Today was a horribly early start with us being up at 5:30am for our taxi to take us to Tikal. We arrived at about 8am for some grub & wandered past the crocodile pool into the park. We decided against a guide (to save pennies) & just used the reasonably comprehensive info in the Lonely Planet. A number of the temples & pyramids hadn't been excavated yet so were just rubble buried under earth & trees. However others had been uncovered & re-buil...

We unfortunately missed all the trips going to Tikal today, as we didn't manage to surface until about 10am. So we settled on having a lazy day & took to exploring the streets of Flores, which is attached to the mainland by a 600m causeway. It was my Mum's birthday today (Happy Birthday Mum), so a little bit of Skyping over food & sorting out our washing, aided me in forgetting it was our anniversary today (8 years together!). D'oh! Sorry treacle. As a re...

A 7:00am start was a bit of a killer after our previous night, but as we had another uncomfortable minibus journey leaving at 8am to take us to Flores, we didn't have any option. Rach struggled for the first 1.5 hours & jumped out at the first opportunity to nurse her hangover & grab a seat in the front. With a stop at McDs for breakfast & another stop for our old favourite, ham & cheese sarnies for lunch, meant the journey took us 10 hours, with ...

We were up at 8am to wolf down some food, pick up our packed lunch (& have the barman nick some more rizlas) & jump on another truck for today's tour. We all stood up on the back of the truck for the half hour journey down the dirt tracks to our first stop. We were given a candle each & headed up into the dark cave. The trip inside included wading & swimming (one handed) through freezing cold water, climbing up a rope through a waterfall & sli...

Up at 7:15am!!! to catch our 8/9 hour shuttle bus to Lanquin. Woo Hoo! The bus was full as usual, but for the first time so far, Rach & I managed to get a seat together. During the trip most people were trying, but failing to sleep (incl. Rach), mainly because of the (lack of) roads. In the bus we were being accompanied by 9 medical students (2 Canadians, 3 Americans & 4 English). Whoever built the roads in this country decided hideous amounts of bends we...