Had the most amazing border crossing ever to Guatemala. First we took a bus (that was 1hr late mind, wouldn't have bothered me too much hadn't I had got up at 5am) until we got to the river. Then we hopped aboard a gondala shaped speed boat which took us whizzing down the river towards the Guatemalan side of the river further downstream. Such a great way to enter a country other than over a bridge. The immigration the other side was fairly hilarious too. A make-shift tent with two guys in an office stamping away the passports.

On the bus we had the most annoying Argentinian guy ever. He literally had a question a minute and reminded me of a small child who answered "why" to everything he was told. The bus on the other side was what they call a "chicken bus". A chicken bus is colourful modified and decorated US school bus that are used as general transport in Honduras and Guatemala. They are named as such as they are often used to transport live animals. The road from the border was a gravel path which lasted for about 2hours until we hit a softer tarmac version. Arrived in Flores in the afternoon and checked into El Mirador hostel which was clean but the staff were rather unfriendly. Flores is a little island surrounded by the Lake Peten Itza. This proved to be fairly amusing when Katie asked a local "Where is the lake?" to which is replied "huh? we are on an island!". That night more card games were to be had as we taught some guys from our bus our new favourite game.

Tikal ruins. So this is the main reason why everyone flocks to flores or the surrounding areas is to visit the rather famous Mayan ruins of Tikal. However to get there they recommend you take a bus at 4.30 which means a wake-up of 4am! Geez. Main reason is the weather as it can get up to 40 degrees in the middle of the day which is no time to be climbing up the ruins to dizzying heights. Katie and I decided to take the spanish version of the tour as the English one had about 12 people in it and the Spanish one had 5 including us. Only one problem was the annoying Argentinian who was in our group. So a brief history of Tikal before I go on any further. Tikal is is one of the largest and most famous archaeological sites and urban centres of the Maya civilization. Unlike some of the other ancient ruins of the world, Tikal was never actually lost as local people know of its existance and location throughout the centuries. However it wasn't until 1848 when the local commissioner visited the ruins for the 1st time. Nowadays only about 5% of the ruins have been successfully excavated from the surrounding jungle and due to issues with deforestation there are no further plans to uncover any more. The ruins were a sacred site where such things as religious ceremonies, worships and even human sacrificies took place.

The guide was brilliant and taught us loads about the history and the flora and fauna of the jungle, telling us about certain medicinal properties of some of the trees. My favourite was a tree that has a cure for diarrohea which they have aptly nicknamed "tapa culo" roughly translated as "butt plug". I climbed all the ruins we were allowed to in the swealtering heat; even climbing a vertical ladder to reach one. Not a good one for vertigo. Katie unfortunately had another bout of food poisoning so struggled throughout.

In the afternoon I left Katie to sleep and headed to town where I hung out with some other backpackers, had a few cocktails then collapsed after the 4am wake-up.

So that is not all for Guatemala but we are having a break for a week or so while we check out Belize on the eastern side of Guatemala.