Guatemala, Flores & Antigua

Trip Start Mar 11, 2008
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Trip End Mar 10, 2009


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(Guatemala City hotels)

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Thursday, June 5, 2008

Hi guys, well i took a bus through Belize without stopping due to heavy floods...But got to see a lot of the small country as took a day bus to guatemala. Belize has a large black population & the spoken language in English/American.

So far all of Central America is very,very green. First stop in Guatemala was Flores. A beautiful small island with real lovely friendly Guatemalans. I took a day tour to Tikal National Park which is like a huge tropical jungle with lots of birds,monkeys,trantulas,jaguars & temples. While i was walking around i kept hearing this really load growling sound coming from the forest....curiosity got the better of me & i asked a tour guide what it was & he said it was howling monkeys...of course i didn´t believe him because it sounded more like a huge bear....he told me where to find them & i found them..they are medium sized black howling monkeys & i recorded the sound that they make. Truley unbelievable noise from such a small animal.

There were lots of beautiful Temples & some of them are still hidden in the huge forest of the national park.

I then planned to go to lake Atitlan but Guatemala has had really bad heavy rain for a few weeks & the bus has been unable to get there, so sadly i didn´t get to see the lake, but i went to stay in Antigua which used to be the capital until a huge earthquake many years ago. The town is small with lots of cobbled streets & markets.

I took a tour to see Pacaya, an active volcano. We took a bus for 1hour then hiked 1hour up the mountain to the active volcano. You can see lots of old lava which you walk across to get to the hot bubbling lava. Wow it was the scariest thing i have ever done!! Peoples shoe soles were melting from the heat. The lava you walk on crumbles away from under your feet! We got close enough to toast marshmellows & the heat was so extreme it was like being in a sauna. Got some fantastic photo´s.

Once we were back on safe ground we watched the volcano errupting & blowing out red flames. We were very lucky not to get any rain on the trip.

So Guatemala definately has the most friendliest people so far & they can all speak a little english mixed with my little spanish we got along fine.

I moved through Guatemala quickly because of the bad weather & decided to go through El Salvador for a 1night stopover & take a bus through Hondoras to Nicaragua where the weather is better.

Take care, will write again soon luv Jo.
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