On to Tikal

So here we are, on the precipice of going to Tikal, so we´ll find out if the hype is real. Tikal by the way is an ancient Mayan city, amd the ruins have been restored, and it holds one of the largest pyramids from the Mayan world. Currently we´re in Flores, a tiny tiny little island village om the Peten Itza lake. Its quite beautiful despite the clouds struggling to keep the sun from shining through. Last night it also rained, the first time we had really seen rain this whole trip, although Chris and I were asleep by 9pm, a strange occurrence which has been happening lately. Another occurrence we´re getting used to is the daily routine of waking up to new and mysterious bug bites no matter where we stay, and curiously enough none of the bites are from mosquitoes. And Chris and I have been growing beards for over a week now and they´re getting pretty crazy. Before Flores, we were in Lanquin, which is in the middle of nowhere Guatemala, in a beautiful Valley surrounded by mountains. We stayed at a place called Rabin Itzam the first night because we got in so late from out long backcountry trip from Huehuetenango to Lanquin. By the way, these places with names like Rabin Itzam we can´t tell anymore if they´re Mayan or Israeli, because for some reason there is a large Israeli expat population in Guatemala. Maybe they come after their 2 year service in the army. We were even discriminated against in San Pedro, at an Israeli run hostal called Zoola, where the woman quickly looked us up and down and said there were no rooms - a phrase we have never heard on this trip. In fact there are always rooms. And we never have reservations. We merely hear about the next place to go visit from expats, hop on a bus there, and after many ¨no gracias´¨ to the swarming ´guides´that want to show us hotels to stay in, we quickly find one and put our bags down and explore our new surroundings. This is essentially how we travel. After Rabin itzam, Chris not-so-cleverly asked where El Retiro was - another hostal down the road full of gringos. To this the woman who worked at our place profusely asked ´why?´before finally giving us drections. She had devolved into such a funk andwas sending us such negative vibes after this that the decision to move was made very easy. El Retiro was like a fantasy hide away. Set upon the Lanquin river the large grounds were bset with thatch roofed bungalows, amd even our own roaming cow. But I guess Chris already mentioned this. In Lanquin we went to the caves there at dusk and watched bats fly out. At Semuc Champey (9 km from Lanquin), which was certainly a highlight of the trip, we went deep into caves, even having to swim at certain times, and performed many jumps - off of rope swings, bridges, high rocks, etc. We´re also getting used to seeing a lot of the same expats from time to time, which I guess shows how small the country is. From Lanquin we took a micro to Flores. which was a little over 8 hours. Interstingly, there were only 4 of us who left from El Retiro, and here is the shocker, we didn´t pick up anyone along the way- a true first. So instead of being crammed between 4 mayans, a chicken and bouncing mayan children, we had our own row of seats to lay down on. Now we have to figure out how we will go about Tikal, whether to camp there or stay 20 minutes away in El Remate. After Tikal we´ll come back down the Atlantic side of the country and wrap things up. Then party in Guatemala city or Antigua. Then off to el Salvador and Nicaragua.