After a night of no sleep thanks to the kareoke bar across the road, we set off on our bottom-numbing, bone-shattering journey to get to Guatemala and a mere eleven hours later we arrived!

I was struck again by the incredible peace and lush green rainforests that Guatemala doesn’t share with it’s neighbours, noticable as soon as you cross the border. I was looking forward to the Guatemalan leg of the trip more than the Mexican leg, and I put it down to the incredibly laid back, friendly nature of this country and it’s people. There’s something about the mix of the varied, unspoiled landscapes, the people and just the general atmosphere that makes Guatemala one of my favourite places.

When we got to Tikal national park, neither of us were in a fit state to do anything apart from relax, unpack in our lovely Eco-friendly lodge, have some dinner and relax a bit more! We had been told that the park guides no longer offer sunrise tours of the park (apparently due to red- tape restrictions) which is a real shame as it would have been great to show Rick the view from atop a temple as the sun rises, but it was not to be.

Instead we set off not long after sunrise with our guide and a few other people for our four hour flora and fauna trip around Tikal. The guide surpassed all of our expectations and continued to surprise us with information about the park and we found out how much of his life he had dedicated to the excavation and work he’d done all over the world to educate people on the park he’d grown up on as a child.

Luis, the guide, got chatting to us once the tour was up, and when we told him we were on our honeymoon, he told us that he’d have a word with the guards and sort it so that we could go in the park after hours and sit in the main plaza on top of a pyramid. So, upon our entrance to the park later in the afternoon, amid many winks, nudges and well placed tips we were escorted by a guard to the pyramid, where we sat and enjoyed a couple of beers in the relative silence that a rainforest provides, on top of three thousand years of history! It was an extremely special experience, made even more special by the fact so many people were involved in trying to make it special for us.

The next day was spent catching up on reading in hammocks ( and trying to get comfortable when we were both in the same one) and having a look around the tiny museum which although small, was worth the 90 pence entrance fee, as there was a reconstucted tomb which was found inside the most impressive pyramid with the skeleton of King Cocoa and all of the jade jewellery and artifacts that were found with him- along with some very big, very beautiful jade ear plugs. Beat that Emos!

Later that evening we were re-packing our rucksacks once again as we were spending the next night in Flores, only 60KM down the road, but not before meeting Hugo.