Mexico to Guatemala ....

Hola! an early early start, this is where the trip got a bit sketchy for us all. reading all the guides before hand i really had no accurate descriptions for ways to get through to Tikal in Guatemala from Palenque in Mexico. we knew the basics ... tour operators ran vans and bus's from place to place and these tickets could be bought in the town. so we winged it .... and it worked fine.

buying tickets the day before, we set out 6am, arriving at a local village on the border river between the two nations. your only way across once you have your passport stamped by the dudes in the mud huts, is via motor canoes ... and i mean wood canoes. long thin boats, similar to any native / Indonesian / Mexican fare. crossing the river was fine, although the river was about 100m wide, and flowing fast, did i mention no life jackets or safety warnings, yeh time to live a little.

Having crossed over, we find there to be no bus .... we also find out that its sunday in Guatemala, no banks are open, so not much chance of money exchanges from Pesos to Quetzals (local currency). anyway ... on this side of the border, things aint to strict. hell, its not strict anywhere round here, they are happy to see people coming in, and not fleeing the border to the states i guess. bus arrives and we head to the border crossing, a 2 man building in the middle of nowhere, with donkey drop toilets, the females were not impressed, especially with the no closing doors on some.

Passports stamped, we are officially in and sorted, unlike 90% of the rest of the crew on the bus, we seem to be over prepared, with reservations and plans for the tour all sorted ... i get weird looks when asked how did you know about this ... or are you staying here tonight? and we go, nup got plans already lol. all the other travellers, including Brits, Kiwis, Sweds, Australians, Italians etc etc felt it easier to stay in the island town of Flores for the night, rising for a sunrise Tikal Tour at 3am, busing it into the park. i had other plans, as i had reserved accomodation in the park itself, 5 mins from the entrance gates. we could sleep in till 4am, and join the same tour. this proved to be the best thing, as on exit from the ruins, hot / sweaty / exhausted, most of them then would have to bus it back to Flores for their hotels. all we had to do was walk from the entrance gates 5mins to our jungle lodge (Jaguar Inn) and have a shower and eats. .... one drawback, its the jungle, so prepare yourself for a few more insects around, howler monkeys in the morning, and electricity breaks during the night for the generators. Next morning .... sunrise, the first in three weeks in Tikal.