Thursday, March 31, 2011

On the way to Tikal. 27/3/2011

We set off early the next morning to try and miss the heat. Out of the mountains the temperature touches 100 F during the day ad the humidity is quite high. We travelled towards Puerto Barrios on the Caribbean coast then turned north towards Rio Dulce at the mouth of Lago de Izabal. There is a large bridge that crosses over the river where you enter another world. Large motor and sailing vessels are moored up in marinas with large houses leading down to it's banks. Half a mile either side of the bridge you are back in Guatemala with people selling their wares on the street. We turned left in the town following the Lago for some 16 miles to a river called El Paraiso where hot water comes over a waterfall and joins the cooler river below. The hot water was almost too hot to touch. You can see Jill waving hiding under an overhang where the hot and cold water mixed. Much refreshed we traveled back to Rio Dulce and turned north again towards Poptan and the Finca Ixobal just 2 miles before the town. The road was very good and we made fast progress arriving about 1700. Jill secured us a 'tree house' 28/3 007 called Casa Linda and we settled in for the night. The finca is about 800 acres and grows it's own vegetables on organic lines. They have a range of different accomadations for tourist and provide lovely home cooked meals....Yum. There was a pond to swim in (which we didn't as the mosquitoes put us off) and huge stands of bamboo. The next morning we went for a walk along a forest trail marked out with red paint to stop you getting lost. The view from the top of the hill was rather impressive of the undulating landscape. After lunch, having removed a free loader from the bike seat who then hid under the exhaust pipe and was really difficult to remove, we set off into the heat of the afternoon north toward Tikal. We stopped off at El Cruce to try and buy some provisions for our camping at Tikal but apart from fizzy drinks made by the Coca cola company and packets of crisps there wasn't much else. Heading into the National park we camped in the designated camping area under a palapa for Q100 a night and watched spider monkeys, Whaite Nosed Coatis and Ocellated Turkeys strutting their stuff.

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