Sunrise at Tikal

We made it to Guatemala! Woo-hoo! John, our host in San Ignacio, warned us that upon entering Guatemala, the border patrol would probably ask for an entrance fee but that if we ask for a receipt, they'd let us through with no fee (ie it's a scam). Sure enough, two Canadians entering Guatemala before us were asked for a fee. I shot forward and told them to ask for a receipt, but it was too late; they'd already handed over 20 quetzales. The immigration guy pleaded ignorance in quick Spanish...we're out of receipts, sorry. Yeah, right! He could most likely understand everything we said in English to the Canadians because he didn't try asking us for the fee. The cheek!

Anyway, we got a combi to Flores, near Tikal. We meant to go to El Remate, which is apparently smaller and artsy, but there was some confusion about availability of ATMs, so we wound up stopping in Flores. It's a lovely town with lots of cobbled streets and little alleys. We signed up for a sunrise tour of Tikal the next day, leaving at 3am. 3am!!! Then we discovered two restaurants serving falafel! Heaven! That was lunch and dinner sorted. It was really hot that day, so we wound up sampling limonada at various places as well as some GORGEOUS margaritas with lots of sugar. Bliss! Our hotel room overlooks the lake by which Flores is situated, and lightening illuminated the sky and lake as we fell asleep.



That night, we woke up at 2:30am and got ready. Our guide Chico was actually a wee bit early in picking us up, and he was a man of few words. There were six of us on the tour, and we were all pretty tired but psyched. It took an hour to drive to Tikal and then another hour or so of waiting and hiking through jungle paths to get to templo cuatro. There are wooden steps to get up and down the temple to help preserve the temple itself. We were the first tour group to get up there, so we got great seats on the stone steps, overlooking a massive jungle canopy with other temples sticking up above it. Such an amazing sight. As it got lighter, we could see more and hear more as animals began their day. We could hear loads of birds as well as howler monkeys growling, very eerie. We were especially thrilled to see a toucan in the trees, as well as a big scorpion earlier on our hike to the temple.

By 6:15am, it was light. We had some snacks while Chico told about the Mayans and Tikal itself. He loves Mayan history and has lots of pictures to go along with the info. The man of few words could barely get all the words out when he was on the right topic! It was fascinating. We then walked around much of the uncovered buildings in Tikal. They reckon about 80% of the city is still covered, and most of what they've uncovered isn't fully reconstructed. It's a gorgeous site, and we were really glad to be there. Plus we avoided the worst heat and crowds by getting there so early.



We left Tikal at 11am and headed back to Flores. We were all falling asleep on the drive back! We just managed to eat some lunch back in Flores before crashing for about 16 hours. Our marathon sleep ended at about 8:30am this morning, when we discovered that the bus we want to get leaves at 9am each morning. We missed that one, so we plan to get it tomorrow morning. So today we'll chill and figure out what all we want to do in Guatemala. We need to report to the language school on Sunday, 20 April, but in the meantime there's plenty to do and see...