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Today the heavens opened and I had my first experience of tropical rainfall, thankfully just as I got in a bus to take me on an 8hr journey to Antigua, in the heart of Guatemala. In my five days in Guatemala I´ve been rained on, bitten and even peed on (more of that later). But let me backtrack and start from Day One in the island town of Flores. Everyone I spoke to on my travels raved about this hostel called Los Amigos (Q45 per night) as THE place to stay. Meh, it was like many other gringo hangouts and tbh the staff service could have been better, but it was close to my destination, Tikal.
Tikal is the largest Mayan ruin in Guatemala which is so big, it would take over 5 months to properly explore (so says my guide Luis - trip cost = Q115). So at 4 in the morning I hauled myself out of bed for the four hour trek to see the temples, wildlife and the exact spot where Return of the Jedi was filmed. They say that once you´ve seen one Mayan temple you´ve seen them all but, having recently visited Chichen Itza in Mexico, I completely disagree. The temples at Tikal are really something else and here you can climb them to get the most incredible panoramic view of the ruins. Standing at the top of Temple 4 where Return of the Jedi was filmed was pretty moving and just like in the film!
Anyway, having left the tourist hotspot that is Tikal, I mosied on down to Lanquin, a beautiful mountain village further south to stay at Zephyr Lodge. Branded the "party lodge", I had a pretty eventful two nights there...the first night I hung around the bar, had the legendary Zephyr pizza and called it a night. But apparently not everyone did. At 4am, some dude staggered into our dorm, totally wasted. I ignored his groans, until he approached my bed and tried to sidle up next to me! Bear in mind I sleep naked but for a sheet, I started screaming at him to get away. Even in his drunken state, he sensed the tone...so moved onto Kirsty, a teacher in the bed next to me.
When she also told him where to go, he called her a "fuc*ing cu*t"!! That´s when it got funny b/c Kirsty totally put on her teacher voice, told him to stop calling her a "cu*t" and "go to bed." Had that been me, I would have scratched his eyes out but she was so calm! Eventually, he got the message and found his own bed. So far, so tolerable. Til morning when we realised he´d peed everywhere, including in my bed and on my clothes. To say I went beserk would be an understatement. All I remember from my reaction is repeatedly calling him a "useless sh*t" and telling him I should "cut off his cojones with a machete". He spent the rest of the day handwashing my clothes, paying for my extra laundry and buying me food to apologise. I shan´t name and shame him but he´s really not a bad kid.
Anyway, my first full day at Lanquin, my tour to the local caves and pools was cancelled due to too few numbers so I hitched a ride to the pools at Semuc Champey with an Israeli couple, Hila and Udi. Our driver decided to transform his unassuming Jeep into a party bus so we spent the journey raving to Shakira and the like before hopping off for a dip in the pools.
Visually, the pools are breathtaking and the water is so refreshing, it´s like bathing in freaking Evian. Plus they had those cute little fish that nibble your dead skin, which I usually pay good money for in the UK. By this point, I´d been joined by Laura, an ex-marine teaching English in Costa Rica and here´s where the fun began - Laura is super hardcore and basically pushed me to hike around Semuc Champey and the caves at Lanquin like I´d never hiked before!
We blagged a ride back to Lanquin in the evening to check out the local caves on foot, which sounds pretty easy...if you have a tour guide. We´d almost run out of money so skipped the tour guide and pottered around the caves ourselves. After about ten minutes I realised there was zero health and safety in place and one wrong foot could lead to a nasty fall down one of many black holes that lead to the underground caves, which lead to a massive river...so I ended up crawling around on my hands and knees to avoid a nasty fate and emerged from the caves covered head to toe in mud. But it was so worth it, to see the gigantic stalagmites/stalagtites and the faces of thousands of bats peering down from their hidey holes in the caves.
At dusk, the bats fly out in their thousands to hunt for dinner, mostly mosquitoes. We watched in amazement as a swarm of bats zoomed out of the cave into the night sky...I would have hung around to watch it longer but some of the bats seemed a bit dazed and confused and I didn´t fancy a bat in my face.
I have to finish this super long blog now b-c the internet cafe is closing but I´ll be back tomorrow! Love to everyone x
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