Blogs from Petén Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 13

And for our next adventure, we are taking a 5 day trek into the jungle to see the Mayan ruins of El Mirador! I hadn´t heard of this trip until we actually arrived here in Flores. A sign at our hostel announced a 5 day jungle trek to visited a recently discovered Mayan city. Of course, my curiosity was aroused! Turns out to be a place under excavation and hard to get because there is no drivable road, only a mule trail. Or you could be like that loser Mel Gibson and helicopter there. But where´s the fun in that? As we starting talking about it around the hostel we realized that quite a few people wanted to do this trip. It´s going to quite the international crew: 3 Americans, 2 Irish, 2 Dutch, 1 Brit ... read more

Sunday 5th September We left San Ignacio and headed for Tikal. Firstly we had to do a border control to get into Guatemala. Security is a bit severe here as the policemen look like they are ready for war and the old Guatemalan guy in front of us in the queue has a 3ft wooden baton for protection. from what? im asking. Welcome to Guatemala! We had to change bus on the other side plus we got our money changed by street trader as we no longer need belize dollars. Its added to the confusion as we've gone from peso's, Belize $ and now to Guatemalan Quetzals. Oh we have some american $'s too. Tikal is only 45 minutes away and our bus driver has been great by telling us about the severe weather in the ... read more

It hasn't gone unnoticed by those of you regularly reading our blogs that Paul wears his Mr Men t-shirt regularly. Mr Messy has appeared in front of The Kremlin, on the Great Wall of China and has given countless locals a chance to practice their English which didn't stretch to understanding that Paul is really called Mr Birch. But with just a few weeks to go, it has gone to the great big t-shirt heaven on the sky. Mr Messy lives on in our hearts. Antigua, like other cities which had their heyday in the colonial period only to be superceeded as the capital, is nicer for its old world charm.  It's a town full of students learning Spanish, US citizens taking their holidays and tour agents galore.  So the flip side of its charm is ... read more

From El Estor we are heading for Flores, in Northern Guatemala. We start the day with perfect timing as just around the corner from our hotel we find a public micro bus passing by that happens to be going our way - to Rio Dulce. Its amazing how many times that has happened on this trip. Back to busy and hectic Rio Dulce, where we help a couple of tired distraught English girls trying to get to Copan (Honduras) after a chain of mishaps and lack of access to money. We locate a 'second class' bus for us which is heading for Flores. The bus is super full so we stand in the aisle for the first few hours, until eventually enough people get off for Tessa and me to get a seat. Its no problem ... read more

Hello and Happy EARLY fourth of July! Which by the way we won't be celebrating here in GUA because we will be on a 6 hour drive starting tomorrow monring at 9 to Semuc Champey. There is like crystal clear water there and waterfalls...white water rafting(my weakness), tubing, and a tour we will be taking to a bat cave where millions of bats leave at dusk and you can stand in the cave as they all scatter around you (totally cool!!). Today however we just were pretty lazy. We slept in until about 9 at this new Hotel here in Flores called something..something..isla hotel(i'm not good at names). We headed over to the internet cafe' and uploaded the pictures and 2 videos you see that are up now. Then we had lunch at this really nice ... read more