In the morning (07.01.) we started 6 am towards Flores in Guatemala. We said goodbye to Fabio and Lorie who started a bit later with their trip to Yaxchillan. Our bus brought us to the Mexican border town Frontera Corozal. There we exited Mexico, got on a small boat and crossed the river to La Tecnica in Guatemala. We had some small breakfast and talked to other fellow travellers while waiting for the next bus. With that bus we made a short stop in Bethel for immigration to Guatemala. Afterwads, a long and very bumpy ride brought us to Flores. On the bus ride we met 6 Austrians (5 m, 1 f). They told us the horrofying story that they were robbed the day before in Palenque when they visited the Cascades Aqua Azul (first, we also considered visiting this place!). When their colectivo left Aqua Azul for Palenque, two guys, one with a shotgun and one with a machete, stopped the collectivo and robbed the Austrians. They were smart to hide most of their valuables beneath the chairs before the robbers entered the bus so they did not lose too much and luckily noone was hurt. Problems in the Chiapas region of Mexico are not uncommon...
Our bus to Flores then first stopped in bigger neighboring Santa Elena, so we could cash up at an ATM. In Flores we stayed at
Hotel Casa Amelia, which was a bit more pricey than other places around. But we liked it... especially the roof terrace offered good views :)
The sun was already setting when we checked in at our hotel. We quickly grabbed some local street food from across the hotel and then had a walk around the island. We also went shopping for the trip to Tikal we wanted to do the next day. It was funny to find how lively the locals on this small island are. At Parque Central kids were performing karate/judo acts and many people were watching. We had dinner at our hotel which was not remarkable and had some drinks before we fall to sleep.
We booked a late morning bus to Tikal, so we could enjoy breakfast at the lakeside restaurant
Dona Goya the next morning (08.01.) close to our hotel. The views were nice and the food was better than at our hotel^^ Afterwards our bus picked us up and an hour later we were at Tikal. We were a bit unlucky that it started to rain... but after waiting some time the rain finished and we continued to explore the many Maya ruins around Tikal. Like Palenque, Tikal is nicely situated within the jungle and offers plenty opportunities for climbing. Moreover, it is the biggest archeological site with Mayan ruins we visited. We recognized that we visit Mayan places in the right order with them getting better each time. Tikal was even a b
it nicer than Palenque, although mainly because it is bigger and offers more to see. When we climbed one of the biggest temples to overlook Tikal, we met the Austrians again and they were so nice as of to take some pictures of us :) We were lucky to spot a toucan and saw many montezuma oropendolas. When the sun was setting, many raccoon-like Coatis and
Ocellated turkeys were running around the ruins. Back in Flores, we also had dinner at Dona Goya. During dinner, we heard sounds of firework and recognized quite a huge firework was taking place near Parque Central. We finally could see the fireworks we were missing during
New Years Eve in Cancun^^
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| climbing many stairs around Tikal |
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| overlooking jungle and temples of Tikal |
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| nice jungle views |
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| many impressive temples within the jungle |
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| climbing and exploring Tikal :) |
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| some gorgeous views... |
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| the main temple area |
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| :D |
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