We woke up in the morning and had some breakfast at a place that served it to slow, and wasn’t very good. Had a short walk around to take in the sights – Flores is a neat little place, as I’ve mentioned before. Here’s a photo of the seawall and the view from one of the edges.

We drove to Tikal – probably about a half hour drive. We stopped at the gate and were immediately greeted by a tour guide. Minutes later we had negotiated a price for a tour for the day (“$10US per person, but you can negotiate”…so weird that they add that last bit), and Luis (Lewis?) was our guy.

At one point he points into the jungle a bit and says “this is my favourite part”. I immediately think we’re going to die, but we follow him in about 5 meters to a little clearing. He points at some vines and explains, in slightly broken English, that people like to sit on them and take photos. We did so :). The vines looked pretty sturdy, so I got a little fancy :).

I’ve only been to pyramidal ruins once before, and that was somewhere in Mexico. There you climbed up the pyramid steps – here you climb up specifically built wooden stairs. We climbed a lot of stairs on this day.

The view from the first pyramid.

Sean stands on the edge, scaring the girls into thinking he’s going to fall over. In reality, the edge isn’t really an edge…it’s a slope with a shelf of dirt below it. If he fell, he wouldn’t enjoy it, but he probably wouldn’t die :).

This next one was the most brutal climb. Sean says that the last time he was in Tikal he didn’t climb this one, but was determined to do it this time. The stairs shook when you climbed it, and they were all but vertical.

Luis was a really cool guy. I got the feeling that he was really into his job – he got excited one moment when we saw a white-tailed deer and he said that he had been looking to see one for several months now. He was knowledgeable about the area and the wildlife, and was able to answer most of the questions we answered, even if his English wasn’t perfect. Our cave tubing guy was a salesman – Luis seemed more like a nature lover taking some folks for a walk.

At the end, he asked us all if we had had a nice time in Guatemala and we had to say that we had so far. He seemed pleased and asked us to tell our friends about it, that it’s safe and friendly and all that stuff. I don’t pay much attention to world issues, so I’m afraid I’m completely unaware of what point-of-view he was trying to overcome, but I was impressed by his earnestness and so I feel it’s appropriate to give a glowing review of the day.

Afterward we were all hungry, so we walked over to the little cafe/restaurant attached to the park. Wherein we had the worst meal of the trip. You’ll have to wait for the description, since the meal photos go with it :). But here’s a photo of Sean and Kerry waiting for their food, not realizing yet that they won’t enjoy it when it arrives. “Gallo” is the name of the national Guatemalan beer and this was the first and last time I had one.

I bought a postcard and mailed it to Cin that evening. Because her home address is the only one that I have memorized :P. I don’t even know if she’s gotten it yet…

I’m away for the weekend, so this is the last post you’ll see for a couple days. I’ll be back Sunday, so hopefully I’ll get one or two in there – there are at least 2 more in day 2.

Thanks for reading! And thanks everyone who has written to say they are enjoying my posts – it’s nice to have the feedback :).