Guatemala!

So we pushed through Belize very quickly, within 24 hrs actually. It seems like a very beautiful, quiet place, great for exploring / chilling out, but we made a spontaneous decision to push on. We caught the water taxi to Belize City which was beautiful traveling through the Carribean sea.

Water taxi, awesome transport option :-)

We then caught a 5 hr bus to Guatemala. It was an enjoyable trip watching the green countryside roll by, with small villages vege gardens, orchards, schools, horse paddocks etc. At the border stop everything was a bit odd. There was a long line at the Guatemalan immigration and our bus driver who only spoke Spanish, convinced us to part with a few dollars and our passports. Not entirely sure what was happening, we watched him like a hawk as he appeared to be having a fairly assertive conversation with the immigration staff. Soon he arrived back with our stamped passports, all good.

The landscape changed traveling through Guatemala. Everything changed back to Spanish and there were lush rolling hills and more beef cattle. Lots of ranchers out on their horses. It really is beautiful countryside here.

We arrived in Flores and promptly found ourselves in a hotel and on a 4:30am tour to Tikal the following day. The hotel isn't 4 star by any means but I found it absolutely gorgeous. It's kind of like a dated mix of Spanish and local design. The prize feature is a rooftop hangout complete with hammocks, overlooking the lake. All a little quirky but very cute :-)

Rooftop hammock area on top of the hotel, looking over the lake at sunset.

Flores itself is a small 'island' town in the middle of a lake. Very beautiful and a great place to hang out and explore the ruins of Tikal.

The following day we were up at the ridiculous time of 4am to tour the ruins early and beat the crowds (and heat). The bus was full of backpackers from around the world and also a couple of Aussie lads. These were the first Australians we'd met in Central America and Vanessa got her fix of 'Aussie humor' bantering at any opportunity ;-)

The Tikal ruins are massive. The area mapped / excavated is 16 sq km and about 3000 structures. This is estimated to be about 20% of the actual ruins. The mystery of the city is that it was not conquered by the Spanish, the Mayans abandoned it 500 yrs before Spanish arrival. The theory the guide presented us was that the culture destroyed themselves by felling so much forest in order to build the city (sound familiar?).

The structures of the site are impressive, but I was more taken by the beauty of the jungle and wildlife within it. This is what it's really about for me. There are mounds upon mounds of unexcavated ruins, overtaken by the jungle. Nature always wins out in the end and is more beautiful than any man made structure.

Ceiba - the national tree. We were all blown away by the beauty of this tree, but the photo doesn't do justice.

Greeted by some 'orbs' at one of the half restored structures.

An unexcavated mound (returned to nature)

One of the temples

Gorgeous tree. There are birds who build nests that hang from the highest branches of these trees,  'away from cats' as one person on the tour put it ;-)

Temple II. We climbed some crazy dodgy stairs to get up this one, seriously, like every second one was missing. On the equinoxes, The sun rises directly over Temple I, casting a shadow over Temple II.

Ruins complex where Temples I and II sit.

Cute little fella poking out of the tree. Maxed out the zoom to get this ;-)

Another temple. Gives some scale as to how tall these are.

Took a few attempts to get this guy flashing his red feathers at us ;-)

Another pyramid

At the end of the tour we climbed Temple IV which is 20 storeys high. I sat up there for ages enjoying the view and the amazing energy, only the intense heat eventually drove me down.

The view from Temple IV. Temples I, II and III poking up from the jungle (after the 20 story climb, yes my butt is sore today)

On the way out we came across a group of about a dozen monkeys enjoying a siesta in a very large tree.

Monkeys...snoozing.

Today I've been catching up on sleep, exploring Flores and hitting the wi-fi via a hammock on the rooftop. Tomorrow, the plan is to take the overnight bus to Antigua and check out the surrounds. I like it here so far, one could definitely spend a lot of time exploring Guatemala :-)