Travel E-mails

Greetings, and welcome to the April 14th edition of Zac's travel e-mail.We left off in Panajachel, Guatemala, and now we meet again in Tulum,Mexico.So, what have I been up to? After a bit longer in Pana, I caught a ride toRio Dulce, which is on it's way to Tikal. After spending a couple nights inan awsome hostel in the jungle called Casa Perico (where I met a ton ofpeople and had a great time) I headed to Flores, which is a jump point toTikal. I met up with some Quebecois that I had met before in Rio Dulce andon Lake Atitlan and played some B-ball, then went back to the hostel LosAmigos and met a bunch of people and chilled for the evening. The next day Islacked, taking it easy, and ended up heading off for Tikal at 3:00 PM,which meant that my ticket would be valid for that day and the next day. Onmy way out of the hostel I ran into a Dutch girl who I had met in Sta. Cruz,on Atitlan, and she decided to hop on the bandwagon and join me, as she hadJUST arrived in town. We hopped on the bus and off we were, chatting for anhour and a bit on the bus. Then we got to Tikal and had to set up camp –hammocks in the back yard of the Jaguar Inn. We setup a guide for the nextday which would allow us to see the sunrise from a pyramid, as the park isclosed to non-groups until 6:00 AM. After that we headed off to catch thesunset in the ruins, and we were told that Temple 4 was the best spot... Weheaded into the jungle, and Tikal really is IN THE JUNGLE, and made out wayto the centeral plaza.. We chatted on our way and saw a monkey and somebirds... when all of the sudden she gasped and stopped. I stopped and lookedahead... nothing but a clearing... then I looked UP.... JESUS! My eyeswidened as I realized that there was a MASSIVE temple ahead of me! ENORMOUS.Towering above us and the jungle. We looked at each other each with a stupidgrin on our faces and rushed forward, coming into the plaza. Amazing... HUGEtemples, altars.. in the middle of the jungle.. I cannot describe howincredible it was, only that for me it beat Machu Picchu and Copan. Each hasit's highlites, but Tikal is just awsome. We watched the sunset, which was astrange one, considering the sun dropped into a layer of haze and so youcould stare straight at it without hurting your eyes for a good 20 minutesas it set... really an impressive sunset, especially considering it was fromthe top of a mayan temple looking over a seemingly endless jungle. The otherend of the temple overlooked the rest of tikal, though trees prevented youfrom seeing much other than a few temple tops.... This made it so that youwere constantly walking off jungle trails and hit by the sudden scene oftemples or pyramids. The next day we arose at 4:20 am to catch the sunset,which was unfortunately much like machu picchu as the thick fog prevented usfrom seeing the sun.... After that our guide took us through the jungletrails “like jaguars” (one of his fav. Phrases) and did a several-hour tourafter which we ate then reentered the ruins. After a tad more explorationJudith, the dutch girl, headed back to Flores and I chilled out for a fewmore hours, exploring deep into the less explored regions and not seeing asingle person for 2 hours, though spotting 5 monkies in that time.So, Tikal was great! After it, I headed back to Flores, back to Los Amigos,and met Judith there. Went to bed early that night as I was beat, butsomehow she stayed up to 2:00 AM (making 5 near sleepless nights for her)talking to the owners. The next day we headed to Belize – San Ignacio orCayo. We split on a room there to save some cash and took it easy, chattinginto the night then passing out. The next day we slowly made our way out oftown, I got cauer town and sleeping through my bus, meaning that I basicallyhad to stay there or get to tulum at 1:30 AM. I stayed in a hole in thewall. $3 for a bed. No more. No bedsheets, no pillows, no toilet seats, nodoors on the toilet stalls. Fun.And now I am here, Tulum. A near-beach town with some ruins. And slowly Imake my way home...I am now through Centeral America, strange that... things really arewrapping up. I am DAMNED near broke and have a lot of distance to cover, sothings should be fun. What to do when I return? Take it easy for a bit thenmove to Toronto, find a job fast and PRAY I get a nice big tax return fromlast year, work off debts and think about school. Who knows what will happennext in the life of Zac, though I can say that Asia is calling my name...Just say it... Asia.... Asia.... Asia.... mmmm.And that's it for now. Cheers. Keep out of trouble. By that I mean don'tSWIM in the water, but you can dip your feet in. Oh... and as for TacoBell... HA! South of Border my ass.Zacght up talking to a Belizian who was moving to St. Johns Nfld to study..(just a note, in Belize they speak Creole, English and Spanish... Englishbeing the official language, and Creole being... well.... sort-of english,though unintelligible to me. Also there is a large african-americanpopulation). We headed to Belize City, where she caught a boat to CayeCaulker and where I stayed the night after saying goodbye. That was a wildnight involving a bottle of rum in a lonely hotel room which I will not getinto.After that I woke up late for check-out and hung over. I decided I had toget out. I hopped a bus to Corozal, near the mexico-belize border, then,getting off that bus, hopped on another in a snap descision to completleyleave the country behind... Belize costs much more than I can afford at themoment. So here I am in Mexico. I ended up passing out in the bus terminalin the mexico border town and sleeping through my bus, meaning that Ibasically had to stay there or get to tulum at 1:30 AM. I stayed in a holein the wall. $3 for a bed. No more. No bedsheets, no pillows, no toiletseats, no doors on the toilet stalls. Fun.And now I am here, Tulum. A near-beach town with some ruins. And slowly Imake my way home...I am now through Centeral America, strange that... things really arewrapping up. I am DAMNED near broke and have a lot of distance to cover, sothings should be fun. What to do when I return? Take it easy for a bit thenmove to Toronto, find a job fast and PRAY I get a nice big tax return fromlast year, work off debts and think about school. Who knows what will happennext in the life of Zac, though I can say that Asia is calling my name...Just say it... Asia.... Asia.... Asia.... mmmm.And that's it for now. Cheers. Keep out of trouble. By that I mean don'tSWIM in the water, but you can dip your feet in. Oh... and as for TacoBell... HA! South of Border my ass.Your journalist on the fringes of reality and surreality,
Zac