Jungle fever

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Yesterday afternoon we took a truly luxurious coach to Flores, which took about 4 hours. Luxury by local standards I should say. We could tell immediately that this was first class travel as there was only one person per seat and we had tinted windows and air con. The driver also drove mostly on the right side of the road (being on the right). The driving thing is quite confusing for us, as although they usually drive on the right-hand side, unless there is a blind corner when they tend to drive on the left. Best not to look really.

Anyhow we safely arrived in Flores, which is the twin town of Santa Elena, however located on a little island (peten) in the middle of the lake. It seems to have developed into the main tourist town for visitors to Tikal. Kind of like a tourist quarantine, which was kind of nice really. Anyhow, the main point of our stay was to visit Tikal, which are the neighbouring Mayan ruins, set in rainforest jungle. We booked ourselves on the 'sunrise tour' which seemed like a good idea at 7.00pm last night. Less fun at 3.00am when we had to wake up. The man at the travel agency was insistent we needed to be outside our hotel at 3.20am, so we were very grumpy when the bus didn't arrive until 4.00am. However it turned out to be all worth it in the end.

It was a terribly bumpy and squishy ride in the mini-van to Tikal, but Lucy and Jack seemed to sleep through mostly. I am truly envious of their ability to sleep anywhere anytime! I instead befriended the Russian next to me, who was quite a character it turned out. The whole tour was great for meeting other tourists - from all over the world, which was really interesting.

Anyhow we finally arrived in Tikal sometime after 5.00 and trekked through the jungle for about 40 minutes, which was fantastic, until we arrived at one of the temples. Good thing it was dark and we couldn't see how high we had to climb! But at the top it was really magical. We waited in silence for the sun to come up and the majestic towering temples in the park to come into view. As we waited, we could also hear the animals and birds in the jungle begin to waken for the day. I also thought I heard Lucy snoring (see note about being able to sleep anywhere) but she claims this was only her tummy rumbling. The jungle noises were quite an experience. The birds were singing all around us, and we could also hear this other incredibly loud noise in the background, which sounded like the roar of an elephant or a lion or something, but which turned out to be a howler monkey. Makes a lot of noise for such a small creature!

The pyramid shaped temples emerged through the mist, which was quite mystical and really very cool. Unfortunately doesn't make for great photos though! After that, for the next few hours we walked around the massive grounds of Tikal looking at various Mayan buildings. It is massive - it was once the main Mayan settlement of Central America and the downtown area of the central city takes up about 16 sq kilometres. It was only discovered in the late 1800s when some people were looking for local chewing gum from a tree that grows in this area. Because it is so huge, only a small portion opened up for tourism and it is all set in the rainforest jungle. As the sun came up, it became clear that the 3.00am start was the smart move, as it sure was hot and muggy in the jungle later! The whole thing was seriously cool. The Mayans were very clever and all the structures together form some sort of clever keystone for the other countries in the Mayan empire. It was very early though and I wasn't listening that well, so you'll just have to take this as gospel.

As well as the ruins, which are partially restored, because we were in the jungle we saw beautiful birds (again, early morning and wasn't really listening, but gorgeous bright colours), the coati again, howler monkeys, spider monkeys and a giant beetle thingamy thankfully very high up a tree. Last time Jack came to Tikal three years ago he said he saw a giant tarantula but I'm not sorry to have missed that. On the way into the park we drove through quite a large national park which has all sorts of warning signs about watching out for animals. One of the warning signs was for snakes - again we weren't sorry to have missed these.

It was a fantastic morning as we walked through the jungle and stumbled across these magnificent structures. We also climbed them and got fantastic views above the canopy of the jungle. One particular one was incredibly steep and high. I'm not great on heights so was very proud of myself for reaching the top. I couldn't quite bring myself to step away from the pyramid to peer over the edge though!! I climbed down with a Hungarian guy who was almost as bad at heights as me. We were both incredibly happy to get to the bottom.

Now back in Flores and it's seriously hot and muggy. Happily our hotel has a pool so that's my next stop.

We are a little sad that tonight is our last night in Guatemala. But tomorrow we head for Belize. I was outvoted and we are on a 5.00am bus (I threatened that I would try to keep them awake on the bus but they didn't look troubled by this). The good news is that all going well we'll be in the Cayes by lunchtime.

I'm looking forward to Belize and some beachtime (especially in this weather) but I am very sorry to say goodbye to Guatemala as I have absolutely loved every minute of it. Guatemala - hasta luego.

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Photos

Temple V
This is the second highest of them all. See narrow steps at left? I climbed them. Dots at the top are people.

View from the top
The climb was worth it in the end. This is the view. I only took one photo as my hands were shaking!

Three of us
We found a friendly Aussie to take one of all three of us, I think it's the only one where we are all in one shot. Yes, I know we look tired. Did I mention 3.00am?

Me, Gran Plaza in the background
I figured out with sunnies you don't look quite so heinous.

Lucy
Gran plaza in the background.

The Ceiba tree
A very cool tree, with amazing kind of moss stuff growing at the top.

Flores
View from our hotel room. I'm heading for the pool right now.