The bus "for Flores" was already there when we got to the bus station, so we jumped on, only an American school bus this time, but no complaints from us for our 2 pounds each. However it was slow going to the border, although Western Belize is a much pleasanter drive than the North which we went through yesterday, and even the food offered to us on the way was quite tempting. Disregarding the fact we were told the bus went to Flores, we were chucked off and had to get a taxi the rest of the way to the border, then pay to leave Belize, then pay to enter Guatamala, before being hustled into a minivan for the rest of the journey along some very dodgy roads as we had missed the last bus. We're in the rainy season at the moment, so we get a 30 minute thunderstorm every afternoon. Not a great time to arrive in Santa Elena, so we had little time to look around and so went straight to the hostel that had looked the best in the books. It was a good choice, Posada Santander cost us 6 pounds for our double room with cable! Lots of tuk tuks about and you can take a ride for about 50p, so these have been utilized! Then we had a mad dash about to change money after the Post Office lied to us telling us there was no local currency! Then we had a leisurely walk over the bridge to flores, the much nicer portion of town and settled down on a pole platform in the lagoon with a xylophone trio, burgers, chips, melon, pina coladas and beers for 6 pounds! Up early again the next morning for our trip to Tikal, which is the Mayan ruins set in a National Rainforest reserve larger than the whole of Belize. We were there as it opened so had quite a relaxing wander in the rainforests looking at the pyramids (the basis for Endor in Star Wars Return of the Jedi) We saw Howler monkeys, orange millipedes, huge ants and tiny frogs. Somehow ended up on a German nature trail off the beaten track where we discovered a huge spider, which we may or may not have a picture of! Walked up lots of temples with our 7kg hand luggage on our back, and finally posed for the Lonely Planet GUide book photo before leaving bac k for Flores. Saw the rest of the island including a school where the pupils were well behaved but all typing on typewriters - which made a racket! We knew the afternoon rain was due, so popped into blog, only for the storm to knock out the power to the whole island. Going to have an early dinner now before our overnight bus trip to Guatamala City. We like it in Guatamala, and think we'll try and spend as many of our free days here as we can (as its nice and cheap!) Lots of love from Tuk-Tuk Land