Hotel Santana Peten

... had no door, just a cloth curtain and slopping thatched eaves on both sides, but it was cute. Having secured a room, we then explored El Retiro which is a collection of wooden huts on stilts scattered over a bank leading down to the Lanquin river. There is a veritable menagerie at El Retiro, a couple of cows, countless chickens, cats, dogs, mosquitoes and bugs that fall out of the thatched eaves on your face whilst sleeping.<br><br>The main restaurant serves good grub ...

... date and I was a bit disappointed, but then I found the mural rooms. Two small rooms still had the original Mayan paintings on the walls. Reds, yellows and blues showed contemporary rulers and some kind of ceremony. Really nice. I don´t have any pictures to post because... well it´s technical. The buildings, in general, look similar to the other ones I´ve posted.<br> I met a fascinating man on the bus to Flores. Alex was ...

... souvenir shops and began walking. It was lucky Shane didn&#8217;t come as we ended up walking for about five hours and though we stopped every now and then it was quite uneven ground for his knee. <br><br>But it really was an amazing place and the guide was great. He was very knowledgable, had studied for years on Tikal, and was really funny. He began by telling us we wouldn&#8217;t forget his name as its Donald Gonzalez so just think of Donald Duck and Speedy Gonzalez. It worked ...

Situated in the northern part of Guatemala, the ruins of Tikal are considered by many to be the best remaining examples of Mayan architecture around. They are certainly the hottest. <br><br>As we climbed onboard the battered minibus in Flores at 5am the air was thick with anticipation. Even the driver, slumped half-asleep over the wheel with headphones hanging from his ears, failed to quell the feeling of adventure. Each ...

... was in fact just a minivan, yet the only difference is... these peoples arent small bellied people, and they managed to fit at least 28 men, women, children and two stinky long haired travellers inside a freaking minivan... Its true, Its true I was there!  Did I mention there were a few Guatamalans sitting in the storage roof rake on the top, holding on as we speed down the deserted dirt road.  We actually ended up being two of the three holding on to the roofrack later ...

... as we finished up or breakfast. This tour group will drive us just outside the park entrance to fly through the jungle canopy on zip lines. By the time we arrived at the Canopy Tours facility the jungle had heated up and had become a sauna. The humidity was at an unregistered percentage, and I might have well been standing in a hot shower fully clothed, because I was drenched from head to toe. Our tour group consisted of two professionals and seven fools. The ...

... on another flight. These little SAAB 340A only seat 33 passengers. It has a double row of seats on the Starboard (right) side of the plane with a single row of seat on the Port (Left) side of the plane, with the isle in between. Guatemala City is at 5000 feet elevation. So with the cloud cover this morning it makes for a low ceiling. Once we launched the plane off the deck of the carrier U.S.S. Guate Ciudad we headed to our cursing altitude of 17,000 feet ...

Dear everyone Thanks for all the incredible support the blog has been getting. Only have a brief amount of time to write at the moment as the animal welfare organisation runs a pretty tight ship and I can only check the internet for about 30 minutes per week. So, what is it like working with the animals I have learnt 2 things so far. 1) Jaguars are aggressive, angry and truly vicious animals. They do not like me. They do not like it ...

Fog mars sunrise at Tikal. Stop at Lago Peten Itza and visit Flores, a town on small island in the lake. Proceed to camp at Finca Ixobel near the small town of Poptun. Finca means 'farm' and Ixobel is a working farm. However, it is mainly a hippy hangout. It really jumps especially at night. Met some really fun young ladies who humored my age. We had a ...