Guatemala and Tikal.......now MEHICO!!!!!

Loving the Spider monkeys!

Jude and a temple

Temples of Tikal peeping through the jungle

Sunrise over Tikal

Hola Chicos,

We are in Mehico!!!!

Our journey from San Ignacio in Belize to Flores in Guatemala went without a hitch. Flores is an island on Lake Peten Itza, lovely little town with lots of narrow cobbled streets. Our reasons for going to Flores were to use it as a base to visit Tikal and then as a starting point to hop over to Mexico. Stayed in a huge rambling hostel called Los Amigos, great and definitely the place to be in Flores!!!!

So, we got up at 3am in order to be at the top of Temple IV to watch the sunrise over the temples at Tikal!!!!!! The early rise was worth it, we had to hike through the jungle for over ½ hr in the pitch black listening to the growls of howler monkeys! Tikal is the most important Mayan ruin site, hidden in the rainforest, it consists of towering temples, pyramids and loads of other smaller buildings that made up the royal palace. Many of the ruins have yet to be excavated. Pretty impressive and very mysterious. Saw lots of spider monkeys while looking around the ruins too! They're so cool!

The following day we were up early again, this time to catch a 5am bus that would take us to the Mexican border, from there we got on a tiny boat that took us down the river to Frontera Corozal in Chiapas region of Mexico. Once back on land we caught a minibus (the driver wins points for squashing 20 people into a 12 seater bus!) to Palenque. We stayed in a lodge in the jungle in El Panchan, just outside of Palenque, for one night and then the next day made our way to San Cristobal stopping at 2 waterfalls, Agua Azul and Misoha, and a river, Agua Clara, with a very dodgy wooden bridge, on the way.

San Cristobal is such a pretty city, full of brightly coloured biuldings. It's located in the highlands of Mexico, so in the night-time it was freeeeeeeeezing, first time we have been properly cold for ages! Fortunately during the day it was bright blue skies and sunshine. Spent a couple of days there sightseeing, great city to just amble around, and then it was time to find a beach so we can catch some rays before heading back to Winter.........................................