Flores/Tikal. Well after yet another long bus journey (about 10 hours this time even though it was supposed to be 6-8 hours) we made it to flores!

Flores is a small island connected by bridge to the main town Santa Elena. We had difficulty getting good quality accommodation and some of us even had to move "hotels" due to insects. After 3 of the girls already already suffering from bite attacks at different stages we weren't willing to take chances! Our accommodation was about 5 euro per night and very basic.

We ate very well in flores but it was still quiet as it's off season at the moment. We found a really nice place for breakfast before our trip to Tikal.

Tikal was amazing! Building started approximately 900 BC And on the 10 km walk around we saw loads of different temples and wildlife. Luckily enough I was wearing runners, some of the girls only had flip flops on and I was glad to have my feet covered when we came across snakes and tarantulas!

We had a fascinating guide who brought us around at a nice pace, gave interesting information without overloading us with information and gave us time to explore for ourselves. We chose to go in the evening for the sunset and found most of the time it was just our small group and the howler monkeys flying around the jungle.

Interestingly only 80% of Tikal has been uncovered, with many more excavations planned to the future. We walked around tall hill-like mounds which you could see in closer indirection were Mayan ruins still uncovered. The Mayan empire had it's glory days from 200 BC to 900AD. In the end Tikal was deserted due to lack of water, overpopulation, deforestation and the people were forced to return to the mountains. Our guide, Samuel informed us the he was born in the Tikal forest but his family were moved to a nearby town due to excavations. He told us that although he is a Christian, his grandad was a shaman.

I absolutely loved my tour in Tikal. We ended up walking through the forest with just our group and the sounds of the nocturnal jungle awakening. We had to rely on moonlight, starlight, flash lamps and iphone lights to get us back to to the car park safely! It was amazing!

En route home around 8 o clock we passed many villages on our bus, but all with a preacher style mass going on. We could hear the volume of the preachers as we zoomed by on our bus. All of the churches had substantial congregations attending and it made me think back to what Ireland must have been like 60/70 years ago.