Guatemala

FLORES AND TIKAL NATIONAL PARK
After the most amazing time, and with great disappointment we woke up early on Tuesday 10th November to catch our water taxi from Caye Caulker to Belize City. It wasn’t the best start to the day for us either, as V was applying for our US visa waivers online while I was washing dishes. Hers was accepted and mine was declined, not the greatest news just 2 days before we were due to fly to the States. Anyway we had a taxi to catch so had to get moving! The water taxi takes just over half an hour, and on a cloudy day we arrived in Belize City nice and early to catch our bus to Flores in Guatemala. Flores is a picturesque town situated on a tiny island just off the mainland, which you access over a bridge. The bus was late but we finally jumped aboard at 11am to begin our 6 hour journey. The bus was no great shakes either, a very old vehicle with no aircon and certainly not what we had been used to so far on our travels although we had been warned and were happy there weren’t any chickens on board with us.

On our journey we stopped at the Belize – Guatemala border where we had to pay the customary exit visa charge, in this instance US$20 to the Belize government. The border post was very rundown and not the greatest first impression for either country. We had our passports stamped on the Guatemala side before exchanging some US dollars for Guatemalan Quetzals. This is not done with the usual Foreign Exchange Bureau, but rather individual guys who greet you as you step off the bus waving thick wads of cash in your face to exchange. A very bizarre welcome but they actually offer better rates than the banks, which just shows what sharks the big corporations are!! We stocked up on cold drinks and continued our journey. We arrived at the town on the mainland just outside Flores, and were swiftly booted off the bus and ushered onto mini vans. With our bags all packed precariously on the roof we were taken to a shopping centre to draw some cash, before being dropped off at our hostel in Flores. This semi form of kidnap off the local transport is the tour operators’ way of getting you to sign up to their tours or to book into accommodation where they get a cut!

We only had 1 night in the town, and the main attraction is the ruin site at Tikal National Park. Naturally we booked our tour through our kidnapers who kindly offered to collect us at 4.30am to take us to the ruins and back in time for our 2pm bus to Guatemala City. The condition for the agreement was that they would definitely have us back in time, and would drop us of at the bus station after we had collected our bags from our hotel. They agreed wholeheartedly but we were to be caught out a bit later..... We then hit the Internet cafe to try and resolve the issue with my US visa, which involved calling many US agencies with zero success. After much pulling of hair we gave up and emailed my best man Paul in Dallas to see if he could help us and make the application the next day while we were on our Tikal tour (after 24hrs of the initial online application you are able to apply again). We all went back to our rooms to drop off some kit and then go for a stroll and find somewhere nice for dinner.

We came across a lovely restaurant right on the water called Mesa de los Mayas, where we tucked into some great pizzas. We over ordered a bit so took some back to our rooms for breakfast in the morning as it would be too early to grab anything! Then it was home time, and after a quick episode of Heroes V & I hit the sack. The alarm went off at 4am and it was not a happy family at that time. We quickly got ready and waited for the others downstairs. Georgie was next but Lara and Leise had managed to sleep in, so in a frantic hurry to get ready in time could not shower before we left. Leise is a shower addict, so being deprived of his morning shower was of great inconvenience to him leading to severe grumpiness, much to our amusement! Our tour guide picked us up at 4.30am and off we went to pick up some other guests at surrounding hotels and hostels, before the 90 minute drive to Tikal.

It was a miserable morning and the rain was bucketing. V and I managed to forget our waterproofs back at the hostel, so had to buy a yellow bin liner posing as a wet proof poncho from the guides. All kitted up and after a quick coffee we began the tour of these impressive Mayan ruins. Our guide was a very strange local guy who was clearly passionate about his subject, but not the most capable of getting his message across. His English was excellent, but he had a tendency to waffle on and lose the point, every time! The tour was a long one and lasted several hours and it’s fair to say we switched off from the lecture after the first half hour, merely because it was so hard to follow. After traipsing through the jungle in the rain through several temples involving some seriously steep climbs and bumping into a tarantula or two we finally came across the Acropolis. This is the main part of the ruins, and as we arrived the sun was out in full force and we were lucky enough to enjoy the impressive sights around us. We were given half an hour to enjoy the ruins and then made our way back to the meeting point to head back to Flores for our bus to Guatemala City.

We were thrilled when the tour had ended a little early as this would mean we would have plenty of time to get back to catch our bus. Typically the tour guides were late and could not find our bus driver, so we left late after all and a little stressed but we were promised we would get back on time and that our bus driver was fully aware that he had to drop us at the bus station after we had collected our bags. Needless to say as we were dropped off at our hotel our driver professed not to understand our Spanish or English and had no idea of the agreement, played ignorant and sped off. We then rushed indoors and asked the receptionist to order us a taxi while we collected our bags. As what could only have been expected we came down the stairs to find the very helpful receptionist had managed to book us the smallest taxi in all of Guatemala! With time ticking away we had to go in turns and to get to the bus station but luckily we made it with a few minutes to spare. We then had the joy of an 8 hour coach ride to Guatemala City which involved much sleeping after the early start. V and I also received a text from Paul to confirm my US visa application was now accepted and there should be no problems – more on this later......

GUATEMALA CITY
We arrived in Guatemala City at 10pm that night and the drive into the city was a bit of an eye opener. Not the nicest looking place in the world and we were very grateful we would be leaving very early the next morning. We grabbed a taxi after much fighting between them over our fare, and then made our way to our hotel near the airport for the night. The parts of the city we drove through consisted of blocked off streets and high walls and razor wire, rundown buildings, and poor areas. When we arrived at our hotel it was also heavily fenced off and in a secured area. The hotel was really a large old family home which we presumed had been converted into a hotel once the kids had flown the nest. Happy family portraits still hung all over the walls but it was lovely and clean so we were more than grateful. We all logged on to the Internet to check emails, and then it was bed time. We were up at 6am for a very quick breakfast and then given a lift by the hotel owner to the airport to catch our flight to Miami.

It was a very quick stop in Guatemala, so we can’t comment too much as we have seen very little, but here are our highlights and lowlights:
- Tikal National Park – stunning ruins even if the tour we did was a little long
- Guatemala City, looks an absolute dive!
- The people are reasonably friendly, but you always feel they are looking to rip you off!
- We didn’t have time to go there, but by all accounts Antigua is amazing so this country isn’t all bad ;-)