You´re going to notice a distinct lack of exclamation marks and punctuation here because like a quarter of this keyboard doesn't work ;P
Tikal. Was. The. Bomb. Seriously, it beats Machu Picchu´s ass by 1000. I couldn´t believe it. We arrived at 5am after an hour bus ride, and when I got out of the bus I realized that one of the girls in my group was an irish girl I met on the boat from Bocas in Panama, then ran into briefly at the bar in San Pedro. Awesome.
Everyone was shocked by the heat. I was in a tank top and light fabric pants at 5am and I was still sweating. We began to wander down a dark trail through the park, and every so often, the tall shadow of an ancient building would appear against the dark sky. It was the most haunting and beautiful thing ever. We sat atop an old temple and awaited the sunrise, only to find out it was far too cloudy to see it that day. No matter at all, though. We continued on walking as light settled, and every sight was one for the Guinness books. These temples are HUGE, and we got to climb a few- no security rope or anything, despite the immense height and steepness. This is Guatemala, of course.
At the top of the structures, you could look over miles of jungle and the views of tops of other ruins. We saw howler monkeys, AND A TOUCAN111111111111111 IT WAS AMAZING. I got a cool picture of it, and they are GORGEOUS. 5 minutes later some guy working on excavation at the park found a non-killer tarantula and let us hold him for a few minutes each. You´ll be happy to know I now have some awesome pictures of me holding and talking to the fluffiest cutest tarantula on earth.
Basically the whole day was magic. That evening me and the Irish girl went out for drinks and dinner, turned in early, and I woke up at 7 for the 10 hour bus ride back to Guatemala City. The plan was to spend the night there, but I quickly changed my mind upon arrival- it´s just...so...dirty. And sketchy-looking. I saw one building in the entire city that did NOT need a new paint job and some major repairs. I hopped the next bus to Antigua, where I spent last night with some really nice girls from the states, Portugal and Spain.
This morning I got the collectivo to the airport, by twelve I was on my plane, and am now in San Jose for the third time. Tomorrow morning I leave for Parismina, where I´ll be volunteering with the turtles for a week and rockin´it hardcore1 Good times, friends, good times. Love to everyone, and happy karma
