Flores & Tikal

Waiting for the sun to rise or the fog to part - Tikal
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The bus ride to Flores from Belize City took approximately 7 hours on a hot bus with no air conditioning or windows.  The border crossing was simple, though it took approximately an hour for the entire bus full of people to go through customs and pay 3 separate fees along the way.  It was late afternoon when I arrived; I was exhausted and stiff.  I signed up for the Tikal Sunrise tour, had some dinner, and went to bed early.

Saturday morning I awoke at 2:30 am to participate in the sunrise tour of Tikal which is an amazing Mayan site in Northern Guatemala.  The bus picked me up at the hostel about 3:45 am, and we got to the site around 5am.  From there we hiked up a path in the dark for about 20 minutes to the tallest monument in Tikal and climbed up the narrow wooden ladder to the top.  The jungle was fogged over, so we weren't actually able to see the sun rising, but it was beautiful watching and listening to the jungle wake up.  As the fog started to fade we could see the temples and monuments appearing in the distance, poking out above the jungle.  After a quiet "meditation" we explored the jungle and the other temples.  We saw howler and spider monkeys, a tarantula, and toucans.

The fog begins to part
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By 11am I was very tired from walking around the park all day and was happy to get back on a bus and head to Flores, the small city south-west of Tikal.  I spent the afternoon exploring Flores and relaxing in the central park.