Las aventuras

B and Hayley made the most of our second day in the park. Walking down from Temple IV after sunrise, we past through the vacant Gran Plaza to find a flock of giant irridescent pheasants foraging the courtyard. We stopped back at the hotel for a traditional Guatemalan breakfast then headed back into the park. Luckily, B knows how to read maps and brought her Guatemala travel guide along. We spent the entire morning hitting all of the monuments we hadn´t yet seen, the most impressive of which was Temple V.

Although Temple V is very close to the rest of the ruins, it was sparsely populated by visitors. We soon learned that the reason for this was that ascending this temple involved a precarious climb up wooden ladder stairs at about an 80 degree angle. B´s intrepid spirit wasconvincing enough to give the climb a try. I´ll admit, it was scary going up, and, well, paralyzingly terrifying coming down, but worth it all the same. The view from the top was far and away the greatest view in the park. We have pictures of the view--and the ladder--to verify our tale.

The only shuttle back to Flores left the hotel at 2pm with B and me on board. We observed that giant hogs roam freely in the small towns and along the roads connecting them. We witnessed one special pig shimmy under a chicken wire fence. Once in Flores, we had a few hour before the flight, which we spent in town on the isle of Flores. To call Flores picturesque would be an understatement, and it was as quaint and tranquil as a watercolor. We drank licuados on a dock and strolled around a bit before heading back to the airport.

Coming back to Guatemala City was a little disappointing after the amazing weekend we had had, but we made the best of it. Sunday morning, we went to the Parque Central in Zona 1. We visited the national cathedral, snaked through the Mayan market on the central square and ate freshly made churros (and not the baseball park/six flags crap sticks, delicious authentic churros). I was so sad to see B leave but grateful for our amazing travel experience.