tikal my fancy

so for starters: tikal. was. AWESOME! but i'll get to that in a bit.

where did i leave off? well, after lanquin, it was a long and sweaty shuttle ride up to flores. you could literally feel the heat pressing down on you as we made our way northward into the peten region of guatemala. here, the jungle grows free and there is really no such thing as a cool breeze or hot shower.

once in flores, by happenstance met a girl in my dorm who's next stop was also honduras! it's been amazing, actually, how easy it's been to stumble across really great traveling buddies. let's hope that luck lasts me through the rest of my journeys!

after being completely knackered from a couple days of travel, i decided to put tikal off for another day-when i would have enough energy to really appreciate it-and explore the island (yeah, flores is an island. who knew, right??) of flores. helen-the british girl i'm traveling with-and i set off with the intention of finding this little town of san miguel where there was supposed to be great swimming, but after five minutes of walking in the humidity was about to blow off the whole idea. it was then that we happened across the random guatemalan, who told us he knew of a "really special place" he could take us too. um...porque no??

he was with a norwegian guy, christofer, as well, and all four of us boarded a boat and set off. no words were spoken, but we ended up at some dock, got off and headed into the jungle. apparently, this guy was a tour guy in another life, and took us to all these "sacred mayan sites," aka large mounds of dirt with a couple stone engravings, and a couple of lookout points where you could see the whole of the peten region. it is very green. finally, we began making our way to the beach down this tiny path. he took out his radio to play music to ward of the jaguars...and at this point i didn't know if i was more scared of a jaguar attack or this guy's friends with machetes. luckily though, we emerged onto an absolutely picturesque stretch of playa. white sand, turquoise water...you know the drill. the water was warm and clear and the perfect temperature. great way to spend the afternoon!!

the beach at san miguel

and the next day was tikal.

temple I

you guys know me, i'm already a bit obsessed with ancient civilizations and archeology and anything that is remotely related to indiana jones, so i already knew tikal would be awesome. but seriously, it was AWESOME! huge mayan temples tucked away in various parts of the jungle, the tops peaking just over the rainforest cover. in fact, i don't know how you could go to tikal and not be impressed with the grandeur of everything (cough cough rachel!!).

on top of temple IV

the area around the main plaza was pretty crowded, but the ruins are so spread apart that you could basically climb a temple, sit at the top and feel like you have the whole of tikal to yourselves. which is exactly what we did.

howler monkeys swing from the vines, "fox monkeys" (they have a proper name but they look like racoons and for some reason we all started calling them fox monkeys), tarantulas scurrying through the leaves. sadly, no jaguars. although they could have been watching us and we would have never even known.

speaking of tarantulas. i held one. her name was delilah and she liked to crawl up my arm with her eight hairy legs.

it was hot and sweaty (are you seeing a trend here? EVERYWHERE is hot and sweaty) but so worth it. and we saved 150Q on a tour guide by using our trusty lonely planet and a compass!

good things come in threes

and maybe tikal got me in an adventurous mood, but that night, helen and i decided against taking a very expensive, very boring tourist shuttle ride to san pedro sula in honduras and instead forge our own way using buses. and that, my friends, is another story for another time. but i guess you already know we made it...

but as a preview, it involved about 9 cities, 1 tuk tuk, 3 taxis, 2 microbuses, 3 chicken buses, 2 city buses, 2 immigration offices, 1 international border, 2 hostels and 1 boat ride. all in the name of saving 150Q (about 15 bucks) and a good story. mission: accomplished!

i've been on the road for a while now. definitely sick of my clothes, but not even close to being sick of traveling. truly where i am at my happiest. maybe you have to get lost to really be found.

and PHOTOS:
some more pics of flores and tikal
updated pics of the rest of guatemala