Details about Tikal

Here are my journal entries from our 2 day vacation to the north of Guatemala.

Day 73 – 4/12:

What a day! It started at 3:50 – we got ready in 10 minutes since it was so early. The shuttle came right around 4, but we couldn’t get out! We didn’t have our keys, but luckily our host mom woke up to the doorbell and let us out.

We rode with ½ the group to the airport (more like a tiny little hanger) – a 45 minutes windy ride. I felt the car sickness once we got there, and eventually got sick. I felt better afterwards so I passed out suckers to the group and only told a few people that needed to know.

We boarded 2 different planes (they were THAT SMALL) around 6:15 and took off right away. The plane I was in was an orange vial, 19 seat, tiny thing. We had full view of the pilots, so I taped take off. The other plane passed us in the sky so everyone was already there when we arrived an hour later. I bought a Sprite and soon we loaded up a bus, equipped with middle isle jumpseats, and went on our way with Eric, our guide.

In an hour we got to Tikal. We started at the tourist center, then walked looking at nature and stuff before hitting up the ruins. We heard the howler monkeys while walking, but didn’t see them. The first ruin we went to was an old bath area, then the central area with a cemetery, Temple I and II, and other ruins. We were able to climb Temple II. We hiked a bit more the V – it was a near vertical climb to the top! We hiked a lot more to IV – the tallest one, currently being restored. While hiking to the park’s restaurant we ran into 2 spider monkeys playing in the trees! Yay! We ate lunch – soup, grilled chicken, veggies, rice, tortillas, and fruit – then loaded the bus and drove for an hour to our hotel. We were all exhausted so fell asleep.

Our hotel was on the island of Flores. It’s beautiful. We hung out a bit, then, after buying water, went to Capitan Tortuga – a pizza parlor type restaurant. I just got lemonade and ate the toppings of 1 slice. We got ice cream afterwards. We relaxed after dinner, and I eventually unintentionally fell asleep.

Day 74 – 4/13:

Again, what a day! I “got up” at 7:15 like every other day down here, but stayed in bed until 8:30. We got ready to face the world then went down for breakfast – tomato, onions, and peppers in scrambled eggs with plantains, beans, coffee, juice, and a hairy sausage which I avoided.

Rachel and I explored before Bible study. We studied Timothy for ½ and hour, then went swimming in the lake (that later caused our hospitalization) and checked out of our hotel rooms.

Rachel and I went to Cool Beans Café for lunch. I got coffee with ice cream, eggs, and potatoes. Yummy. We explored and relaxed until leaving at 3:30. *Observation – it was 40˚C inside, which was much cooler than it felt outside. We’re guessing it was close to 50˚C.* We boarded the same plane and left. Rachel and I did the crossword puzzle (in Spanish) until we hit clouds then landed. We drove back and I had snacks in my room for dinner. We crashed early, to say the least.