Tikal in the Morning...Ruins of the Gods - Flores/Tikal, Guatemala
Flores is a beautiful city, and is extremely well taken care of. Tourism is the number one industry here, however, it is not touristy bad like Playa Del Carmen, there are still relatively few tourists here. However, my one big beef is the lack of money in their ATMs. There is nowhere to get cash, so me and Dylan have had to get creative, using credit cards and coverting some of our money from Mexico and Belize we had planned to keep for home. I guess the problem is they burned a huge portion of their old money because of the poor shape its in (so bad), before they had received the supply of their new bills, so they are extremely short on cash, add to this the fact they just had 2 banks go bankrupt, with people lining up to get out as much money as possible. Imagine if that happened in Canada or the US, people taking out all of their money because a bank was gonna fold, thats crazy. Either way it has been a royal pain in the you know what...but we have managed. So yesterday (21st) we got here from our 12 seater plane (from Belize),
after a minor fog delay, arrived around noon here in Flores, and walked around, checked out every ATM in town to find no money, and proceeded to check out beautiful Lake Peten Itza, and chilled in the pool and hot tub for a bit in the sun. Last night went to bed very early, as we had to get up at the earliest time in our lives (two thirty am) to hop aboard the shuttle bus to Tikal.
Got up at 2 30, bus was supposed to be here at 3, didnt show up until almost 4, pissed us off pretty good, but Tikal at sunrise was unreal. The temples peeking through the fog as well as all of the animals and howler monkeys, birds, was amazing seeing the sun poke up, unfortunately was a little cloudy. Tikal was definately the best ruins we have been to on this trip, and personally i would say can easily compare to the roman ruins and colisseum in italy, as i have been there as well. Unreal the amount of ruins that are left, and only 15% has been uncovered, in this huge ancient mayan city (archaelogists say approximately 150 to 200
thousand people lived here at its peak). Definately one of the best parts of the trip, and worth that extra flight from Belize. Today we chilled in the pool during the hot portions of the day, and then met 2 americans, 1 scottish and 1 swedish person, and had a great time, chatting, playing some cards, supper and then headed out for some karaoke...my 2 songs ended up being Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall and Staind - Its Been Awhile. Dylan hit it up with Billy Idol's Mony Mony. Lots of fun, but headed home early around 12:30 because we had to be up bright and early for our flight back to Mexico City.
Our International Friends at Tikal
Look at that sunset, me and Dylan with our Scottish, Swedish and 2 American friends.
