Sunday and I'm home - Oct 23

Saturday we caught the 7am Van back to the Flores airport for our 9:30am flight. (it was delayed till about 11am. we 'enjoyed' our time in the airport drinking coffee and eating fresh pineapple spread on toast. trying to spend all our Quetzales. i found a $5 Q note in my shirt pocket doing laundry today.) Finally we arrived back in Belize City and enjoyed a great lunch at the airport. (if you are ever in Belize City i highly recommend the airport restaurant. i know, that sounds crazy but really their food is good.)

Back in Tikal. Friday we hired a guide – Noel, who spoke good english and tried to walk us to death. ($10US ea. / 4hrs) he was a lot of fun and worked well with our little band of four. At one point he is giving his talk and says – “now look at this shit.” So he was obviously learning english from us as he went.

Tikal Guatemala

At Tikal we found lodging at the Jaguar Inn, one of the three modest hotels inside the national park complex. $35 US per night for a nice clean room with ceiling fan. (interesting footnote: the hot water only ran between 6a-9a, and 6p-9p. the electricity only ran 9a-12p, 1p-4p, 6p-9p) the rooms were airy and screened for plenty of fresh air and jungle noise. You could hear the howler monkeys and imagine jaguars roaming around the grounds after dark.

The draw here is the Mayan ruins of Tikal. It is said that there are over 4,000 buildings, and that there were over 125,000 inhabitants during the cities peak about 900 ad. The largest temples are over 150ft tall. Many stellas are around the park, carved and standing erect over an alter marking some significant historical stuff…

Tikal: Thur-Sat

Friday morning we flew out of Belize City to Flores Airport. (Flores International – airport to the stars!)

But, im getting ahead of myself. Thursday we fled the approaching storm Wilma. The prediction was she would make landfall in Mexico and then curl up to Florida. But a category 5 would still reek havoc on our little island and ruin any chance for scuba or “resting on the beach.” So we packed up and flew to Belize City, in route to Tikal, Guatemala. Tropic Airlines wouldn’t fly us on the afternoon (cancelled) flight Wednesday but ‘would’ fly us Thursday morning for the 8:30am flight… till we got to the airport and they told us they were transferring us to Maya airlines. So, we were the only 4 on board.

The airport in Flores is ‘nice’ by Central American standards and a gem in the crown for Guatemala. We breezed through immigration and customs to meet Emil the travel man. He agreed to provide van service for the 4 of us $20 each round trip for our ride 1hr up to Tikal. Francisco was our driver – a joy to be around with as much english as my spanish so we got along fine.

First Francisco took us for a quick tour of Flores. (a city built on an island - recently connected by land) The circle route through town up to the central plaza at the church on the city’s crest. (a mandatory stop at the tourist trap) then back off the island and through the lowlands around the lake to Tikal.