12/2/10 - day 65.

had to get up at the record-breakingly early time of half 4 to get the 5am bus up to Tikal. it´s generally thought of as one of the biggest and best mayan sites and its best to get there early to avoid the hoardes of tour groups. me and 2 other girls in the dorm caught the same bus there and it took and hour and a quarter. we decided not to get an expensive guide to tell us all about the ruins and just go around at our own pace. we met up with a few others there from the hostel who had got an even earlier bus, but somehow managed to get there later, and also a few americans and a dutch girl who had been on our bus up there.

some of the ruins and temples were absolutely massive, think the biggest one was 70 od metres high. they had ladders so you could go right up to the top, which we did, and have a sit down overlooking the rest of the site. Tikal is in a jungle so there were some awesome views of temples poking out from dense forest and a couple of the girls got a touch of vertigo while we were up one of them.

unlike the last 2 days, it wasnt raining but a quite cloudy but when the sun did shine it was emphatic and i could feel myself burning. we spent a bit of time howler monkey watching, as they were very visible in the trees as they swung about and by the time midday rolled around we had seen all we wanted to and we just about ready to catch the 12:30 bus back to flores.

got back about 2pm and i had to have a nap for an hour or so followed by a veggie burger for late lunch. guatemala is noticably more backpacker and tourist focused than the rest of central america, bar costa rica. there´s no chance of going days without seeing another foreigner here unlike el salvador or honduras for example. of course with that comes that thing of the locals being in the mode of scamming/ripping off/overcharging with tourist agencies on every corner offering tours here, there and everywhere - something ive rarely seen in the other countries. in el salvador for example, i seemed to be seen much differently. here, i guess you´re just another faceless tourist whereas in other towns ive been, you´re the star of the show walking around! the amount of english people ive met here is crazy compared to the rest of my trip as well - im hearing the accent everywhere i go!

hung out with the others in the hostel bar area for the evening which, like last night, was a hive of activity. had a few beers, mushroom soup for dinner (the vege only menu was starting to wear thin but i was too lazy to go elsewhere to eat!) and then we went to a little bar called "cool beans" just around the corner. had a couple there then got back to the hostel around half 11. shattered.