Lava and stuff

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I crossed the border into Guatemala late last week after less than a week in Mexico. The crossing was an interesting one: a shuttle took us an hour south where we had our passports stamped by Mexican officials who tried to charge 100 pesos after a small misunderstanding. Then we boarded a longtail boat and traveled an hour upriver past a few small settlements and a decent sized crocodile. Once in Guatemala we stopped at the immigration office complete with cattle and chickens grazing in the front yard. From here it was a dusty three hour bus ride to the town of Flores.

The day we got to Flores me and Mike booked a sunrise tour to the ruins at Tikal in which you could see the sun come up from atop a large temple. The only catch was you had to leave at 3 am to make it there in time. So we went out with a few others we had crossed the border with that day and didn´t get back until late, needless to say the sun rose while we were still in bed instead of on top of temple 4. Not that spending an extra day in Flores was a bad thing, and we got to eat the cheese sandwiches that were meant for that day in bed... So that day we swam in the lake all day and got to bed early and made it on the tour the next day.

The tour was great, you climb through the jungle while it's still dark and everything is coming alive with all sorts of birds and the growls of howler monkeys. After a sweaty climb up the temple the sun starts to light up the expanse of jungle in front with the other temples poking up through the forest. That made it all worth the early rise, plus it's alot cooler there in the morning.

After a few days there we rode south into the jungle around Coban in the small town of Lanquin. Theres some nice limestone pools here called Semuc Champey and a bridge to jump off. Also there's some caves that go 11 km into the earth but we only went 400 m and you have to swim through the water in the caves. At the end theres a cavern with a ledge you can jump off, also theres bats but luckily no other animals. The place we stayed at was great. For 3 dollars they drive you up the river and drop you off with an innertube and it's a 2 hour float through the jungle back to the hostel, the water is slow because it's dry
season. The first part the jungle reaches from both banks and covers the sky and the water is a perfect blue color. It was when we passed a small settlement that I saw some young kids trying to show off and climbing a huge tree, one courageous young guy climbed to the top and stood there before jumping into the river below. Definitely the highest I've seen someone jump into water!

From here we went to Antigua, an ancient city that has preserved much of it's past. The craziest thing we did here was climb Volcan Pacaya. Any western nation would evacuate the surroundings of an active volcano, not in Guatemala. It's a tourist attraction, and I never even saw a sign saying to keep away from the lava or anything. When you get close it singes the hairs off your legs and softens the soles of your shoes, but it's pretty fun to poke with a stick and watch it light up.

So yah I've been traveling with an Australian, Mike, and two Englishmen, Lee aka skips, and Daryl through Guatemala. We all met on the boat to Guatemala, hilarious evenings ensued as we celebrated a birthday and even an Australian holiday. We're meeting up later in the Bay Islands of Honduras to do some diving and stuff.

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Photos

no man's land
on the mexican guatemalan border