Blogs from Flores, Petén Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 10

Day 784 (23.05.09) We'd made our way to Flores the previous day so that we could visit the Mayan ruins at Tikal. The Mayan people settled in the area around 700BC and began to build stone ceremonial structures around 200 years later. The ruins of thousands of buildings and temples that remained were rediscovered in the depths of the Guatemalan jungle in 1848 and have since been explored, semi-restored and opened to visitors. There were several bus times available to get us from Flores to the park but we'd been told that if we paid extra we could get the ealry bus to get us to the ruins for sunrise which, despite the early get up time, is always a favourite with us. So we were off to see Tikal on the "sunrise" tour. Getting on ... read more

14th MAY 2009 - A LOVELY DAY IN FLORES ON MY BIRTHDAY!! I woke up at around 6am but dozed until around 8am. It didn't feel like it was my birthday...not even when Nat popped her head over the bed and said "Happy Birthday" as well as reminding me that I was another year older. I always remind myself though...getting older is mandatory but growing up is optional. I opted out of growing up a few years ago!! I knew it would be strange to celebrate a birthday being away from home but I hoped I would have a nice birthday anyway. Once dressed we went for breakfast and I ordered my usual treat of yoghurt, granola and fruit. We sat in the breakfast area chatting to Jon (the guy from Devon) for a bit before ... read more

Thank you all for your concern and messages over the past few days. To be honest, things don´t seem too bad here. Just writing to let you know I am safe and sound. Mexico was getting absolutely ridiculous - everything was closed (tourist attractions, restaurants, transport and museums etc) and there are a lot of very panicked people. Businesses especially tourism based are suffering and people are being laid off work already. Its not a good situation... Whilst a lot of countries are not accepting travellers from Mexico, I successfully crossed into Guatemala this morning via a little used river border crossing. I am now in Flores, which is northern Guatemala and in the middle of nowhere. Most of the cases have been confined to Mexico City. I left there on 24 Aptil 2009, so still ... read more

Nous voici depuis deux jours au Guatemala, a Flores, une petite ville plantee sur une ile au milieu d'un lac au nord du Guatemala. Nous sommes arrives hier au terme d'une sacree aventure. Mais prennons les choses depuis le debut, nous avons quitte Palenque hier tot matin. Nous ne voulions pas tombe dans les soit disant piege a touriste et n'avions donc pas pris l'option tour organise, tout compris, tout inclus....non Monsieur, nous avons pris l'option on se debrouille en local. Nous voici donc dans le collectivo jusqu'a "frontera corozal"....jusque la, nickel car le collectivo au Mexique ca ne coute quasi rien. Ensuite nous devons prendre un taxi jusqu'a la zone d'embarquement car pour passer la frontiere il faut prendre une pirogue et traverser la riviere frontiere. Premiere mauvaise surprise...prendre une pirogue a 2 ou a ... read more

The same article with photographs is published here: Guatemala At 8 in the morning, a delicious breakfast of toast, marmalade and huevos a la Mexicana was ready at the forest lodge we stayed in. We had breakfast, thanked Vicente for his hospitality and boarded a mini-bus that dropped us to San Javier. We waited at San Javier bus station for about half hour, before we were picked by another mini bus that took us to Frontera Corozal. At Frontera Corozal, we boarded the launch on the same Rio Usumacinta on which we had sailed to Yaxchilan ruins the previous day, just that we sailed in the opposite direction. The river was crowded by people busy with their laundry and ablution. I kept pondering how courageous those people were, they were carelessly swimming and bathing despite the ... read more