tremendously terrific tikal
well as you can tell I enjoyed tikal!
Our 2 day stopover in antigua was good - just wandered around... We then caught the 10hr night bus from Guatemala to Flores - it was looong! And was rather fun waiting at the dodgy bus stn at 9pm at night to catch the bus! Got to watch pretty woman and then the trip went a bit downhill (altho it didnt get hot which is a good thing) - the seats were ratehr uncomfy and the toilet was very smelly. The bus did do a potty stop at about 4am. altho it was mainly local guys on the bus and they didnt seem to care which toilet they went to - or whether they closed the door or not so i was waiting outside until this guatemalan lady came and yelled at the remaining men folk saying something in spanish and pointing at the ladies sign - hehe... and after all that i think i wouldve been way better off in the bus toilet!
When we finally arrived in Flores Sara and I couldnt find our transfer to Tikal so had to wait an hour until the next chicken bus left... - people got on and off and exchnged goodies all along the way so the trip took about an hour longer... and then when we arrived at the hotel we couldnt check in til 2pm (3 hrs away) so we were pretty unimpressed tired little bunnies!
We went into the park at 4 (the $20 entrance then lasts the next day as well) and it was fantastic! -we had the place to ourselves pretty much (only saw 3 other people), visited a couple of the temples (the park is 16km2) and saw loads of spider monkeys traipsing in the trees above us, heaps of leaf cutter ants crossing the path, and we saw one of those giant guinea pigs things (even if i could remember its name i wouldnt be able to spell it). We then made use of the electricity before the generator cut out at 9pm... was definitely wrthwhile staying in the park - and the shower was the greatest one i had this trip!
We got up at 4.15 to do the sunrise tour... did a rapid walk thru the park to the tallest temple (70m) and sat at the top waiting for the most to clear - didnt really while we were up there but it was nice to be there listening to the birds and howler monkeys and saw some toucans! Then we did a proper tour of the park which was good...
We caught the 11am bus back to Flores where we are staying the night. It is pretty nice - it is a little island on this lakeand has some nice little buildings etc... Have booked a minibus to take us to San Ignacio (just over the Belize border) tomorrow morning... We will spend the night there before heading up to Belize City where I will say goodbye to Sara :( (she is flying to Panama) and I will take a little boat to Caye Caulker and do some diving and go to the Blue Hole hopefully! (we were going to go to southern Belize but it is all flooded so decided against that ;) ) Then on the 17th I fly to Mexico city! yeehaa!
Spider monkey 
Ceiba tree
holding a trantula!
Temple 5
View from temple 5
Gran Plaza
Our 2 day stopover in antigua was good - just wandered around... We then caught the 10hr night bus from Guatemala to Flores - it was looong! And was rather fun waiting at the dodgy bus stn at 9pm at night to catch the bus! Got to watch pretty woman and then the trip went a bit downhill (altho it didnt get hot which is a good thing) - the seats were ratehr uncomfy and the toilet was very smelly. The bus did do a potty stop at about 4am. altho it was mainly local guys on the bus and they didnt seem to care which toilet they went to - or whether they closed the door or not so i was waiting outside until this guatemalan lady came and yelled at the remaining men folk saying something in spanish and pointing at the ladies sign - hehe... and after all that i think i wouldve been way better off in the bus toilet!
When we finally arrived in Flores Sara and I couldnt find our transfer to Tikal so had to wait an hour until the next chicken bus left... - people got on and off and exchnged goodies all along the way so the trip took about an hour longer... and then when we arrived at the hotel we couldnt check in til 2pm (3 hrs away) so we were pretty unimpressed tired little bunnies!
We went into the park at 4 (the $20 entrance then lasts the next day as well) and it was fantastic! -we had the place to ourselves pretty much (only saw 3 other people), visited a couple of the temples (the park is 16km2) and saw loads of spider monkeys traipsing in the trees above us, heaps of leaf cutter ants crossing the path, and we saw one of those giant guinea pigs things (even if i could remember its name i wouldnt be able to spell it). We then made use of the electricity before the generator cut out at 9pm... was definitely wrthwhile staying in the park - and the shower was the greatest one i had this trip!
We got up at 4.15 to do the sunrise tour... did a rapid walk thru the park to the tallest temple (70m) and sat at the top waiting for the most to clear - didnt really while we were up there but it was nice to be there listening to the birds and howler monkeys and saw some toucans! Then we did a proper tour of the park which was good...
We caught the 11am bus back to Flores where we are staying the night. It is pretty nice - it is a little island on this lakeand has some nice little buildings etc... Have booked a minibus to take us to San Ignacio (just over the Belize border) tomorrow morning... We will spend the night there before heading up to Belize City where I will say goodbye to Sara :( (she is flying to Panama) and I will take a little boat to Caye Caulker and do some diving and go to the Blue Hole hopefully! (we were going to go to southern Belize but it is all flooded so decided against that ;) ) Then on the 17th I fly to Mexico city! yeehaa!
Spider monkey Ceiba tree holding a trantula! Temple 5View from temple 5 Gran Plaza