Guatemala (nearly)

As we had some time before we needed to be back in San Chris, we avoided the bumpity road and headed south-east. This road wound through beautiful rainforest, often with the Guatemalan border on one side and a bio reserve on the other. It was a quick road and barely a tope in sight (then inevitably you hit one way too fast!). We paid our 3 bucks entry fee for Bonampak park, but then they wanted another 15 bucks for a ride and entry to the sight itself. As we were tight on time we gave this one a miss and nipped over to Yaxchilán, which is truly unique situated on a peninsula on the river that divides modern day Mexico with Guatemala.

We haggled the outrageously expensive boat ride down to something more sensible and set off down the river. It was a pretty cool boat ride through deep jungle on a large river, and we saw crocs on the banks and monkeys in the trees. The site wasn't the largest we've seen, but the setting on the river and the temple at the top of the steep steps that people apparently used to self-sacrifice down were pretty cool. As we were leaving we got heckled by a group of howler monkeys playing around in the tree tops.

On the way back our driver spotted monkeys on the Guatemalan side of the river, and we even hopped out the boat for a couple of minutes - I certainly couldn't see any wall!

We spent the night by the river, again surrounded with a roaring jungle.Read more