Welcome to Guatemala

This morning, we crossed the border to Guatemala, our 5th country on the trip. I was a little sad to already leave Belice, as there's so much more to see and do, but in the end we have to go on and I'm happy to have been to this still quite untouched country with its beautiful nature and people.
Before we left, we had breakfast with Raul's family and our bread and vegetables from the market fed everyone. Then Raul showed us the backroads to the border and we said goodbye. The border crossing itself was really easy, you pay an exit fee of 40 Belize Dollars (20€), get your exit stamp, continue to the Guatemala immigration and get your entry stamp - no filling out a form, no interrogation or anything.
In Guatemala, we were greeted by many many friendly and laughing people. Especially the kids waved at us enthusiastically when we passed by. We stopped at a little shop to get some groceries and chatted to the girls behind the counter. They laughed about us as we didn't know certain fruits and as we ate plain bread without drinking water or coffee. In the end, they gave us some of the fruits that we didn't know (which we tasted later and didn't like too much as they were really sour).
We decided to take a detour and stop at Yaxha, Mayan pyramids some 11km off the highway a French cyclist had highly recommended. If we had known the road conditions beforehand, I guess we would have just passed it. Steep hills, up and down, rocks, slippery surface... However, luckily we hadn't, as the place was stunning and well worth the effort. Camping next to a lake (unfortunately no swimming because of crocodiles), fascinating Maya ruins in the middle of the jungle that we could climb for some amazing views, monkeys, parrots...
The campsite consisted of covered platforms (they call them "bungalows") where we could put up our mosquito net - really convenient. Especially as it started to rain at about 7pm and didn't stop all night. (we had actually checked the weather forecast before and it predicted like 1mm - doesn't seem to be too reliable here)Read more