8-8

Yesterday was D-Day, as in ¨How Delight I am that Seth Finally Arrived¨ Day. (You can see why I abbreviate that.) Our complicated rendezvous went off without a hitch* and now our travels together begin in earnest.
The eight-hour bus ride from Guatemala City to Flores was unpleasant is uneventful (no sleep for us!) and even proceeded ahead of schedule. In fact, although Tikal is fully 77km from Flores, where we are staying the night, we were at the park well before 9am. And what a park it is! Although I have been fortunate enough to see at least half a dozen major Major ruins (amazing, that) Tikal is itself a world apart. Hidden deep in the jungle like Palenque but with the monumental architecture like Chitzen Itza and under visited like El Tajin, it has hands down become my favorite. We spent seven hours there, tired as we were from our overnight travel, and climbed as many of the great temples as we were allowed, but still did not see everything. Amazing, truly amazing.
This evening once again finds me (now us) in Flores, the first and thus far only city in Central America I´ve visited twice. It´s nice, I have to say, to be able to show Seth my ¨favorite swimming hole¨ or to point out a good restaurant, but its also strange. Fortunately tomorrow were off to more uncharted territory: Lanquin and Semuc Champey!

* Oh, and while waiting as the bys station I had the unusual pleasure of meeting an American expat who plays for the Belizean national soccer team. What a strange world!