Gran Hotel De La Isla Flores

... the riverside bar and making friends with all the lovely people there.<br><br>Now we are back in Flores - God it has been raining alot, i think Guatemala is experiencing a delayed wet season. However, yesterday the sun came out and we swam in the lake that surrounds this island. We chose to believe that the people who told us that there were crocodiles in the lake had been misinformed! We are staying at another funky hostel, where ...

... but you had to order the guacamole on the side. Which I did &#8211; I thought. However, after having waited 20 minutes, I only got cold nachos and guacamole!!! Well, I had time to consume a boring hamburger at the airport, where I had to wait for my departure for 1½ hours. When going through check-in they confiscated my one and only lighter &#8211; and my insect repellent. Needless to say, that there had not been similar security inspections at the TAG airport hangar ...

We had a nightmare of a journey from Belize to Flores. <br><br>We arrived at the Belize to learn that our bus from Guatemala hadn't been let through the boarder! We had to get a taxi to the bus station, take a chicken bus to near the boarder, THEN take a taxi to the boarder, where we'll have a minibus waiting for us. We and 3 fellow Americans and a couple of Ozzy's commenced the painful journey, what took all in all about 5 ...

... climbing our last temple we chilled out had some beers before heading back to our bus which would take us back to Flores.<br><br>That evening was very quiet since the hostel is mainly geared to Tikal day trips there are many people getting up for the early morning tours. Due to this and the fact that there was not much else to do in town, the hostel pretty much died after 10pm. I got an early night in preparation for my trip the next day to Lanquin.

... face to face with a family of Howler Monkeys. They were so close, I was climbing some stairs, and they were in a tree next to the stairs that had started growing further down the steep hill, so even though they were high in the tree, they were level with the stairs I was on. Only a few meters in front of them. I stayed and watched them for about twenty minutes. They mostly hung around by their tales eating leaves ...

... 8217;ba caves. Once there we were led to a swing that was tied into a tree next to the fast flowing Rio Cahabon The idea was to sit on the swing and when the guide said jump you slipped off the swing into the river. All completed this with various levels of finesse, some managed impressive belly flops, as they leant too far out of the swing and gravity pulled their upper bodies down instead of falling feet first. The momentum of the swing suddenly takes hold as you swing ...

... the Grand Canyon of Mayan sites; however, we both wish we could have done a 6 day trek to El Mirador to have some peace and tranquility in a much less developed ruin where the archaeologists fly in via helicopter like Indiana Jones. One day we will get there and hopefully it will not be on the Mayan Rail. <br><br>UNESCO Heritage needs to do more to protect these places from rapid degradation. Just an opinion<br>

... There is no wrong answers to this question, because no matter<br>what choice we make it will lead to more amazing conversations with<br>fellow travelers and new landscapes and people to be entranced by.<br><br>After<br>meeting our guide and sitting down with the some traveling companions<br>and potential trekking partners Joe from NYC and Heritte from London to<br>discuss this trip I found myself heartbroken at whatever decision I<br>would have to make. It was like having a fork in ...

... for the sunset. Not too many people there climbed some pyramids and just relaxed. Later that evening we grabbed dinner at the Jaguar Inn and then wandered around at night to enjoy the stars, which were incredible. We then smoked a little bit went of a swim and looked at the starts some more. They cut the power for the night just as we were getting out of the pool (d'oh!).

... We chilled out in the hostel bar / dining area and had a few beers and went to bed early in preparation for our 5am start in the morning!!! <br><br>Friday 19th: We opted for the 5.30am departure to Tikal because we were informed that there would be more chance of seeing wildlife, particularly big cats, at that time and there would also be less people....it seems that the pumas and jaguars there might be that chance of seeing are somewhat elusive at the best of ...