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.

San Ignacio, Belize, pictures

Finally a fast enough USB port to be able to add these images. Ciaran would have proudly showed you the scratch on his face made a moment later (scratched by iguanas is cool), but it was too faint to come out.
We went through the cave at left, and we startled all the bats out of their hiding places and watched them fly away.
Romany wants one of these for a pet now. They are very zen creatures who spend 95% of their time in stillness.

San Ignacio, Belize

San Ignacio is a very laid back and tourist friendly town near the Guatemalan border. Being in the Western Highlands of Belize it is positively cool after the heat at sea level.
We went on a day tour into the Mountain Pine Ridge conservation area and enjoyed it in a very 6 and 11 year old way. We spent the longest time watching a huge colony of leaf cutter ants who had been working so long they had carved a trail in the grass. When the guide thumped the side of their nest with a stick, huge soldier ants as big as a bee came rushing out to investigate. Apparently they can draw blod with their bite.
We also explored a cave (with bats), saw tapir hoof prints and climbed waterfalls. This did raise some concern in some members of the party about the lack of helicopter rescue services, but only Ciaran fell in the river, and that was only at the top of the waterfall.
Today we went to a an iguana breeding station where we were able to hold the green iguanas and spot other spiny tailed iguanas and basilisk lizards (these are otherwise known as Jesus lizards for their ability to run on water). Not surprisingly this appealed to the smaller members of the tour party but was generally held to be a winner by all concerned.
Unfortunately the lovely iguana photos are not uploading on any of the computers we have found - will try to add them later.