Bandito country and Tikal

Our night bus adventure through bandito country began with our shuttle to Guatemala City... nothing like weaving through hundreds of vehicles at 80 miles an hour with no seatbelts! Luckily we made it safely to the bus station. After Josh helped the other shuttle passengers get their lugguge down, we headed inside and got our tickets. As soon as we sat down, a bus driver came up to us. "Flores?" he asked. "Si" He explained to us, from what we could understand, that we couldn't bring our bags on board and had to check them. We took out what we wanted on board and then checked our bags. But we soon found that that wasn't such a great idea: there were TWO buses to Flores, and the bus driver who hadn't looked at our tickets, had just checked our bags on the wrong bus, the one that was leaving a half hour earlier. After a difficult conversation made up of Spanglish and hand signaling, we were allowed to pick out our bags. Josh jumped into the bowels of the bus, recovered our bags, and, phew... crisis averted.

We arrived at Flores right before sunrise.  I was a little disoreinted when I got off the bus. Probably from the sleeping pills.  I didn't believe it when we were told we were already in Flores. We watched the sun rise from over the lake and jungle, a truly beautiful sight.  The fog gave dimension to the multiple layers of forest and mountain. From the shore we could see mothers and fathers paddling their children to school.  Others were fishing for the day's food.  We soon found ourselves taking in the beauty of the lake and sunrise from a little cafe called Cool Beans.  We each had a Mocha, which was about par for what I have had in Central America.  I then had an omelet with cheese and ham, hashbrowns, and toast. A little local hot sauce and I was off.  Amanda had a bowl of fresh fruits, yogurt, and graola(Which was also good). With the food and view it was paradise indeed.

After a fight with a rooster for our food (a cock fight, if you will) and chatting with a German fellow, we decided to figure out the trek to Tikal.  After a short walk and conversation we found ourselves a shuttle to Tikal and back, plus the trip back to Antigua.

We then boarded our shuttle to Tikal. On the way we got a history lesson on the site and of the Mayan people who called it home.   Our guide Chino gave us an overwhelming amount of information on Mayan history; it was too much to take it all in, but we couldn't help but be striken by how passionate he was about the history of his Mayan ancestors.

We got our room at Jungle Lodge room c-6.  A small room with a bed and shelving for clothes, nothing great for the price but the scenery and wildlife makes up for it... and finally, hot showers!

Around three o'clock we headed down to the ticket booth to get our tickets for the park. We had to wait until 3:30 because tickets bought after 3:30 were good for the next morning as well. As soon as we had our tickets inhand, we traveled down the dirt path, heading deeper and deeper into the rainforest. We trekked immediately towards the Grand Plaza and Temples I and II. The first glimpse of Temple 1 seemed surreal. Once upon a time, it was just a picture, and finally it was right in front of us.

We walked around the Grand Plaza, taking plenty of photos and video. Luckily, there weren't many other tourists  (or guards...no guards), so we practically had the place to ourselves. After climbing around the North Acropolis, we ascended Temple II which gave us a stunning view of the entire plaza.

Our next stop was to the Grandaddy of all the temples: Temple IV. We hiked past Temple III.  

More to come....