Caves, Jungle, Temples and Lake

---

We have packed lots into the last 2 days! Our overnight bus from Antigua via Guatemala city to Flores was uneventful - due to the long duration (9 hours) we opted for the luxury class (not sure we would survive an overnight chicken bus!) which was surprisingly fairly classy - reclining seats, snacks and drinks like on an aeroplane... Arrived at Flores - a little island in Northern Guatemala in a Jungle area - at the unearthly hour of 5.30 am but found a pleasant cafe open (!) for breakfast so we could wait for sunrise before finding somewhere to stay. Lovely hotel with lake views, rooftop terrace and hammocks for only 6 quid! Bargain. It is even supposed to have hot water....
We found some cool limestone caves nearby yesterday and declined a guide (we arrived before they even officially opened at 8am) but took a torch and went to explore - pretty exciting crawling through tunnels and around the several cave chambers without anyone to tell us where the exit was! There was the odd light bulb to help guide us tough. Next we explored Flores, a funky little island, Santa Helena (mainland) and Darryl led a wild goose chase looking for the bus station to book tickets for our onward journeys....
Today we went to Tikal, an amazing ancient Mayan city - the oldest we have been to so far. Bulidings from 200 AD onwards, it was pretty impressive. All green and very humid. We have even experienced our first rain since we left home, but that is jungle for you! We must have walked about 5 miles around all the temples, through the trees and up some pretty precarious vertical ladder type things up to the top of temples. Amazing views.
This afternoon we went on another wild goose chase to find Kayaks - we found some without oars, some rotten ones, some locked without a key (lost) and some owned by locals and not for rent... over 1 hour, at least a few miles walking and one blister later (Penny) we found some just in time for a sunset kayak lake tour before our evening coctails (for 50p). This is the life......
Tomorrow we head to Belize.....

---

Photos

Tikal Ruins
Temple 1 and Grand Plaza

Admiring the View
Temple 3 and the Jungle

Limestone Caves
Near Santa Helena

Darryl & Sunset
Finally we found some kayaks....

Comments

[Partha]

The odd mouse...
Man...thats an odd mouse you keep in your desk at work....one of your patients had a very bemused look when I opened the top drawer...and out popped the mouse with the jangly tits!!! Nice one,Daz!!

[jean]

great pictures
Enjoying your blog. Jane C thinks blog such a good idea she wants to do one for our weekend trip to Marrakesh, which by the way she didnt know was in Morocco until last night! You never know she may turn up near you one day.

[Mike and Judith]

Counter-counter blog
Well sounds as though you two are living the life of Riley but in a packed life back in the UK, it's important you know the latest: 1. Your work colleagues had a fab curry night out last night. Mike was the only one that went to the correct Ocean Palace in Port Solent whilst everyone else went to Ocean Palace in Gun Wharf 2. Jane C and Jean book a 4 day break to Marrakesh to re-enact Darryl's walk into a lamp post routine. Jane still refuses to accept that Marrakesh is not a sepearte country and is part of Morrocco. (Anita has no idea what we are talking about) 3. Meakin's office gets a daily spring clean and the live animals and insects discovered on a regular basis continue to amaze 4. Paul Kalra close to needing anti-depressants as Leeds FC take a nose-dive down the Div 1 table 5. The sun was seen yesterday for 3.8 seconds We could tell you more but it'll only make you book the first plane back.............

[swiss]

ola
heard from the coopers that your adventurig,like the blog. hoping to do something similar in sep/oct/nov so will chat to you about it all at length some time enjoy the ceveca !?!

[Joey Butler]

Hi, given your blog details by No-Pints - we were at the same meeting. Looks really exciting - you won't want to come back! I'll keep logging on to see how you are doing.