Rocks, ruins and robberies.

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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 a hostel which every backpacker you meet recommends. Therefore, when we got there it was full. So I´ll never know whether the recommendations are correct or not.

Upon arriving at the hostel we ended up staying at, the first thing we heard was a girl shout "There´s a tarantula in the bathroom!" And 2 minutes after getting our room, a moth the size of a cricket ball flew in. It was at this point I became very happy to have my mossie net in my bag. Some of us weren´t so lucky. Now I´d love to say that either Amir or myself manfully offered Emma our net, or even got out to kill the aforementioned moth. But we didnt. We cowered under our nets and let her do it. Sorry.

The next day we went to visit the pools at Semuc Champey. Before I left home, they were sold to me as the most beautiful place in the world. And when someone tells me somewhere is the most beautiful place in the world, it seems to make sense to go there. And it really was quite fantastic. It was like being in Jurassic Park, although sadly the Velociraptors didn´t make an appearance. After an 45 minute walk to get to the lookout point, the pools were great to swim in, even if my toes seemed like a nice snack for some of the fish there.

In the afternoon, we were meant to do a caving trip, which came highly recommended. As we headed off in the pouring rain in just our swimming stuff, it seemed like a great idea, being as the caves would be underground, so we wouldn´t get rained on. Sadly, the rain meant the caves were unsafe, so we consoled ourselves my jumping in the river.

Flores & Tikal

Another early start beckoned for the journey to the northernmost point of my trip. However, it seemed a touch unneccessary being as we had to wait around in another city for 2 hours. Now, I dislike getting up early anyway, but getting up early for no reason really does get on my wick.

Anyway, we got to Flores alright, and this time there was actually room for us in the most popular hostel in town. After a shower, we sat down for something to eat to discover something truly horrific. It was a vegetarian only menu! Needless to say, it was decided to eat out.

Not wanting another early start the next day, it was spent exploring Flores, and its twin Santa Elena. Flores is a small island (although technically it isnt, there´s a bridge to it) and Santa Elena is the bigger town on the mainland. The pace of life was markedly different on either side, with Flores being quiet and slow, whereas in Santa Elena, it was a bit more hectic.

The following day, it was time for the sunrise tour to Tikal. This involved getting up at 2.30 in the morning. We arrived at about 4 in pitch dark, and our driver decided it was a good idea to leave us sat there in the middle of nowhere on our own, and went to pick up some other folk. Cheers for that.

Sadly, we didnt get a proper sunrise, but hearing the jungle waking up was quite good in itself. The howler monkeys really do make a roar. Once the sun was up, we set about going round the site with our guide/ driver. Despite being told we would have an English speaking guide, his english wasn´t that great, so it was difficult to understand a lot of things he said. It didn´t diminish from how impressive the site is though, huge temples rising out of the jungle, with monkeys swinging around, oh, and the odd tarantula and scorpion aswell. The tour was well worth doing, but I´m not sure it was worth getting up for the sunrise.

The afternoon was spent with a trip to the least impressive beach ever. I´m sure somewhere in the definition of beach there should be the word "sand". Sadly, whoever christened this one didn´t know that. To be honest though, I didn´t care that much, because the swimming was good, and I much prefer that to sitting around doing nothing, or reading a book, so no complaints here. Although sadly, my swimming shorts "disappeared" from the hostel. Still, I´ve managed to nearly lose my camera twice already, so swimming shorts isn´t a bad swap.

After a quiet night (with lots of people getting up for the Tikal sunrise tour, not much happens in Flores at nights), it was up for a bus ride to Rio Dulce in the morning. But that will wait for another time.

Hasta luego,

Stewart

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Comments

[Mum]

now I know where it went
Have been wondering where that big rubber spider went, was looking for it for school!!! Am surprised you got it in your bag.