Flores & Tikal Mayan ruins

Enticing out a tarantula
see all photos »

We headed on towards Flores via Guatemala City & the Rio Dulce (Sweet River). As we rounded Guatemala City I noticed hordes of shacks piled high upon cliffs on the outskirts of the city. Our guide informed us that people live here risking life & limb just so that they can be near to the city - each year several of the houses collapse into the depths below, as a result of landslides etc. Scary.

We made another stop off at the Rio Dulce, because our bus driver was quite literally falling asleep at the wheel. Always nice! From there it was on to Flores - a small town in Peten situated on an island. We had a lovely hotel with a swimming pool & spa which we instantly made use of. Our hotel room also had a great view over the lake, & a balcony from where we watched a beautiful pink sunset before heading out for some Happy Hour cocktails.

The tarantula!
see all photos »

The next day we were up early, ready to leave for Tikal ruins at 5am. We had a VERY long guided tour of the ruins which probably wouldn't have felt so long had we not already had two other guided tours of Mayan ruins in the preceeding couple of weeks! On the up side we got to see quite a lot of wildlife within the park grounds, including howler monkeys, spider monkeys, coatis (from the racoon family), parrots & toucans. I had a lovely photo of a toucan but can't seem to find it on any of my photo CDs, so it may have gone astray - hey ho!

Howler monkey
see all photos »

We got back to Flores early afternoon & Rod & I set off to 'explore' the island. We covered it, length & breadth, within an hour - which also included a stop-off in the town square for an ice-cream :o)  We spent the remainder of the afternoon chilling out beside our hotel pool, before heading out for a couple of sundowner Pina Coladas = yummy.