Tikal

Well..we were up bright and early...only it wasn't so bright out.  We hopped in the car with 2 backpacks and a small carryon to head to Tikal.  There was no traffic so the drive into Guatemala City was relatively quick.  We flew out of a small (and I mean SMALL) airport next to La Aurora.  We got in line, checked one bag, had our backpacks weighed and went downstairs to wait.  No security.  The boarding passes were laminated so they were reusable.  The flight was delayed 30 minutes because of weather, but that's it.  We've been amazingly lucky with flights so far.  Lily's stomach is still bothering her.  I started her on cipro yesterday.  It seems to help, but I'm not convinced that part of the problem isn't that she is just ridiculously exhausted.

When we got on the plane, I understood why the tickets weren't cheap.  There were 12 people on the plane.  Price adds up when you are paying for half of the fuel and one of the pilots!  The flight was beautiful.  I love being low enough to see everything.

We arrived in Flores and a van was waiting to take us to our room at the Tikal Inn.  It was another hour ride and it is HOT in Northern Guatemala.  HOT.  Luckily we weren't tired or anything...so no one was complaining.

Our package included a tour when we arrived.  There was another group of 20 year olds on our bus to the Hotel that were also on the tour.  They split us up into two groups.  Our group and a single lady, and then the group of 20 year olds.  10 minutes into the tour, the single lady split.  I can't imagine why.

Tikal is awesome.  If you ever have a chance, to go, you should.  The Tikal Inn is right in the National Park so it's about a 10 minute walk to the entrance although it's still a hike through the jungle to get to the beginning of the ruins.  It's hot.  It's humid.  It's very, very, very green.  It's awesome.

It's enormous.  We saw a scorpion, that I thought was dead.  Turns out it wasn't.  The guide poked at it enough to guide it to another spot.  It was right at a crack in the rock where someone could have stuck their hand in it and been bit.  No good.

We saw the coati, a ton of birds, and some spider monkeys and howlers.  I was a little disappointed because the howlers were quiet and I wanted the kids to hear what they sounded like.  It was a 4 hour tour and our guide was great.  She is just learning English but did a phenomenal job.  She was good with the kids.  I could tell she was learning online and reading because when a word with end with an e, she would make the long a sound.  Amazing though to be that motivated.  We asked her what other tour she recommended and she said the sunrise tour.  Grace and Lily were less than impressed with the amount of climbing we did.  Jake amazed me with all of the facts he knew.  I'd brought the kids a book on Tikal and he'd read the whole thing.  Turns out the "Hero Twins" club that he and Lily created before coming down was from the book.  Love when they learn on their own because they are interested.  He had lots of questions for the guide.

When we got back to the hotel, we ate lunch.  The kids had spaghetti.  They were ecstatic.  They've missed their pasta. :)  We also hopped in the pool.  We have two rooms because their are six of us.  Tim, Grace and Ethan shared a room and Lily, Jake and I.  Tim had a gecko running around his room.  Mine was cooler because it had an extra window because it was on the end.  The Hotel only has electricity from 7-9:30 at night and 6-8 in the morning....so there isn't a way to cool the rooms down.  I guess that's what the pool is for.  The kids spent some time in the pool and then the boys and I went back to the ruins for a bit.  I'd recommend going in the afternoon. NO ONE was there.  The boys ran up and down the ruins, got to explore things, we heard howlers and went right underneath them to watch.  We went to find the 'twin temples' that Jake had been wondering about.  Loved it.    We got back to the hotel around 5:30 and watched some spider monkeys right outside our room and then went into the pool for a bit.

While we were out, Jake said he wished he had his machete so we could pretend Ethan was sacrificing him.  Nice.  He's odd.  He also told us that he plans on being a Mayan Archeologist when he grows up but he's worried there won't be anything else to discover.  He spent a lot of time asking about the ball court and was very upset that when we walked to the market, it was all still covered in jungle.  He'd been looking forward to seeing it.

The jungle also smells a little bit 'garlicky'?  Jake said it smells like noodles.  One of the plants has a seed that is very fragrant.  It wasn't a bad smell, but was a bit overpowering!

I went to set up the sunset tour and was NOT happy when I found out it was $18 per person plus 100Q entrance fee....that adds up to $180 that I wasn't planning on spending.  I asked why the other group got it free and he told me it was because it was included in their package.  The package is $25 and includes breakfast, dinner and the tour.  Well, we had breakfast included so I didn't understand why we couldn't get a deal.  He went back and said we could have dinner and the tour for $22.  Not a great deal but what was I going to do?  And we did find out that the kids didn't have to pay the 100Q entrance fee so that helped.  Grace had made a friend at the pool.  It was a mom from Georgie and her Guatemalan born daughter.  She is just a couple of weeks younger than Grace.  We ate dinner with them.  It was nice to run into some people.  They ordered a cheeseburger for dinner...we went to do the same and were told that our package only included the chicken, spaghetti, or fish.  UGH.  You try telling the kids they can't have a burger.  It was $5 on the stupid menu!  Whatever.  Tim went and talked to him because by this time, my lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me.  I was almost in tears the first time I talked to him about the tour...and then now I was ready to start screaming...which would have been no help to anyone.  Tim came back and said they were going to move our 'free meal' to lunch tomorrow and we could just order off of the menu for dinner.  Whatever.  Didn't make sense to me but fine.  The other thing that got me riled up (besides the fact I haven't been running!!!!) is that when I asked the cost, he said $22 per person and went I went to pay in Q, he told me the exchange rate was 8Q to the $....and usually it's 7.5.  I felt like he was trying to screw me every which way.  I don't have much patience for that.  Add no sleep...and my brain hurting from learning the language, and you can see why it was a better idea for Tim to have the conversation. :)

We went to bed early...because the sunrise tour meets at 3:50am.  Great.  Kids are excited about getting up early again. :)