Fast link for photos (W9, W10 and W11 all new images) http://www.lazyblueskies.com/wp/wpg2-2?g2_itemId=9542

So, have you ever sat in a Mexican Indian’s hut eating a chicken, whilst being watched by a relative of said chicken who was playing with now very dead BBQ’d chicken that very morning? There was a brief moment between us I think. We stayed the night with some indigenous Indians who put us up in the equivalent of a garden shed before heading off to catch a long wooden boat to ride down the muddy river to the border of Mexico and Guatemala. When you think of a border between the two countries in your mind, that’s exactly what it looks like. Dust, chickens and jungle looking folk just staring at you. Then in front of us was a 5 hour chicken bus ride to Flores along quite literally a dirt track winding through tiny villages with roads full of dogs, chickens, turkeys, horses, pigs and of course the obligatory donkey standing right in the middle of the road who was moving for no one.

The ruins at Tikal (Guatemala) were a major civilization circa 500 BC peaking at about 300 AD with around 100,000 people living there. When you look the images you will see that this place is smack bang in the middle of the jungle. The site takes roughly 5 hours to walk around looking briefly at stuff but the whole site takes, ready for this, 5 days! They say that only 7% of the site has been unearthed! Quite incredible when you think these dudes (Ugg, Bugg and Dugg) made a hill about 60 foot high, and then erected a 130 rock tower on top of it, then made 105 steps up to the alter, on which they, well, chopped people up as sacrifices to The Gods. Trust me, the place is as eerie as it is stunning. Add to that the sound of the Howler Monkeys and the knowledge that Jaguars are common sights each day, along with massive, and I do mean massive thunderstorms, you really get a feel for what it must have been like. The incredible thing is that these things are still standing after 100’s of earthquakes, wars, famine and Mayan Gold thieves.

The tribes lead a simple yet difficult life where as an example the aim of winning a game of sort of football/basketball/hockey was to then walk up the steps to collect your prize…..a black obsidian sword through the chest to remove your heart whilst you stood there looking down at the crowd going bonkers below! Apparently, this was a great honour and secured your entry to the Underworld. Mmmm, I’d rather have the trophy.

We picked up two of the security guards carrying pump action shotguns at the back of the site. Jaguars and Bandits have been known to attack so we walked with them for a bit. As a result we got to see some of the stuff off the tracks, and I still cannot believe this. The guards pointed to a small clearing, where there was a flat rock with small holes in the surface (about drain cover size). He pointed inside saying Mera Mera (Look Look) so I climbed into one of the entrances and there, sure enough, was, a Jaguars den. The guard said that the Jaguar had moved from this one to a new one, but there I was, underground in a Jaguars den. I looked to my left and there 10inches from my face was the hairiest CD sized Tarantula looking spider that I have ever seen. In true Steve Irwin style I farted loudly, screamed like a 6 year old girl in pigtails and left the den like a cruise missile. Now languages are a funny thing when 90% of all communication is non verbal. But the look that the guard gave me was one of utter disgust. He then sort of lost interest in us and walked off. It was okay for him, he had the gun, I had a pair of flip flops! Karen just shook her head and wandered off behind the security guard.

Speaking of guns, guys will understand this. ‘The Guy Nod’, now most of these are exchanged in shops/markets whilst you are shopping with the Doris and you are bored. The whole kinda ‘Yeah dude know the feeling’ thing. Well let me tell you what’s up there in the top 5 of all time Guy Nods, when you get one from a guy carrying an M16 Carbine Fully Automatic Assault Rifle. It just makes you feel like a man. 

So, we took a bus for about 9 hours down to Guatemala City to get a feel for the country and quite a feeling we got. Imagine if you can a load of Class A narcotic fuelled Orangutans who have been at the whisky then trying to load bags onto a bus and then driving across the mountains whilst waving their arms above their heads, that’s close to the bus station vibe. We entered Guatemala City just before dusk and hit the ‘wrong side of the tracks’ first. The first thing we saw, was the smog and the shanty towns, the second thing we saw was a bloke legging it across a freeway with a women’s handbag under his arm. So when the bus finally stopped we leapt into a Taxi and headed for the hostel at which we were staying and didn’t leave until we got on a flight to Ecuador.

Our Travel Agent ‘STA Travel Bournemouth’ as in ‘The Student Travel Association’ made a massive balls up with our round the world ticket by suggesting to us that flights around these parts were $100 - $200. Well they don’t, they in actual fact cost $1300. So we have had to pay it to get onto the next leg. Anyone travelling anywhere with internal flights, take this as a warning, a $1300 warning. Utter incompetence is a goal it appears for most travel agents who then specialise in 100 reasons why it is not their fault. Oh and that’s we had paid these ‘people’ £4000 for the original ticket. That name again, STA Travel. Be warned. Nice people but utter baboons.

So after a brief stop over in San Jose in Costa Rica we are now in Ecuador in a City called Quito. For those of you that know Captain Simon Plumms (good luck on the flight course mate). Well when he did his Long Way Down cycle ride last year he started here at The Marriot Hotel where we have been staying for a few days. Briefly, let me say that how he managed to cycle here is incredible. The altitude is 5000m above sea level. In context, stand up, walk to bathroom, brush teeth, sit on edge of bath to catch breath, walk back to bed, sit down catch breath. It is like being an asthmatic chain smoker with a Ford Focus parked on your chest. Really hard to breath and walking up the smallest hill is difficult.

The city is a bit scary too like Guatemala. This was the advice given by the hostel staff. ‘Okay, so take nothing out with you, no wallets, no cameras, no watches, no videos, no sunglasses, no backpacks, no passports and only enough dollars for food and Taxi. People get mugged here at knife point all the time, even the hotel staff, oh and up town they will rob you at gun point so be really careful’!

‘GUNPOINT’, I said, ‘GUNPOINT’, now hang the fluff on a minute, so in short we are trying to book flights as fast as possible to get to Galapagos and basically get out of the City. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with it, but you just don’t feel safe and that is all well and done for a few hours but it just doesn’t make you feel happy and we don’t want to just hold up in a hotel.

All of which is such a shame as this is a photographers dream! The people, the faces, the clothes, the culture. But you can’t take your camera out of your bag for fear of some Alpaca snogging gringo buggering off with it. Oh by the way, my main Canon 17-85 IS USM lens has died on me so I’m struggling with super sharp images, in case you photo hacks notice the difference of drop in quality. Thanks by the way for all the lovely comments of supports and encouragement via email re these blogs and the photos. Strange but over 200 people now get the updates. Blondie says to say hello to everyone and more next time about jumping over the Equator back and forth like a proper tourist monkey.

Best regards and hugs to all from us over here.

Chris and Karen