Around the world in 2 years!: Playing Catch-Up: Last weekend in Guatemala (Nov. 30

For our last weekend in Guatemala, the girls and I went to Tikal to see some more Mayan ruins. This weekend was probably the best one I’d had while in Guatemala for the month. The Tikal Mayan ruins are in a rainforest and much more beautiful than Chichen Itza!! I had low expectations due to my disappointment in Chichen Itza, but I’m glad I was wrong.

First we stayed in a beautiful hotel – the Camino Real. It was kind of in the middle of nowhere, but right on the lake and would have been a very romantic resort if I wasn’t with my fellow co-workers. The best part about this hotel was sunset. It was really gorgeous! (you can check it out in my pictures)

(click on the picture below to see my Tikal, Guatemala pics!)

We went through a travel agency, so there was no hassle for anything! Our tour guide, Mario, spoke great English and was extremely informative. Overall, we had a really great tour of Tikal and walked all over the place!! I think about 6 miles in total. The link above has all my Tikal pictures to peruse as you see fit. We even got to see some monkeys, but my pictures didn’t turn out so great.

Turns out that our tour guide, Mario, who is also in Medical School, doubled as a bartender. Lucky us!! We were up to check out the night scene on Saturday night, so Mario came to pick us up from our hotel and took us to Flores. The nearby city (also where we flew in to). There’s a lot more going on in Flores – more hotels, restaurants, bars, etc., so if you’re not looking for resort/peace and quiet…Flores might be a better place to stay. We hung out at Mario’s place, Tropicana, for most of the night and had a blast! We were treated like royalty – they even “created” a table for us to sit down since there were no seats available. I’m not sure if it was because we were 4 girls or because we were with Mario – maybe both! We definitely got a lot of “looks”, but we didn’t care! We snacked on some nachos made from the kitchen, taught Mario and his friends how to play “flip cup” and the other girls enjoyed their Michiladas. I’m personally not a fan of them, but some people LOVE them. A michilada is like a Bloody Mary with tobasco, salt, limejuice and beer. So after a while, we wanted to go dancing and Mario took us to a “club” next door. Oh my – talk about crowded!! My claustrophobic-ness definitely kicked in and we didn’t stay more than 5 minutes. By this time we were tired and ready to head back to our little resort, so back we went!

Oh! One more thing – I forgot to mention that one of the Star Wars movies was filmed in Tikal…does this look familiar???

"You are looking at the locationof the secret rebel base from the original Star Wars(Episode 4), which could only be taken from Temple 4.The scenic vista appears at least three times in Star Wars, for only a few seconds, but it's Tikal for certain. "