The Doctors are in Guatemala now

We started at dawn to make the reportedly scary border crossing into Guatemala, but arrived in Tikal by 9.30am. There is a clear difference between here and Belize, however, with the roads suddenly being unsealed at the border, the run down border post itself (more like a bus ticket window), and the sudden presence of many heavily armed soldiers and guards. Blair´s favourite was the two who guard the local toyshop - clearly Barbies are in demand here.
Our first stop was Tikal, the mother of all Mayan temples. It certainly lived up to its hype. While it may seem we are just going from temple site to temple site, each is very different, particularly in terms of its setting. Tikal is wonderfully surrounded by dense jungle full of wildlife. Hence you walk in along shady jungle paths and come upon huge and imposing structures as a surprise around each corner. There are over 4000 structures over a 16 square km site, some of which are fully excavated and restored, others still partially or fully overgrown.
It is also a site where you can climb the temples, often on rickety wooden staircases which would definitely not pass DOC muster. They are as steep as ladders and made all but Romany very nervous at times.
We saw a plethora of wildlife, particularly when we went into the site at dawn the next morning. We were able then to see the temples appearing out of the mist as the sun rose, and have whole plazas to ourselves. We saw spider and howler monkeys, toucans, hummingbirds, crocodiles, turtles and coatis all at close range. There were also dozens of other species of brightly coloured birds we can´t put a name to.
We have now moved on to Flores, which is bagged in the Lonely Planet, but is really a very nice town. It is situated on a tiny island on the lake, connected by a causeway to the mainland. Good food, cheap, and a lovely balcony overlooking the lake. For those doubters, here is some photographic evidence that the children really are doing some schoolwork.