Tikal & Cataratas de Aguas Termales

We got up early (and were woken up by the howler monkeys) to explore the Mayan ruins where we parked at. It was 0630 in the morning and we were once again chased by hungry mosquitoes. But it was amazing to see the ruins illuminated in the rising sun to the sounds of the jungle.
Then we made our way back over the rough road but it wasn't that bad when you know what to expect. By the time we were back at Tikal, the sun had risen and there were already some visitors in the park. We planned out a round trip that would take us to almost all structures in the park. There were a lot of impressive buildings but the viewpoints from the top of two pyramids were the highlights. Also the trails leading through the jungle accompanied by the wildlife were absolutely amazing. We saw more Coati, an Agouti, a toucan and a peacock couple 🥰 Overall we spent 3 hours exploring and getting lost in the ruins. It was well worth the visit!

From there we continued on further South. Unfortunately on the way to the next stop some lights went on again for Ruedi and the message "Injection defective" appeared. But we decided to ignore it this time and just go on until he eventually breaks down 🥲 There's no point in trying to keep him going once again just to lose some time and have the next issue appear a few days later. If it would've been in Europe we could probably easily fix it within a few days but with the lack of spare parts it's not realistic to make it very far South 🤷‍♂️ Let's see...

Our next stop were the Hot Waterfalls, a great little stop with really hot waterfalls plunging a few metres down into the cold water of a river. When we arrived we were swarmed by kids asking us to buy something or just some money. It was a pretty weird experience we've only had in Cambodia so far. Also there was a guide insisting to take us to the waterfall because it's dangerous but turned out to be just a 600m flat walk 🙄 He also stayed with us the whole time we went swimming there, pretty annoying... So we just spent a bit of time in the water before going back to the van and driving on. It would've been an option to stay there but after the experiences we decided to go to El Estor.
There we went to a restaurant for an overdue dinner which had also a hotel. We asked to stay at the parking right next to the lake for the night and it was okay for a little fee. Afterwards we checked to get a boat tour for the next day (06:30 in the morning 🥱) and then walked through the city.Read more