An early 6am start for a short bus ride to the Belizean-Guatemalan border and a simple border crossing (on the Guatemalan side, customs simply check all our passports which the tour leader has collected, they don't actually want to see us in person!). We then have a few hours by private bus to the Mayan ruins of TIkal, a vast complex of temples and buildings deep in the jungle, populated by all sorts of wildlife. The site is dominated by 5 huge temples which rise up to 60m from the jungle floor. Tikal is also known for the interesting names of the kings, eg. King Great Jaguar Paw (and his general Smoking Frog), King Moon Double Comb (aka King Chocolate). We have a 3 hour guided tour of some of the complex, and we can also climb some of the temples. The highlight is climbing Temple IV, the tallest temple. The view from the top is amazing, you can see miles of jungle in every direction with the tops of some other temples poking through the canopy. The feat of engineering to build these steep sided temples is mind-boggling. I also wanted to do a sunrise climb but this couldn't be accommodated into our itinerary. I could have changed it to enable me to do it, but it's supposed to be hit or miss how good the view is due to cloud cover in the morning. The Temple V climb looks positively dangerous, steps which more resemble a near vertical ladder. One slip and you're a goner, probably taking out anyone below you too.

After lunch in a lakeside restaurant (with a couple of amusing parrots saying "Hola, Hola"), we head to the small, tranquil town of Flores, a small island on Lake Peten Itza linked to the mainland by a narrow causeway. Not a lot to do here, a small touristy town which accommodates visitors to Tikal, various cafes/restaurants. We settle at a lakeside restaurant for a few drinks and food in the evening.

An early start the next morning to the town of Rio Dulce on the shores of Lake Izabal, arriving lunchtime. We're staying at the picturesque Hotel Catamaran which can only be reached by boat. The hotel has an unusual (and pain-in-the-arse) drinks buying system devised by its owner Kevin. He has his own notes printed called Kevins. Drinks can only be bought with Kevins, which must be bought at reception with Quetzales, the actual Guatemalan currency!

Some of us take up the option for an afternoon speedboat trip along the Rio Dulce river to the laid-back Caribbean village of Livingston. The river is flanked by mangrove forest on each bank, with isolated dwellings, small communities, harbours/yachts, birds. It's a very pleasant trip, nice and cool when we're moving, unbelievably hot when we're not. Livingston is largely populated by displaced Garifuna (black Caribbean people) and is very laid-back. It's very small - there's only one main street, with restaurants, cafes, tourist shops. We have a couple of hours here and that's probably enough to see everything. There's also said to be a menacing vibe and rapes and robberies have been reported. Just off the boat, there's a (very) small well split into 4 compartments containing a couple of crocodiles, seems very cruel keeping them in such a small space, probably for the amusement of tourists. We're also introduced to a new drink - Coco Loco, a coconut containing the coconut water with condensed milk and rum. Beautiful! Everyone agreed we could have drunk them all day!

After the boat trip back to our hotel, we have the evening free. Now, the Wifi can only be accessed by the reception/bar area, which means a combination of drinking and Facebooking. There's a subsequent tale of what happened this evening invloving me, Evie and eventually three Embassies in different countries but I can't post details on the net so you'll have to wait till I get home or private Facebook message me (hence, the title of this blog section)!!

The next day (Thurs 6 May), we have a longish (6hr) private minibus journey to Antigua, a beautiful colonial town and UNESCO World Heritage Site nestling among the Agua, Acatenango and Fuego volcanoes. Two things strike me when we arrive: Firstly, the town is very cobbly, all the streets are cobbled, very quaint but not good for vehicle suspensions, bicycle riding, etc. Also, the temperature is very cool, none of the sweltering heat and humidity of northern Gautemala and Belize over the past week, more a European climate. There buildings are largely one storey, and all painted in one of six colours. We have an orientation walk of the town, then a meal at Fusions restaurant in the evening. It's also leaving day for a couple of the girls as this part of modular tour comes to an end. The food at Fusions is fantastic, I have the Five Peppers Tenderloin and I must say it is the best steak I've ever had, so tender, lovely sauce. After food, we head to Reilly's Irish Tavern, the first visit to somewhere we would come to know and love in the following days.

The next day (Friday) is a free day, and we'll be getting some new people joining us for the next section of the trip. Also, there's a new tour leader, Sarah. However, this is her first tour, and she's only just been learning Spanish, so Tucan have asked our current tour leader Joslyn to stay on for another 12 days to shadow her and provide support if needed.

The previous day, the boys on the trip signed up for an early (6am) hike up Volcan Pacaya to see (hopefully) flowing lava! I've read about this beforehand, and although the final sighting of red-hot lava up-close is something you won't get the opportunity to see very often(!), the warnings about the hike made me slightly nervous - wear thick-soled shoes as they may start to melt, wear thick long trousers and gloves in case you accidentally fall onto hot rocks, also the hike is supposed to be quite demanding. It's a one hour drive to Volcan Pacaya NP and the start of the hike. We get a free walking stick (use it!), and I buy some marshmallows and toasting stick. The first part of the hike is about an hour, uphill on a mud/stone path. Probably no problem if you're fit and a keen walker, but I'm neither and take up the option of sitting on a horse for this part. Hey, I'm on holiday to relax! After this, you get to the volcanic rock, which entails a half hour trek up and down scree and over solidified lava boulders to a river of flowing lava. It's absolutely amazing, you're so close that you can reach out to toast marshmallows on it, but obviously you don't want to stand there too long as you start toasting yourself! We didn't have problems with melting shoes, etc, and the hike was difficult, but do the trip, you may regret it for the rest of your life if you pass it up!

In the evening, it's Evie's birthday (actually tomorrow) and her last day, so we forego the pre-departure meeting with the new tour leader and new people and head out to Reilly's for a big drinking session - mudslide cocktails, bartop dancing, we meet the Kumuka group again, and we get a new set of Guatemalan friends! We stumble back to our hotel at about 2am, then up early the next morning as we're supposed to be leaving Antigua for an all day drive to Copan in Honduras. My guidebook states, relating to Antigua, that "like most travellers, you will probably end staying a lot longer than planned". In the morning, me and Kaine make the decision to stay in Antigua for another few days, and rejoin the tour group in a weeks time in Leon, Nicaragua. This is also partly based on the fact that in the next 7 days, 4 of them are full travels days, the only 3 days we'd be doing something are one day at Copan (which although I want to see, seems a bit too like Palenque or Chichen Itza), and 2 days on Roatan Island, with snorkelling and diving options which I'm not really interested in. So goodbye Tucan, we'll see you again in a week!