Well I've been back in Ottawa four days now, and I've been putting off writing about the last few days of my trip because it just makes me sad I'm not still in Guatemala!
I left off when we were on our way to the border. Crossing was easy, even though the Guatemalan border made us pay 20quetzels each to get in (NOT required, and they wouldn't provide a receipt, but when they have your passport in their hands, what choice do you have, especially when it's only like 4bux Canadian?). Caught a collectivo minibus to take us to El Remate, which was a little bumpy but only cost us 25quetzels each. It was hilarious to see how many people they can jam into a minivan, we had 21 in there (including children). Goes to show how ludicrously stringent so many North American safety standards are.
Arrived in El Remate around lunchtime, and I've never seen such a beautiful landscape. Beautiful lake, gorgeous sun, mountains in the background, it was fucking heaven. Found a rustic place to stay, with free internet and clean beds, that also could set up our shuttle van to Tikal in the morning: total for accomodations AND the shuttle? 400 quetzels. Thats about 50bux. Total for all three of us. AMAZING!!!!
Unfortunately the food was NOT so amazing. Went to a pretty nice looking place and ordered fajitas, took two bites of the chicken and had to go barf. Awesome. Also got scratched by the nail that held the door closed. Go me! This, combined with the roosters who woke me up at 3am and wouldn't shut up, caused me to be barfing on the side of the road when the shuttle came to take us to Tikal at 5:30 the next morning. Not a good start to the day! Luckily though, after we finally found the restaurant on Tikal National Park and ate a good breakfast, my health improved and we spend the day climbing Mayan temples up to 187 feet in the air. SO INCREDIBLE. While hiking through the rainforest we saw howler monkies, spider monkies, woodpeckers, these weird turkeys that look like peacocks, and something that looks like a ferret crossed with a raccoon. I can't even begin to describe how amazing this entire day was. It was funny to see how scared of heights Sarah can be, we climbed Temple V and she couldn't move off of the wall, this one even made Robin nervous and he'd been climbing all over everything with me all day. Didnt' faze me, I sat with my feet dangling off the edge, looking around and soaking up every second of it.
My last evening with Sarah and Robin was spent drinking many beers on the porch outside of our room, chatting with the various travellers staying at the same place as us. It's pretty cool the mix of people we met. One couple in their 30s, she was Quebec and him from Scotland, who met while traveling twelve years ago, and still have the bug so badly they just went to Tikal with their 3-year-old daughter, and their 6-month old son. A young couple from Oregan who felt that everyone in Guatemala should be nicer to them, because they're tourists and clearly the people who live there would have nothing without the money tourists bring in. Hahahaha WHAT! Such righteous little kids, vegans too of course, who took off pretty quickly after Sarah and I both laughed and said we went back to meat-eating after ten years of veganism because we'd both stopped giving a fuck. Also met an interesting Brazilian guy who'd gotten a motorcycle in Vancouver and traveled the world on his bike all the way to Guatemala. He seemed pretty cool, and very clearly was interested in me, he was clearly disappointed when we said we were tired and drunk and heading to bed. Sorry dude, not interested!
The next day I caught a collectivo at 8am and headed back to Belize. Driving through Guatemala, I swear my heart was actually breaking, realizing I was leaving. It was so goddamn gorgeous. Two days there - NOT ENOUGH! I wish I was with Sarah and Robin still, they're in Flores right now, soaking up the beauty. Goddamn.
Oh well. I'm back here, and my kitties are currently in my bed, without me, so I think I'll go snuggle them, and when I wake up I should start making plans for what I'm going to do while in Cuba next month!
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