Blogs from Petén Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 4

Off again for another early morning border crossing, from Honduras back to Guatemala. We had a long way to go from Copan Ruinas to Flores so we were up bright and early making our way over the border to Chiquimula. The bus from the border was uneventful and all the research about buses north went out the window when we reached Chiquimula. Our Letigua (it's a company) bus driver had us get out near the main market when we told him we were heading north and another man helped us carry our bags to the Maria Elena (another company) office near the main bus stops; he didn't even pause for a tip when we got there. We originally bought a ticket to Rio Dulce but later realized they ran a bus an hour later the full ... read more

First stop Guatamala- Flores- to see the unbelievable Tikal ruins. The journey there was all the way from Caye Caulker via public transport, it was fairly straight forward as I have done a lot of travelling on the "chicken buses" ie puboic buses of Belize, but coming in to a Spanishe speaking country was a bit of a culture shock, as well as actually walking across the border! Flores is almost an island in the middle of a lake in northern Guatemala. It is pretty, with cobbeled little streets and a European type feel as oppose to any other town in Belize. It is attached via a causeway to the main. Town of Santa Elena, which is the opposite to Flores and s busy and contains no tourists. I arrived there and met a lot of ... read more

We left the Roundhouse and headed to Flores. As there were a number of people heading to Rio Dulce the hostel organised to take everyone on their boat. Unfortunately they left without us. When I heard the boat leave I ran downstairs and asked the volunteers if they just left without us, they looked at me a bit stunned and then tried to call them. Luckily they remembered us and turned around and came back and got us. The ride to Rio Dulce was much nicer than the public boat, as it was really calm and the boat sat higher in the water. From Rio Dulce we took a public bus to Flores, unfortunately when we got on it was full so we had to stand. After nearly two hours someone got off and I got ... read more

Ostatnie dwa dni to przejazd i pobyt w północnej Gwatemali (Peten). Z Semuc Champey wyjeżdżam o siódmej rano. I znowu decyduję się na przejazd autobusem turystycznym, który to przejazd powinien zająć jakieś 10 godzin. Przejazd chicken busami (możliwy) zająłby na pewno 2-3 godziny dłużej. Poranny wyjazd uświadamia wszystkim jak pięknym miejscem są okolice Semuc Champey. Niewielkie górki wyłaniające się z porannej mgły robąa wrażenie. Pierwsza godzina jazdy to droga z Semuc do Lanquin i pokonujemy ja na pace pick-upa. Przed Lanquin okazuje się, że są jakieś roboty drogowe i musimy trochę przejść z plecakami pieszo. W Lanquin zmieniamy pick-upa na busa turystycznego. Jest też chwila czasu, żeby w jakimś lokalnym comedorze zjeść śniadanie. Dalsze kilkadziesiąt kilometrów drogi to także droga szutrowa i mocno wyboista, co daje się we znaki w busie. W końcu wyjeżdżamy na drogę ... read more

We left San Ignacio this morning for our foray into Guatemala. Originally, the tour had scheduled for us to camp at Tikal National Park. Due the unexpected rainstorms that they region was experiencing, our campsite was flooded. Instead, we would be staying in the town of El Remate near Tikal. We made it to the border in just a few minutes and spent about an hour going through border formalities including having to pay $37.50 in Belizean dollars as a departure tax. As we drove through Guatemala, I was quite surprised with the conditions of the roads. I don't know what everyone else was thinking but I was actually expecting third world conditions with unpaved road with deep potholes for the duration of the drive to El Remate. To my surprise, the roads for the most ... read more