So Palenque was a lot of fun, again.

We stayed in the middle of the jungle in the Pachán, which was all very exciting, especially when a torential rain came down our first night there...and flooded the whole parking lot (so that it actually looked like a big brown river).

The rain was so excessive that my bathroom roof caved in!

So now we're in Guatemala and we just went to see Tikal, the Mayan Ruins, which were definitely an amazing sight.

Tikal is fascinating because it really shows you what happens to a city, no matter how magnificent, when people desert it: jungle and nature take over.

We got up at 2:45 am this morning and took the bus to Tikal to get there for 4:30am, where one gets to experience the jungle without the crazy hubub of rustling crowds of tourists.The only thing that took away from the ambiance, as we were sitting at the top of one of the piramids watching the sun rise on the jungle and the other piramids, was the whispering travelers around us and the clic of cameras as people were taking pictures.

But then the big group of us got separated: into English speakers, Spanish speakers and Hebrew speakers (there were a lot of people from Israel)...so I went with the Spanish speakers and luckily there weren't a lot of us, so we got to enjoy a very personalized tour with an awesome tour guide.

Right now we're staying in Flores, which is a little island on the lake Petén Itzá located in the Petén region of Guatemala.It's a beautiful little town, the people are very friendly, the buildings are very colourful, the streets are small, and we went for a swim in the lake which was just lovely, after coming back from seeing the Mayan ruins.

We're staying in a fantastic hostel called "Los amigos" which has great company, an excellent little vegetarian restaurant (the only one in Northern Guatemala), hammocks, vines and beautiful plants everywhere, and is a very relaxed place.

Tomorrow we're off to Finca Ixobel, an eco hostel and there we'll be hiking and swimming in caves and maybe doing a horseback treck.

It seems that every day holds something new and exciting, which I am loving.

We also went zip-lining which was such a blast! Three girls (traveling during the off season rocks!), jungle, Jane, and really great heights = good times!