Guatemala is now our "home". Our first stop was Flores from which we went to Tikal Ruins (1.5hrs).WE elected to do the sunrise tour. That meant we left the hostel at 3am to sit on top of a ruin for sunrise.However due to low cloud we didn't see the sunrise but it was nice to be guided around the ruins in the cool of the morning w/o many people and see some of the flora and fauna pointed out to us. We opted out of the tarantula spider placed on us instead looked at it. The part of Flores we stayed in was a little island in the middle of a big lake. It was nice with cobblestoned streets and lake views almost wherever you walked.After 2 njughts there we got on a bus SW to Rio Dulce. Rio Dulce is a town but also a big river with Guatemala's biggest lake at the land end. Because the river goes well in from the coast it is a safe harbour for yachties in the hurricane season. Millions of $'s worth of boats moored there. WE stayed in Hotel Kangaroo on the river - the name got us in and it belonged to an Aussie. Only way to it was by boat (a tinnie), But that also meant you had to buy their meals etc so was a little bit dearer. We did a river trip to the coast and stopped off at Livingstone for a couple of hours - Caribbean feel. I had the local speciality for lunch - a coconut curry soup with unshelled prawns and crabs(very small ones) and a fried whole fish in it. It was very nice after the 15-20mins of shelling and deboning.Gary had a fried whole fish which he said was nice. We also visited the Spanish fort on the edge of the lake and the town. It was once called Fronteras and still has that feel about it.The best day there was a trip to a hot waterfall. The water came from 2 hot springs underground and was very hot but at the bottom of it there was a cool pool from a stream running by. So you could warm/hot oin you upper body and cool on your lower body at the time. The same day we also went to a nearby river and walked/swam up a canyon and back. It was a great day for very little money.After 4 nights there we moved NE to Semuc Champey. THat involved a 6 hr trip with 8 people in a twin cab ute. 4 were in the tray and luckily there was a tarp as it rained in the latter half of the trip. The rain cover on my bag didn't do a great job and so half my gear got wet.Anyway finally arrived to our jungle destination around 8pm.This hostel - Utopia - was in the middle of nowhere and once again had to take all the meals there. It was vegetarian.Gary managed to survive the 8 meals we had there (good company passed the time) but I thought there was nothing wrong with it.WE did a cave tour and visited the coloured pools there The cave part involved wading,climbing,etc thru the caves and after we had hiked up to a viewpoint to look at the pools we swam in them.There we also saw howler monkeys quite close in the trees whilst hiking up. WE luckily did the tour on our first day and rain every night was causing some issues at the caves and pools. WE also did an onsite tour of how chocolate evolves from the tree to the eating.The scenery there was amazing with hills/mtns and valleys,dirt single lane roads to travel on and lush vegetation.After that we travelled south to Antigua . It is in a valley surrounded by mtns/extinct volcanos.Cobblestoned streets again ( hard to walk on) and altogether a pretty town. WE did a volcano hike yesterday. It was to Pacaya - an active volcano ( last lava flow in March) about 1.5 hrs away. A reasonably gentle hike up to one of the rims gave us amazing views of the volcano with steam rising in places. We walked down to an area of hot rocks to cook marshmellows - tasted good. More walking up gave us great views of the surrounding valleys and mtns.A great day with an afternnon siesta after a 6am pickup. I'm sitting now listening to rain at lunchtime so today is a rest day before moving on the Lago Atitlan tomorrow for about 1 wk. Then back to this hostel in Antigua for a couple more nights before moving onto El Salvador. Hasta Luego
