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We set off to Yaxha National Park at about 9am, just after breakfast. We'd heard it was only 15mins walk away, but how wrong we were!! 50mins later up & down gravel roads in the searing morning heat, we arrived at the site, dripping! The first temple was covered with tourists, but we climbed it for the impressive view of the surrounding lake. Following this, the next few were still unexcavated, as were more than 50% of them & we began to wonder why the place was raved about. That was until we came to where one of the pyramids showed how it was at least 4 pyramids built one on top of the other & then came across the North Acropolis consisting of 3 huge pyramids at right angles to each other. This section was worth the trouble of getting here in itself. Especially as we were the only ones there & climbed the original steps on one of them to view the other 2 amazing temples. It was a fantastic sight & showed how advanced the Mayans were for their time. A guide then led us to see some howler monkeys in the trees, before we had to start heading back. The journey back was even more gruelling than the journey there, as now it was in the midday sun. Rach was half-dead by the time we got back & checked out. The owner of the lodge gave us a lift to the collectivo bus, which luckily met us at the end of the road & took us straight to the border. One unexpected exit fee later & we were in our 53rd country, Belize. A taxi to the bus, a bus to Belize City (3 hours), a taxi to the port & we were on the last boat of the day across to Caye Caulker, one of the beautiful Caribbean islands/Cayes off the coast. With nowhere booked, an old stoner (60) on a bike showed me a few places & we checked into an expensive cabin for the night as it was getting dark. As we'd tried to leave Guatemala with none of their currency, our trip to get here had used pretty much our entire $50 emergency fund. Luckily, as we strolled around town for a few hundred metres, we found an ATM & decided to look for some food. Unfortunately I don't think the stay on this island is going to be very cheap as the food & beers here are cheekily expensive. Happily we found a 'cheaper' place & had a gorgeous meal before strolling back to 'Tropical Paradise'.
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