Shields folks @ Tikal

Jezz, this was awhile ago since it´s March now and my folks were here in mid Feb. Thanks for visiting us; we never would have enjoyed such fine dinning or lodging without your generous spending, feel free to come again soon!

The Shields folks looked New England winter pale and tired from a long day of flying when we first caught sight of them walking out of the Flores airport terminal by late evening on Tues. the 16th of Feb. After dropping their bags off at the hotel room (sorry about the noisey construction the following moring), Kylie and I were treated to a fine dinner in Flores (and fine rum afterwards).

Cool Beans was the spot for breakfast before we called Santiago, our shuttle driver from the airport the night before, and got a ride to El Remante. Here is the back yard of our hotel there. The weeds that grew in the grass here closed when you brushed them; ask Kylie about the "touch of death" for more details. By 3 P.M., so we could enter the following day with same ticket, the four of us had reached Tikal. We only had a few hours before the sun was set yet we did get a great idea of what the park was like.
This is a back shot and front pic of temple one from the top of temple two, the iconic image of Guatemala. Some shakey steps we climbed to the top of the temples; recent additions to the park after too many visitors feel to their deaths on the original stairs. The park´s policy seemed to be, "people died on this temple, but no one has on this one, so enjoy! The next moring we took a guided tour of the park. We would have never seen these animals if we hadn´t taken the tour. This is a cidcada which blended in with the tree bark perfectly. It´s about five inches long.
" We took a short hike outside the hotel after leaving the Tikal park that night. We got a get chance to see a howler monkey do its thing, but, like photos of Big Foot, we only have this blurry pic. We left our hotel the next day and headed back to Flores, stopping at a nature reserve with six bridges over the canopy. Orchids and the calls of howler monkeys were plentiful. The flight to Guate City and later shuttle to Antigua was plesant. The dinner we had that night would be very difficult to top anywhere in the world. Our salsa dancing elderly couple were surely a hit with us! The climb up Volcano Pacya was eadier the second time. Glad to hear you two have made it home safely and thanks again for coming!