2009-12-22 Guatamala

2009-12-22 Guatamala
Drove from Belize to Guatamala today to start the next adventure. It was a long ride throgh the country with beautiful scenery. The people of Guatamala look to be as por as Belize but a bit more pride inwhay they have. Less trash and more maintained property. Lots of horses tied to the edge of the road and dogs every where. I w as taken for 10 Belize dolars at the boarder by the customs guy-merry Christmas, I hate not speaking the language! We git to the hotel la Casa De Din David which is right on Lake (Lago) Peten Itza. The water is carribeab blue. We checked in had a quickl lunch and headed off for a canopy tour. We hiked up a small. Hill and did swinging bridges across several bridges so you were actually walking through the jungle canapy. This was a very cool experience to see the trees from the top. From below they all look alike, but from above they all have different leaves, shapes and colors. After 1.5 hr exploring the jungle we went to Flores a European like city on a small island in the lake. It was very lovely and quaint. We stooped for some drinks at a cute little bar and enjoyed the sunset. We experimcrd our first "guatamalan" service - 30 min to get 2 drinks. I guess we just need to slow down and relax, this is not America! The city was nice and had many quaint resturante and shops, someday we hope to come back and explore it with more time. We had a lovely sunset and some good drinks. Wendi had a mojito with lots of fresh mint, it was bright green so it had to be good for you. We saw many people swimming in the lake and was wishing I had my suit. As we walked back to meet our guide we passed several quante resturante and cafes. The drive out of Flores was a bit crazy with no traffic control signals at any intersection, basically a free for all. Add to that a bunch of motor cycles going everywhere and I was glad to be a passenger. Guatamala was a motorcycle country, not a lot of cars but lots of bikes. We stopped at an mall to get cash at an ATM and was suprised by all te bikes parked outside. The mall was filled with teenage kids and lots of armed guards. This was the norm, even at Tikal and the border.