Tikal ... Rio Dulce

Alan must have said, ¨¨Incredible¨¨ a hundred times. Tikal was beautiful and humbling. Many conversations with many nice men with guns were required to establish that we wanted to camp in our tent in the park, but not pay to enter the ruins until 3:00 because then our admission would be good for the next day as well. Anyway, that done, we setup camp, had a bit of lunch and wandered into the biggest part of the ruins. Even before we saw the ruins, the jungle was so worth all the extra driving. Birds of all colors and crazy sounds hung in the trees. Cute fuzzy things with mole-like faces and monkey-like tails, called ¨pisotes¨¨ wandered around. (Found out later, that in English they are called Coatis, but that didn´t mean anything more to us than pisote did - anyway they are cute).

Finally, leaping out of the jungle were gigantic Mayan ruins. Awesome. Beyond description, really. Spent the night, and much of the next day seeing and climbing more of them.

Saturday, we drove on, expecting to make it to Rio Dulce. But we got tired and stopped in Poptun instead. Just outside of town is Finca Ixobel, a wierd compound with luxurious, cheap everything-you-would-ever-want services for backpackers. We slept in a lovely treehouse and everything we wanted we just took and paid for later on the honor system. It was started by a farming couple from Ohio who just decided to buy land in Guatemala and see if they could farm there. People kept asking to pay to sleep there and they kept cooking them food. Eventually it evolved into a hotel, restaurant and center for various excursions. It was fun, but a little wierd with all the hippy travelers hiding out in the compound.

Today we drove on to Rio Dulce, a nice town on a big river. Very pretty, lots of boats coming and going to various other towns, including Livingston. We considered taking a boat out to Livingston, but I guess we´´re a little fatigued and just anxious to get on to Honduras where we hope to find the perfect beach apartment to relax, read, snorkel, etc. for a week or so.

Tomorrow, another border crossing. Once again, the internet is filled with horror stories. We´re jaded now, and just plan to go and find out for ourselves.

Next log will come from Honduras.