Howler Monkeys

We made it into Guatemala and to a little island called Flores.  It was a beautiful, tiny little island with a freshwater lake all around it.  We swam almost every day, and across the lake to other little islands too.  We met up with a couple friends again at this really cool hostel called Los Amigos.  It was by far the coolest hostel yet, filled with cool people, delicious food, animals, and a jungle theme.  It was so much fun there we ended up staying almost a week. One of our adventures included taking a boat across to another island and having a night BBQ of spicy sausage, potatoes and corn on the beach.  Then we hiked up to a place called El Mirador which is the highest vantage point around the area.  It gave us an awesome view of the stars, the cities around us, and the sunrise.  We camped up there with our friend Joe.  Initially, one of us was going to sleep on a hammock and two of us on the floor.  But at one point there was this HUGE, nasty scorpion climbing up the tree beside where we were supposed to sleep and after Joe cut its head off and we were all too chicken to sleep on the ground.  So we crammed the three of us into this hammock and tied ourselves all in so we wouldnt fall out.  It was one seriously squishy sleep.  But we made it through the night to watch the sunrise! We also ventured to Tikal finally, and bumbled around the ruins for a day.  We saw some incredible views and heard some crazy loud howler monkeys!  We also had the best sandwich of our lives at this little restaurant called Cool Beans in Flores, which we highly recommend if any of you end up going there.  It was a BLT sandwich on homemade bread with carrots, guacamole and mustard on it.  MMMM....... We had like 5 during our stay.  We then bussed to Palenque and trekked through the really cool ruins there.  It was like being in a jungle wonderland, they were the coolest ruins yet! There were gigantic trees everywhere, and water falls that would blow your mind.  We also trekked through the jungle with our five finger shoes (that have been awesome) and followed a waterfall nearly to the end.  We were taking a break after walking for a while and got stalked by a whole family of monkeys! It was really neat, they seemed to be as interested in us as we were in them.  The next day we took a bus to San Cristobal and it was the worst bus ride ever.  It was a long, bumpy, twisty, rollercoaster journey that lasted five hours.  Emerald got the worst motion sickness of her life, and is happy that she survived :) Here we are in San Cristobal now and so far is the true Crysal Ball of Mexico haha.  Its full of culture, art, cool buildings and interesting people.  But is it ever cold!! It makes us feel a little closer to Canada.   

Tikal ruins

Palenque ruins