to one is only £3 per hour - cheap as chips. The lake itself is surrounded by volcanoes and its a truly stunning destination. Well more about that next blog so until then 'asta la vista amigos!'
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