El remate

Trip Start Jul 04, 2008
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Trip End Oct 22, 2008


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Where I stayed
la casa de dona tonita
(El Remate hotels)

Flag of Guatemala  ,
Tuesday, September 16, 2008

we left the beautiful grounds of Parrot nest with the assistance of our gracious hostess Theo, she was going into town anyway. After a short wait and more than a couple perplexed looks (hair) we boarded the bus for the border with Guatemala. The bus stops short of the border in some little town, the name of which escapes me currently, then it is supposed to be a short ride to the border crossing but with only $5 Belize between the three of us (Kirstin and i picked up a German traveling companion named Sophie) and the taxi drivers insisted it takes $9 Belize for the 5 minute drive, we were going to walk the 1.5 kilometers.  as the 3 of us had shouldered our loads and headed away from the bustle of the bus stop and towards the border a voice called from the far side of the street to offer his service as chauffeur, we explained our situation in regards to our shortage of belizean cash and he said he would take us there for what we had.  viola- a ride.
at the border things went well (except Sophie left her passport with the Belize border control and they had to run after her), and we were on our way once again to el remate. this is a quiet lakeside town about 45 minutes from tikal, i am taking Spanish classes here and a couple days ago we boarded the collectivo bus at 5.30am and went to visit the ancient Mayan ruins of tikal, a cultural, spiritual and royal center of a large Mayan city from 800 BC to 900 ad.  the day pretty much consisted of 8 hours of hiking about and climbing to the tops of temples, stumbling through ruins of different kinds of Mayan structures, courtyards, plazas and pyramids.  we opted to purchase a walking guidebook before we entered the ruins, it was cheaper then a guide and easier to carry lol.
Kirstin played tour guide most of the day. tikal was absolutely incredible - i could go on for pages about everything we saw, but i wont.  outside of a couple of torrential downpours, our day was unmarked by any kind of low point. that night after more copious alcohol consumption, we slept very well.
the next 3 days started with breakfast and Spanish tutoring and ended reading Dan browns digital fortress.
and today we have just arrived in Flores, Guatemala.
we decided not to go into Mexico and will be in Guatemala until probably October 4th ish...
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