A Bit of Culture.

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Well first sorry for the long delay, its tough dragging ourselve to a hot internet cafes when typing 10 lines take me about half an hour.But in the spirit of Sharing is Caring I will suffer along.

Well we left Rio Dulce for a day to head 3 hours North for a bit of culture taking in the Mayan ruins of Tikal. The Chicken bus was a cultural exprense in itself.
No need to pack "pad kos" because at one of the many bus stops people get on and sell food, anything from sliced green mangos covered in chilli sauce to a warm maize pulp wrapped in a bannana leaf.
That morning I settled for a warm chicken piñata (small pie) with what I could only imagine was a oven roasted tomato and red pepper salsa, followed by a apple doughnut type thing lightly dusted with sugar. This was served to me by a charming boy from a plastic bucket standing in the aisle of the Chicken bus while we were travelling at high speed on the windy road. After serving everybody who wants food he gets of the bus which could be a few kilometers from where he got on to start!
We arrived at the site at about 3pm. You pay to be allowed into the area which is incorporates the ruins, visitor center and a few accomdation options. Being cheap we decided to tent it, interesting.
We got to take a walk around the ruins that evening, and climb a large pryrimid to watch the sun setting over the jungle canopy.
It was then back to the camp for a cold shower and short sleep before we were up at 4am to watch the reverse (sunrise)
Totally different experience. As we approached the jungle all you could hear were the howler monkeys. If like me you have not heard one before, they sound like somthing out of Jurrasic Park. If it was not for our guide´s 38 special, strapped to his leg I might have reconsided the dark walk in the Jungle. I have seen the sun rise before ....it happens every day.....just how good could it be? Man I am glad we went! We climbed the highest of the pyramids which took us above the whole forrest. There were clouds on the horizon so we just got to see the skyline changing colours, but the were monkeys in the trees, parrots flighing everywhere, we even saw a few Tocans.We explored for a few more hours where you could see whole families of spider monkeys playing in the tree tops.

We left Tikal at midday for a town called Flores, where we cought a a vomit commet
(high speed bus with no openable windows, with a toilet on board emitting nauseating smells and a bus driver who used to drive race cars, before he got fired because he drove so recklously) back to Rio Dulce.

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Comments

[Joe]

sunrise
Wow! at least you have sun :) Happy travels and keep us posted!

[jax b]

our dafs are out Big WOW!!
You get to see pyramids and howler monkeys and also get served on a bus by a friendly child with good food in a bucket. The most exciting thing in England is that spring is on its way (I think) and I get served by woman who have forgotten how to smile and wouldn't know customer service if it slapped them in thier miserable faces. I know where I would rather be. Enjoy Easter!!!