Tikal

Today was a super charged day and the fact that I still have this awful cold didnt help a bit!
We woke up at 4:30 to get the minivan to Tikal at 5 only to get there and have to wait half and hour because the park didnt open until 7 (argh!) Now, I have been to Mexico before and visited the Mayan pyramids there but nothing prepared me for what we saw at Tikal. It is part of the Mayan biosphere, the largest tropical forest of Central America. Tikal is a Mayan village with a grand plaza and everything. They are still excavating as there are still a lot of ruins underground. We were smart to come early as it got hotter and more unbearable as the day went along. We climbed everything we could (quite a few of the pyramids you couldnt go up as they had an accident with a tourist who died acouple of years ago)... Apart from the ruins we amused ourselves at observing the wild life. Its at this time that a video camera would ome in handy as the sounds we heard were worth remembering.
We ran into some monkeys (one I must say actually pied on me and I was lucky enough to move out of the way before he finished his business if you know what I mean!), a lot of spiders, caterpillars, crickets and birds, all of different colours, shapes and sizes --- lets just say I have seen enough creepy crawlers for the rest of the trip and worst, Jo kept trying to tease them to make them jump at us!
We got back to Flores at around 1:30 pm and enjoyed a nice nap before taking a boat to visit the lake Peten Itza. The sun was coming down, the water was cool and the boat was slow, all the ingredients for a really nice afternoon. From the Mirador we could see the entire lake and its surrounding villages then after we had a nice dinner by the lake side---the Lonely Planet doesnt speak too fondly of Flores saying that most buget tourists tend to just pass by on the way to Tikal and then move on but we have enjoyed our stay here, except for the heat which is quite humid and unbearable -- we are thinking about taking a dip in the lake tomorrow before we leave so as to be cool for the trip down to Rio Dulce (hopefully the air conditioning in the bus wont get me even sicker!)
P.S. we are still working on the photos but we promise it will be very soon :)
Hope you are all well and enjoying your summer wherever you are!

Besitos
Jo and Fil