Hotel Gringo Perdido El Remate

... in Guatemala City, me and the Argentinean woman had to wait for our ride, but we were glad when it arrived. We ended up sharing the ride with this Canadian, who had finally arrived in Guatemala after a strenuous journey with cancelled flights and without luggage. He travelled with his little Chihuahua and was very weird. Finally, I just excused myself and started listening to my iPod. When I returned home, it was to find a somewhat disturbed Elian. I turned out that she had ...

... a restaurant and saw the locals at evening service at the church. We also saw some of the other locals taking part in a slightly different kind of Sunday worship, propping up the bar in a wooden shack. Every time one of them tried to walk they would fall over and have to just lie on the floor until attempting to get up again to repeat exactly the same ...

... underwater camera, so switched it on and by that light we were able to move forward and into an open cavern with a step ladder going up.

Light at the end of the Tunnel


Cat and I both assumed we had to climb up the ladder to get out. We had now been joined by another two and a lit candle. I managed after several attempts to relight my candle (difficult procedure, when you are shivering and the wick is wet) and we all surveyed our options. One of the other ...

We hadn't originally planned to visit Guatemala but after hearing several travelers rave about the Mayan ruins at Tikal, we added it to our itinerary. This is where traveling without specific plans has it's advantages.

Against Mom's protests, we caught a 6am bus from Flores to Tikal and arrived around 7:30am. A 20 minute walk into the jungle transported us to ...

... around each other, providing shade along the
paths. Many species of animals also live in the park. We were warned at the entrance about the way in which howler monkeys show their dominance - by
flinging poo onto unsuspecting visitor's heads. Fortunately, we escaped this
fate (perhaps the monkeys could tell that we knew who was boss and decided we
weren't worth the effort). We did, however, see some of these graceful
Tikal National Park, Guatemala amandanlauren

... so they Wajed my entry fee into Guatemala, cheaper than Belize already! We got a collectivo taxi to Flores, which is basically one of those mini vans, but in Guatemala they load these buggers until there is no room anywhere! 24 people in there for most of the trip. Probably seats for like 15-16! We got to Santa Elena and got a tuk tuk to Flores. Santa Elena is located on land beside the lake and Flores, where we are staying in an island actually in ...

Avant le départ pour El Remate, on doit de nouveau faire un arrêt au bancomat (en français distributeur de billet, mais j'aime bien le mot suisse ;)), ça file tout ça! Je prends le volant mais c'est pas une réussite, je me prends un trou énorme sur la route et je rate un boum-boum (sorte de dos d'âne mais bien méchant). Au prochain arrêt, j'en profite pour rendre le volant, je ...

... at 5.30 in the morning to get a colectivo to the ruins at Tikal. Only on the way did we find out the park now doesn´t open until 6am so you can´t get up the temples for sunrise as is tradition. Also the park now costs 15 quid not 5. We got in and up Temple 5 while there were still very few people and could hear all the parrots and howler monkeys in the jungle waking up and making noise. We wandered around the temples and ruins in the jungle pretty much alone until mid ...

... are so high and some of them were quite scary to climb up. Actually scarier to climb down! Tikal is a must see for anyone going to Guatemala. We spent a day just swimming in the clean, clear and warm lake while someone on the shore played 'Afternoon Delight'. It was the perfect song. Later in the day we took a shuttle bus to Flores which is a village on an island in the lake. We were entertained by a band which paraded around the island ...

Our journey from the Mexican border to Guatemala was the longest yet. We passed into Belice in the early hours of Tuesday morning and continued to drive until we reached Belice City, the old capital. It was strange to hear people speaking English again, especially the pigeon English the locals were talking. The place had a rough edge to it and I was glad we wasn´t spending the night. As we traveled further west, towards the Guatemalan border, the landscape ...