Guatemala - the brief return

We made our way back into Guatemala by taxi as this appeared to be the most sensible option given the buses don’t run all the way to the border on the Belize side.  We then enjoyed a bit of bartering with the Guatemalan taxi drivers in order to get ourselves a better deal for the 2^nd leg from the border to Tikal.  We eventually got down to a price we could live with and we set off on the 2 hour drive to the ruins. 

We arrived in time for a late lunch and were then going to visit some of the ruins that afternoon as the site is so big that you run out of steam attempting it in one go.  However, this plan was thwarted as although we’d been told you could go in after 3pm and still use the ticket the next day, the official at the ticket office was having none of it.  Given how expensive it was, we decided to go for a walk in the jungle outside the site instead.  We spotted wild turkeys and two little foxes, as well as hearing howler monkeys.  We tried to follow the sound of the monkeys to track them down but this proved difficult and it was starting to get dark, so we headed back to the lodge where we’d set up our tent.  On arriving back, we discovered monkeys in the trees above our tent – typical!

We had an early night after a simple dinner of tuna pasta – there was no shop and that’s all we had with us, so not up to our usual gourmet standards!  The next morning we were up early in order to enter the ruins at 6am when they opened.  We tried to have a quick breakfast of pancakes and syrup but our new frying pan is terrible and the pancakes turned into very bad looking mush - Tikal was not proving to be a food highlight!

I’m so glad we got up early as the ruins were very quiet – no tour buses anywhere in sight! – the light was fabulous and the wildlife was active.  We saw lots of toucans flying around and sitting in trees, and there were both howler and spider monkeys swinging through the trees.  

The ruins themselves are very impressive – Tikal is characterised by lots of very high temples, some of which you can climb, giving amazing views across the jungle.  We wandered around viewing as much as possible, with both of us taking heaps of photos.  After nearly 5 hours we were “templed out” and decided to head back to our lodge for a well earned snack and coffee.  We didn’t quite see it all, but we managed to get round most of the temples and groups of ruins.  Overall, a very impressive place.  

My favourite part was sitting at the top of one of the highest temples looking out at the other tall ruins poking through the jungle canopy, listening to the spooky howler monkeys making an incredible racket.

From Tikal we took a quick shuttle bus (only 1 hour!) to Flores, which is a small town set on an island in the middle of a lake.  There isn’t much to do here, but it is a nice place in a beautiful setting.  We were hot and bothered after the ruins and the bus journey so we were very happy to see a nice wooden jetty in front of our hostel from which we could swim in the lake – very refreshing!  We then decided we’d earned a drink or two and found a nice bar restaurant with a great view of the lake and the setting sun, and importantly a happy hour.  We ended up staying for dinner and although a little pricey, the Italian place we were in cooked up one of the best meals we had in Central America – Le Roux had a succulent, non-chewy steak and I had big juicy prawns – delicious!

The little town had more than its share of souvenir shops and so we took advantage of them and our free day to indulge in a spot of shopping as this was likely to be one of the last places we would come across all the hand woven goods.  Having no room for any more things in our back packs, we packaged up our purchases and sent them home – hopefully they’ll arrive safely!

After just 3 additional nights in Guatemala it was time to head into Mexico, our 12^th country.