Due to hurricane Agatha, which dramatically ripped through Southern Guatemala and El Salvador, we had to change our plans and head north to the Caribbean side. Leaving San Cristobal we headed on a tour to the Agua Azul and Misol-Ha waterfalls which were a refreshing break from the heat which was reaching 40 degrees by this point.
Later that day we went to the Palenque Mayan ruins which were a spectacular sight, especially as only a very small percentage of the ruins have been excavated and were only discovered in the 80's.
After a long day we ended up staying in a jungle hostel for the night where we were surrounded by howler monkeys and millions of bugs of all sizes! We met up with some really cool people that night, two of which (Jessica and Lauren) we would travel with into Guatemala and Honduras.
The next day we headed to Northern Guatemala, we had intended to head South but due to the hurricane and volcano eruptions still causing chaos, we decided to change our plans. So, off we headed to our first stop in Guatemala; Flores, a pretty town surrounded by a lake where they served fantastic mojitos and ice cold beer - all at great prices.
The following day we headed to the Tikal ruins which date back to 900BC and are embedded in a rainforest. It was great to walk through the rainforest to find huge temples or pyramids appearing before our eyes. We'd hired a local guide who knew so much about the history and restoration that it really made the experience very interesting. The ruins where all embedded in the jungle, so our guide took us through the dense vegetation telling us of all the plants medicinal uses as well as spotting some ruckus spider monkeys! He even took us up a pyramid that was used as the setting for Star Wars; Return of the Jedi back in the 80's - we didn't spot any ewoks though.
After a couple of nights of blistering heat in Flores we headed to Rio Dulce where we stayed for a night before heading by boat (the only way to get there) to a cool little Caribbean town called Livingston. Livingston is an interesting mix of Guatemalans and Garifuna, who originated from the Caribbean. These were very friendly locals and we were happy to get into the Caribbean vibe, with lots of banging music and rum. We stayed in a really nice place on the water and went to see a local band and shake our stuff in a local regae club (shack on the beach).
Our Rasta friend, 'The King' not so happy about Leah pinching his hat. (She's got nits now)
After only a few days in Guatemala we headed to Honduras staying in a pretty grotty port town called La Ceiba from where we would catch a boat to Utila island, where we heard the diving was awesome. The next day we headed on the boat to Utila, arriving to beautiful clear waters and friendly locals.
It didn't take us long to decide where to stay when we were shown a pretty plush two bed-roomed cottage which we shared with Lauren and Jess. As we where a group and all diving we managed to negotiate a great deal on the cottage.
Our plush cottage set around a large mango tree
Over the week that we stayed on Utila we each did ten dives where we saw turtles, sting and eagle rays, some really pretty corals and schools of juvenile fish. It was so good to get back into diving and hopefully we'll do some more before the end of our trip.
Our drinking buddies
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