Tikal and a Wild Gringo Chase
From Flores we got a bus at 5am to take us the 1.5 hours to Tikal, some of the most stunning Mayan ruins in Central America. The guide we chose was sweet but had mi9nimal knowledge. He was more interested in learning rude English words than telling us about the ruins! The early morning was totally worth it, the site is huge and we all climbed every temple and pyramid which has been excavated. A large percentage of the site hasn´t been touched by the archeologists so amongst the re-built structures are mounds of earth covered in trees and plants. Amazing to think that yet more structures are underneath that, but the cost of excavation is too high to do it all. In a way it´s nice that some of it is left. From the top of temple 4 the view is breathtaking, I´d love to put the picture here but don´t have the software so take a look at the photos section. The wildlife was great too, Chris was determined to hold a tarantula, insane. There are photos of that too. We also saw spider monkeys and heard howler monkeys, they don´t howl at all, they sound more like lions. I felt like I was in jurassic park.
We left Flores for Semuc Champey, an area of natural beauty with a limestone bridge, waterfalls and caves. Unfortunately, due to being given the run around by Guatemalan bus drivers, and a bout of food poisoning for Chris, it took us 4 days instead of 1 day to get there. We ended up in some god forsaken place called Fray Bartolome de Las Casas. The Lonely Planet described it as a hospitable town….. WRONG! We were certainly a novelty there and provided plenty of entertainment for the locals.
These few days were a real lesson in taking chicken buses. 19 people plus a few sacks of grain and a couple of chickens are crammed into a minibus meant to seat about 9. It´s pretty good fun most of the time although the puncture in the middle of a not very safe mountainous area wasn´t so great. It worked out ok though.
Health is a much bigger issue than I expected. What with my swollen ankle, a contact lense which decided to take a trip around the back of my eyeball during a particularly bumpy bus ride, Chris´food poising, Petal´s terrible bites which could be a nasty disease (she needs a blood test) and Timmy´s ulcerated esophagus. We´ve visited doctors 3 times so far. Let´s hope we´ve all adapted to this new lifestyle now though.
Tags: Guatemala
