Tikal

so in order to get to Tikal and spend only one day there, you have to catch your shuttle at 4 a.m. So we get up about 3:30 and get down to the door just before 4 and begin our waiting game. you remember the way it is here: hurry up and wait. :-) well, given previous tours, the last person can be picked up 45 minutes after the time they tell you they'll pick you up. so i waited until 4:45 before i called to inquire. at which point the guy tells me the driver came to the house but no one was there so he left because he had other pickups. excuse me? i don't think so! i was down here at the front door since 3:50 and NO ONE has come up this street except a motorcycle! he replies, no, my driver said he came and no one was there, he's an experienced driver so he knows your address. i say again that no one came by here because i've been sitting here since before 4 and i know for a fact that there have been no cars down my street, so your driver went to the wrong address. finally he says he'll send another driver to pick us up. he's in route so it'll be a few minutes. we finally enter a van after 5 a.m.

then we stop to get gas and two other people at the gas station. did you know that if you shake the car you can get more gas in it? :-)

finally we're off to the airport in Guatemala City. we arrive at exactly 6 a.m., which is when the plane was supposed to take off. everyone is sitting in this tiny little waiting room and there are 4 people in front of us waiting to check in. finally we board around 6:30. the flight is 45 minutes long. the plane is small, but big enough to have a snack given to us. orange juice, coffee, and graham crackers.

we land, deboard, and walk through a checkpoint where the guy takes our apples away. then we find Pedro, who we thought was our guide. he took us over to the other side of the airport (about 300 feet) to a waiting area. it's actually the arrivals section of a normal airport, where you check in, buy food and suivenirs, and go through security to board your plane. he tells us to wait for 10 minutes, he'll be back. well, he came back, but it was well after 10 minutes. he has another guy with him. we go get in a van with 3 people in it already, lose Pedro, gain the other guy (our driver), drive around the parking lot and pick up our guide Manuel, then finally leave. it's after 8 a.m.

there are 6 of us. a Guatemalan couple who live in New York, an Italian man, a Spain girl, and us. everyone speaks English, including the guide, but the tour was in Spanish and English. about half an hour later we make a stop at a store to get coffee or use the bathroom. it's a typical tourist stop. lots of things to buy. a good 15 or 20 minutes later we pile back in the van and continue our journey.

once we got into the park, we started walking. we walked, strolled, stood, and climbed for 4 hours. the park is beautiful, very forested, tons of really big trees, and these old temples that were built way back in the day basically just for show. rulers would build them to show how powerful they were. they have really big steps and you can climb up some of them to the top to get a great view. it's pretty amazing, actually, but a lot of work. there are a lot of temples that haven't even been uncovered yet. i'm not sure why the earth grows over them, but there was one temple that was half uncovered on purpose, to show the difference.

anyways, as we walked we could hear birds (tucans) and monkeys (howler) rustling in the trees. and several times we stopped and watched the monkeys swing from tree to tree. they were really, REALLY high up and there were lots of trees, so it made it pretty hard to spot them. but, if you wait long enough, sometimes they come down a little ways and you get a food view. :-) i was pleased as punch ... i really like seeing animals in the wild.

after climbing around and hurting all our muscles, we walked back to the front of the park where we ate lunch at a little restaurant (lunch was included in our $200 fair, as was the park entrance, but the airport tax of Q20 each way was not, nor beverages for lunch). we were served fried chicken, rice, french fries, and boiled potatoes, carrots, green beans, and tortillas. it was VERY good and quite a lot of food, which was a pleasant surprise.

after lunch we piled into the van and made our way back to the airport. our original flight was supposed to leave at 5. but when we got there at 3:15 they told us 4:30. we contemplated going to Flores, a little town on an island in a lake, but we couldn't find a taxi outside the airport so went back inside to eat ice cream and wait. at 4 they called for us to board so we went through security (one person at a time) and walked straight out to our plane. this plane was the smallest plane i've ever been on. 19 passengers, i think. no steward, no bathroom, not even verbal instructions to put on your seatbelt. i was a little scared.

the entire flight the Italian guy talked to us and our ears remained plugged up. but thankfully 45 minutes later we landed safely with only minor pain in my jaw, head, and ears. once we landed we had to find our shuttle back to Antigua. we all waited outside and about 5 minutes later or so a van pulls up with our names on it. we get in. a few minutes later they turn the van off and one of the guys says that we have to wait 20 minutes for the next flight to land because on the other plane is a girl we have to take back with us.

the Italian man and Spain girl leave in a taxi to go back to their hotel. they don't know each other, but they were staying at the same hotel.

we wait. and wait. and wait some more. finally the other plane lands and finally people come outside. the guy starts calling out the name of the girl. after a couple of minutes of that, a girl inside the van says, "is he calling Carolina?" yes. "i'm Carolina! i told him that a long time ago!" AARRGG!!! so the driver gets out and tells the guy that we have the girl in the van already! are you kidding me? we just sat here for a good 30-45 minutes and we had the girl the whole time? so the guy runs inside the building, the driver comes back and shuts the door and starts the van, the guy comes back outside the building with a girl that had been standing there the whole time who was NOT Carolina, they both get into the van and we leave.

we start driving in Guatemala City. from what the guy next to me could understand from the drivers conversation's we were driving around looking for other passengers. we drove to a bus station area, but no person. we drove to an entirely different part of time to a bus stop outside an Office Depot, but no person. we got lost. we tried to go the wrong way on a one-way. we got lost again. FINALLY someone in the van calls their travel agent girl and complains. she calls the driver and chews them both out. after an hour of driving around the city looking for other people, we finally give up and start driving toward Antigua. unbelievable.

we got back to Antigua around 7:45 p.m. we got out at the Mono Loco and ate nachos then walked home and went to bed. what a day.

overall, i was glad we went there. but it was a very long day and cost the most thus far. but being out of the city and in a forest where i saw monkeys and huge trees and beautiful old structures was worth it.

the end. :-)