Flores and Tikal
Greetings All!
Lisa and I left Guatemala City on Saturday morning to catch the luxury bus. It was actually really nice, double decker bus, with air conditioning that worked too well. Even despite the cold Burger King that was served and the tissue-like blankets the 8 hour trip went pretty fast.
We got into Flores around 6 pm and in about 10 mins we had our hotel, shuttle ticket to Tikal and bus ticket to Belize. The Mirador del Lago Hotel was pretty nice. Our first one was on the top level, only unit with a huge balcony over looking the lake and Flores. Beautiful!
Flores is a tiny island city that is pretty much quiet all year round according to a local that I asked. You could walk the entire island in about 3o mins. I am not sure if it was ever completly surrounded by water, but now there is a small road that connects it with the mainland.
The following day we got our shuttle to Tikal at 5 am in the morning. I know it was difficult for me. The bus was a little late, promising to have us watch the sunrise in Tikal, but we got there around 7:00 am instead. Once in Tikal it was a short 10 min ride through the Ancient Mayan Ruin Park.
The Mayan Park is one of the largest collection of ruins in the world and it was absolutely amazing. We first headed to the Gran Plaza which holds Temples I and II. It was incredible to see the temples, alters, and offering tables. You could totally see this Gran Plaza as a working/functioning "city center."
We lucked out and ran into Dave, Megan, and Paul. They left the day before us and we were worried that we wouldn't see Dave or Megan to say bye. Both of them are leaving for the States. We miss you already.
From the Gran Plaza we headed to Temple IV the highest of all the Temples. From there the view was beautiful. From all around you only could see the rain forest and the other Temples sticking through the trees. We also saw a lot of monkeys climbing and jumping from one tree to another.
After that we headed for the other Temples, six in all and the other collection of ruins. They are similar in appearance of the pyramids in Egypt. The only real difference is that the Mayan Temples have stairs that go all the way to the top of the temple. We had lunch, finished up the rest of the sights and headed home after about 7 hours of walking and climbing in the park. It was tiring, but well worth the trip. What a great experience.
We went back to Flores to stay the night and then head out to Belize City the next morning, again catching a 5 am shuttle. Only this time we had to change rooms because the first one was for three people and we are only two. Needless to say it wasn't as nice as the first one. It was on the second floor right next to the street so it was very noisy. When you used the bathroom sink, the water would drain from the bowl to the floor. Also, the toilet/sink emitted a foul smell...something like a gases sulferic smell. I guess we had our very own hot natural springs in our own room.
The next morning we met up with Paul and were picked up at 5:10 am in a shuttle that took us on a 1 min ride to the other side of the island. From there we waited until 6:00 am for the bus. Ha ha...they said the 5 am ride to Belize was the best, but they must have meant the 1 min shuttle ride.
It took us about five hours to get to Belize City and we jumped on the 12:30 pm boat to Caye Caulker. Caye Caulker is an island off of Belize about 20 miles away. It is very beautiful here. More to come on this!
Hope all is well and love you all!
Craig
Lisa and I left Guatemala City on Saturday morning to catch the luxury bus. It was actually really nice, double decker bus, with air conditioning that worked too well. Even despite the cold Burger King that was served and the tissue-like blankets the 8 hour trip went pretty fast.
We got into Flores around 6 pm and in about 10 mins we had our hotel, shuttle ticket to Tikal and bus ticket to Belize. The Mirador del Lago Hotel was pretty nice. Our first one was on the top level, only unit with a huge balcony over looking the lake and Flores. Beautiful!
Flores is a tiny island city that is pretty much quiet all year round according to a local that I asked. You could walk the entire island in about 3o mins. I am not sure if it was ever completly surrounded by water, but now there is a small road that connects it with the mainland.
The following day we got our shuttle to Tikal at 5 am in the morning. I know it was difficult for me. The bus was a little late, promising to have us watch the sunrise in Tikal, but we got there around 7:00 am instead. Once in Tikal it was a short 10 min ride through the Ancient Mayan Ruin Park.
The Mayan Park is one of the largest collection of ruins in the world and it was absolutely amazing. We first headed to the Gran Plaza which holds Temples I and II. It was incredible to see the temples, alters, and offering tables. You could totally see this Gran Plaza as a working/functioning "city center."
We lucked out and ran into Dave, Megan, and Paul. They left the day before us and we were worried that we wouldn't see Dave or Megan to say bye. Both of them are leaving for the States. We miss you already.
From the Gran Plaza we headed to Temple IV the highest of all the Temples. From there the view was beautiful. From all around you only could see the rain forest and the other Temples sticking through the trees. We also saw a lot of monkeys climbing and jumping from one tree to another.
After that we headed for the other Temples, six in all and the other collection of ruins. They are similar in appearance of the pyramids in Egypt. The only real difference is that the Mayan Temples have stairs that go all the way to the top of the temple. We had lunch, finished up the rest of the sights and headed home after about 7 hours of walking and climbing in the park. It was tiring, but well worth the trip. What a great experience.
We went back to Flores to stay the night and then head out to Belize City the next morning, again catching a 5 am shuttle. Only this time we had to change rooms because the first one was for three people and we are only two. Needless to say it wasn't as nice as the first one. It was on the second floor right next to the street so it was very noisy. When you used the bathroom sink, the water would drain from the bowl to the floor. Also, the toilet/sink emitted a foul smell...something like a gases sulferic smell. I guess we had our very own hot natural springs in our own room.
The next morning we met up with Paul and were picked up at 5:10 am in a shuttle that took us on a 1 min ride to the other side of the island. From there we waited until 6:00 am for the bus. Ha ha...they said the 5 am ride to Belize was the best, but they must have meant the 1 min shuttle ride.
It took us about five hours to get to Belize City and we jumped on the 12:30 pm boat to Caye Caulker. Caye Caulker is an island off of Belize about 20 miles away. It is very beautiful here. More to come on this!
Hope all is well and love you all!
Craig
posted by Unknown at 8:45 PM
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