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Hi again!
We came in a bus from Belize (sort of modern) on a decent tarmac road. Crossed the boarder in to Guatemala and the road changed immediately in to a mud road...Hmmm, food for thought on what awaited us!
First stop Tikal! We arrived in the national park at sunrise to see the animals. Highlight was to see Toucans at close range. We climbed the highest ruin and the view was just like in Starwars. (for any Si-Fi fans, Its the scene at the end of the First Film where the Rebel Alliance, led by Luke Skywalker, are taking off to destroy the Death Star...god I´m sad!!!) Phil´s sentence. For all you NON-StarWars fans = Rain forrest as far as the eye could see with the tops of pyramids breaching the jungle canopy.
In Guatemala it is quite apparent there are NO health and saftey regulations. We visited a cave system, set in the hills outside Flores, extending for over 2km underground. The guide at the entrance was extremely helpful to provide us with the essential information that: "there are some lights down there, if you don´t see any for a while you are walking in the wrong direction". We were the only ones in the cave and it was very easy to get dissorrientated. But we made it out eventually.
The absence of any H&S regs was reinforced when we visited the LIVE Volcano Pacaya, just outside Antigua (No not the Carribean Island) We climbed the volcano in a group with a guide and when we got up to the summit he told us we could wander around ourselves, litteraly on the lava flow. People were toasting Marshmallows. It was extremely hot and you had to watch where you put your feet. My Hiking stick caught fire!!!!!
We booked in for an intermediate mountain biking tour of the volcanic hills surrounding Antigua. OH MY GOD!!!!! First I have to say that I (sofia) never been on a mountain bike before. We started of at 2600 meters. First hour downhill 45 degrees through jungle terrain. The track ( Ha!!) was no wider then the width of the pedals. Which we both found out the hard way! Picture the scene if you can...Sofia flying head first over the handlebars landing in a cornfield...Phil taking things a little more extreme, taking "off-road" literally and deciding to fall 3metres down the side of the mountain landing in jungle!! We continued on the f***ing bikes for another 2 hours till we reached Antigua. But I have to say we both loved it!!
GUATEMALA High(and Low)lights
- People: Try and sell you anything! Market traders goods ranged from rubble from the road, to metre lengths of silver sellotape.
- Pacaya Volcano
- Lake Atitlan
- Seeing pretty Toucans
- Being ripped off by numerous touts
Cheers
Phil and Sofia
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