Catching up

It's been several days.....  We are all basically well.  I have misplaced my USB thing to download pictures to my computer so right now, no pics.  Juan's glasses broke the first day we were here and he lost the lens so they were not repairable.  He has been having horrible headaches.  He made it through the archaeological part of the tour but decided that after we finished the tour of Tikal that he would head back to Yucatan instead of come up to the highlands with us.  This is only the second time in all of his years of being a tour guide that he has had to quit in the middle of a tour.  It was hard to part but we are carrying on.  Several people have had minor tourist kinds of health problems but all are feeling well now. 

The boat ride from Livingston up the Rio Dulce was peaceful and beautiful.  Saw lots of birds, houses on stilts out into the river, mangroves, men fishing from little wooden canoes.  A girl paddled up to our boat to sell us sea shells, necklaces made from shells, star fish, etc.  Another boat with 2 girls joined her.  They made several sales.  After about a 2 hour boat ride, we docked and Gregorio came up with the bus.  Always a welcome site when plans come together. 
It is about a 4 hour bus ride to Flores.  We stopped for lunch at a quaint finca (farm).  While we were waiting for our meal, we enjoyed walking around and seeing the flowers and parrots.  We had some of the best chicken sandwiches ever.  They were made with homemade bread with sliced avocado on them.  Yummy! The vegetable soup was also flavorful with a nice touch of cilantro. 
Our hotel in Flores is part of a beautiful nature reserve overlooking a lake.  Luxury coupled with nature.  We had dinner at the hotel.  It seemed they were out of pretty much everything except tacos so we had tacos.

The next day, we went to the ruins of Yaxha and Tepoxte.  These sites are more remote so we were pretty much the only ones there.  I always like the solitude. After putting in a lunch order, we went to Yaxha.  This is a pretty big classic site.  Several of us climbed the Mirador which is pretty close to the entrance.  The view is spectacular!  Overlook the vast Peten jungle and the lake.  Soon after we got down, it started pouring down rain.  Juan was the only one who really came prepared. He had a rain poncho.  We had a few umbrellas but the rain was much harder than the umbrellas could thwart.  Soon we were all drenched to the skin.  Since we couldn't get any wetter, we continued with the tour.  The ruins really were mysterious looking in the rain.  Like a troop of drowned rats, we made our way back to the bus.  We went to the boat dock to Tepoxte where we had earlier put in our lunch order.  The hot soup, hot chocolate, hot coffee were really welcome.  After a good lunch, many of us were ready to set off again.  We loaded into a large wooden canoe type boat for the half hour ride to the ruins of Tepoxte.  This is a small post classic site.  Juan pointed out several trees and plants.  The strangler fig is one of the most interesting.  It starts climbing up an existing tree and blocks out the sun and grows around the trunk until the main tree dies.  Even though it was drizzling and the steps were slippery with the wet moss, several of us climbed up.  Why?  Because it is there. 
We got back to the hotel, quickly changed into dry clothes and headed back out to go into the town of Flores for dinner.  A relaxed tasty dinner is always a great way to end a day.

On the fourth, we went to the ruins of Tikal, one of the biggest, most famous of the Maya cities.  When we were in Guatemala City at the Archaeology museum, we saw pottery, and items found in one of the tombs of Tikal.  It was nice to see the great buildings that went with them.  Tikal is a large site and we were concerned that some of the people would have difficulty walking the distance.  Luckily, since Tikal is visited more, it is possible to get a ride in a pickup truck to the main square.  The walkers and riders met up at the square.  From there we went to climb Temple IV.  Wow!  that view is really expansive.  It is a sea of green jungle with 2 of the other pyramids of Tikal poking out.  We commented that it was raining off in the distance.  Not soon after, we realized that the wind had picked up and that rain cloud was headed straight for us.  We quickly vacated our high vantage point.  Being on the top of a pyramid in a thunder storm isn't recommended.  We got a ride back to the front gate in the jungle buggy and avoided the rain.  We had a nice lunch and headed back to the hotel where we had an early dinner.  This time, the selection was much bigger and they actually had everything on the menu. 

This morning we got an early start --  breakfast at 6:30 and in the bus about 7:15.  For us, that was quite an accomplishment.  We bid Juan goodbye this morning at the junction where he headed North. It was a long day of driving and we got into Antigua about 5.  We were greeted at the Casa de Capuchinas, the B&B where we are staying for 2 days.  The hotel is a colonial house and every room is different.  We fill the place up.  We had a great dinner at another colonial hotel/restaurant that the bus driver recommended.  When we got there, the marimba band was already playing.  Soon traditional dancers joined them.  A great way to wipe away the memory of the long ride. 

Looking forward to exploring the city in the morning........