After a few very relaxing days on the beach we headed off over the border into Guatemala - final destination Flores, which is a town jutting into a lake and an excellent base for day trips to the Mayan site of Tikal.
Whereas Belize was easy for us to communicate in english, we quickly realized that we would have to step up our spanish skills for Guatemala - our first foray in trying to find a place to get money resulted in a long exchange with a security guard who ultimately seemed to want to just eject us from the bank! Our second and favourable observation was that things are a lot cheaper in Guatemala.
We had an option for a sunrise tour of Tikal heading out at 3.30am, but chose to take a more reasonalbe later bus at 6.00am. Tikal is set in the Jungle and the site was almost empty in comparison to the masses experienced in Mexico. As a result there is quite an abundance of wildlife at the site as well as the monuments to explore - so we saw heaps of Spider Monkeys (Gary was nearly urinated on by one of them).
As an added bonus you can also climb up steep wooden steps alongside some of the pyramids and get a fabulous view of the jungle treetops and tips of the other monuments protuding out above the canopy.
Flores also makes a nice town to come back to, it has cobbled streets and lots of lakeside restaurants and watering holes to collapse in the midday sun.
By the way, spot that fabulous Ted Baker handbag in the corner of the photo!
