Jungle Lodge Tikal National Park

Rio dulce sits on a nice lake which turns into a river to the ocean. The open water access to the ocean brings lots of people living on yachts and sailboats into the very good port of Rio Dulce. Launchas are the mode of transportation from the small town to the two jungle hideaway hotels. The first jungle lodge was a bit pricey but offered interesting cabanas hovers on stilts above what can only be described as a swamp. Definitely out of the ordinary but a nice change. The second night I move...

Strange rhythms of the night. Though we were in bed and lights out, the generator switched off at 23.00h, stopping the fan in our room. Outside our cabana, a kerosene lantern was hung. Sometime in the night, the lantern was removed, leaving us in darkness. Then, at 05.20h, as the dawn approached, a howler monkey began its weird complaining, vomiting, impending-death cry. Finally, it stopped, and we returned to sleep. We were up around 08.00h, showered, breakfast at the Jaguar Inn. I got to th...

We took a direct minibus from Coban to Antigua. It was booked through our hotel. It was a good price and we didn´t have to stop in Guatemala City. It was crazy as we drove through there. A million cars on the road. It was huge, and took us about 2 hours to get through traffic. We arrived in the afternoon and were dropped off at this hotel that we had planned to stay. It was nice, but super loud at night. That Saturday night was really busy. A lot of people from the city come into town for the...

After much consideration, I decided it was time to leave the beautiful colonial town of Antigua and learn Spanish while traveling more. I chose to head to Lago de Atitlan. Since there were 4 other students who would be arriving today (1 returning student whose orientation I do not know, and 3 gringos), I decided to stay at the Jungle Party Hostel my final night, allowing my host family to have more room for the new students. The Jungle Party Hostel was quite an experience. Everywhere you look...

I didn't go hiking finally because I'm sick since last night. I didn't sleep well because the people sleeping in my dorm came back drunk at 1:30am shouting and laughing. Yeah i forgot what it is to be in a noisy dorm... The hostel is named the jungle party hostel... i know why now... So I'm staying in Antigua today and trying to get some rest. Nestled between 3 volanoes, Antigua is a very pretty city. Founded in 1543 it served as the colonial capital for 233 years. The capital was transferred...

Tikal is a Mayan temple site in the middle of the jungle in Northern Guatemala. Enroute to the site, the weather turned wet pretty quickly and it didn't take long before we found a fallen tree had blocked the road. The locals were pretty quick with their machetes though, so we weren't waiting too long. Original camping plans were replaced with a couple of rooms in the Jungle Lodge. It wasn't cheap but the views from outside the rooms were awesome. Sitting outside the rooms, we watched a 3-hou...

After a 4am start and a pretty smooth flight we arrived at Flores airport to our guide, Carlos. We were packed into a minibus for the hour drive to the park, stopping at a "model community" selling all kinds of souvenirs (and junk). Pretty much as soon as we arrived at the hotel we were taken into the park for a guided tour (which it turned out was only for the two of us as it is apparently the low season there, pretty good for us). Carlos seemed to be a pretty good guide, telling us about th...

Entry containing 10 photos titled: room in el remate, the poisonous snake we almost stepped on, the ceiba tree, tikal, watching the sunrise..., ...at tikal, tikal doner, coati, ., doner & friend

We woke to the alarm going off a 3:15 AM. We have 45 minutes to get our gear together and meet out front of the hotel. We aren't taking much, change of clothes, light waterproof jacket, hat, flashlights, first aid kit, mosquito repellant 98.9% DEET, camera, extra pair of sock, itinerary, tickets, and vouchers for the transfers, tours and hotel. The four of us headed back towards Guatemala City at 4 AM. Once again we will be traveling into the city while it is dark. I understand that we aren't...

HOWLER MONKEY (Alouatta pigra) at 2:30 AM is not how we expected to start our day. If you have never experienced a call of the Howler Monkey in the calm silence of the early morning hours, consider yourself lucky. Actually I found it fascinating. Lay in the pitch dark under mosquito netting listening to this fierce call. My wife called out to me "Are you awake?" "Do you hear that?" I responded "Of course I hear that, who can't hear it?" I figured that the entire jungle was now awake at this ...