Mamá en Guatey - Mom's side!

Below is the itinerary my travel agent/daughter ent me. A classic case of "the best laid plans ..."

August 8:
Mom books it through the airports and makes it to the Flores airport for 6:20 PM
If she's hungry, dinner is authentic Guatemalan eats prepared by the girl with a Guatemalan name and face but very non-Guatemalan speech patterns.
I get to Cleveland 1/2 hour earlier than scheduled, to discover there's a mechanical problem with the aircraft. The flight to Houston is delayed 3 hours. I only had 1 hour to make my Guatemala connection so that's a bust. I get to Flores at 6:20 pm Aug 9. The decision to "train" for 2 weeks at remaining calm during the trip as I have no control was a good one. Lots of negotiating, sitting, reading, during my 2 day trip to my baby girl.

August 9:
Up bright and early for breakfast, complete with un café de Guatemala.
Off to Santa Elena (Don't forget bathing suits and laptop! If you need to change money, at least one of us should have our passport because the bank with the good rate is stupid like that). First, walk to Flores to reserve the bus to Belize and check out some souvenir places. Walk to Maya Internacional for internet, lunch, our first margaritas and pool, if it's hot. (Figure out where we're going for lunch in Belize, make a reservation and call the hotel with pick up time and location.) Then boot around Santa Elena to get a cooler and food (chicken, cucumber, papaya) for cataratas. Make sure we catch a bus by 3pm back to the Cooperative.
Drop off our stuff, grab flashlights and mosquito repellent, and go to Valentina's before 4 to catch a ride to the fiesta in Santa Rita.
I'm on a plane. Didn't happen.

August 10:
Early breakfast, again. Pre-make tortillas for lunch. Leave a lot of food for Coquette. Leave at 8am for the cataratas with Valentina and Carola. Don't forget hiking boots, toilet paper, Purell, food in the cooler, bathing suits and cameras! Start making lunch by 11.
Leave cataratas by noon to Yaxha.
Wash and hang bathing suits as soon as we get home.
We did this! cataratas are waterfalls BTW. We had a truck and driver from the cooperative (Rony). He was very patient and had great stamina to last through a day that everyone advised Angela was too jam packed. The roads are unbelievable; the truck weaves back and forth trying to find the shallowest pot holes. The scenery is very Canadian, except for the occasional palm tree. Rolling green hills. We had a lovely BBQed chicken lunch, after surviving the swim to behind the waterfalls. One of those experiences that I did because I didn't know any better. Who knew the force of the water coming down would make it so damned hard to get to the rocks -- but the option was that or dying. Much easier swimming back to shore -- once my legs stopped shaking. We ended up leaving at 1 for Yaxha. Yaxha was wonderful. Very quiet; not many other people around, and we had Rony to point out the flora and fauna. Saw my first spider monkeys and howler monkeys. Unbelievable the racket they make; a bit unnerving. I also discovered my extreme fear of heights. We happily clambered up a pyramid and admired the view of the surrounding valley. Then it was time to come down. OH MY LORD! The steps weren't even (not a big priority over a thousand years ago, I guess) and all I could think was one false step and I'm a gonner. (there appears to be a dying theme here) We got a very long walk in, thought we were going to have dehydryation issues (but not deathly), and made it back to the pyramid that apparently has a fabulous view of the sunset at 6ish. We hadn't made plans to be there at 6 so it seemed like the fates were with us that we arrived then. We climbed to the top to discover that the sunset decided not to happen that night.

August 11:
Don't forget passports, books, bathing suits, some DVDs if we want to watch a movie, cellphone and RECEIPT BOOK!
Leave by 6am to Flores. Breakfast in Flores. Bus at 7:30am. At the bus station in Belize, figure out the noon return bus for Thursday.
Relax until August 14.
We wolfed down breakfast in Flores to make it to the bus on time, to have it leave at 8:40. It was overbooked so it was the sardine trip to Belize. The difference between Belize and Guatemala is dramatic. Completely different people, language, attitude; both very nice in their own ways. We loved our stay at the Maruba resort. Indoor plumbing, very few other guests so we mostly had the pool to ourselves, drinks delivered whenever we asked (when we checked out she referred to our "very small bar bill". Hmm. I'm losing my touch :) Ange had her first massage and enjoyed it, I had a pedicure and was glad I did (see further down).

August 14:
Take noon bus back. Get groceries in Santa Elena and book it to the last bus.
Beside the fact that we had to take a 9:30 bus back, this went pretty much according to plan, with bonus action. We did some souvenir shopping and went to La Luna for dinner (a restaurant written about in the guide books as a good choice -- they're right)

August 15:
Ange works, Mom relaxes. Movie with niños after work?
Another day that went according to plan.

August 16:
(If we don't feel like doing laundry, we can bring clothes to the laundromat in Flores to pick up on the 17th.) Do a trip around the lake in Flores in the morning. Lunch in Flores at La Luna or Las Puertas. Bus to Tikal at 2:30pm.
Not so much according to plan. We had breakfast at the comedor, got the local sardine bus into Santa Elena, had lunch at Ange's hotel (Maya Internacional), and caught our bus to Tikal. Stayed at the Jungle Lodge near the entrance to Tikal. Decided to check out the sunset from Temple IV. Did a 35 minute walk in 15 minutes to get there by 6:00. The guard at the bottom of the stairs of the Temple explained that the park closes at 6:00 and we needed to leave. I think our profusely sweating brows made him cut us some slack and let us continue with our physical abuse by running up the stairs to the top of the Temple. We get there to see there's a barricade set up with guards to keep you from watching the sunset unless you're with a tour. The guards offered to let us in for $10. Ange decided to be stubborn and we stayed put. Another guard wandered over later and whispered that he'd let us in for $5 each. We bit. It was worth it. What an amazing experience. As soon as the sun set we scooted back to the other side to watch the full moon rise. We were so fortunate to be there for a full moon on a clear night. It was a once in a lifetime experience. When we got to the bottom of the Temple the tour guide (Antonio) told us we were welcome to join his group for the walk back. Very nice as it was pitch black and our flashlight had run out of batteries (we discovered later). That being said, I sprained my freaking ankle when I stepped into a hole. 500 feet from the end of the trail! They sent a truck back to get me. All very exciting/painful.

August 17:
Tikal. Bus back in the afternoon.
Antonio arranged for a truck to take me to the central square in Tikal to join his tour talk. Very nice. Much better than sitting around waiting for everyone all day.

August 18-21:
Ange works, Mom relaxes. Some meals at the restaurant, do a tour of the rainforest with Tono at some point, get ice cream in Chal, watch some movies with kids, have Carola over for dinner, whatever.
After work on the 21, go to Flores for dinner (Luna/Puertas) and hotel for the night.
Mom sits in casa icing foot every 20 minutes, keeping it elevated, occasionaly putting on the compression bandage that the very nice tourist gave me in Tikal. I managed to read a couple of books, do dishes Cooperativa style, and avoid any close encounters with varmints. We had lunch a couple of times in the comedor, Carola came over for a lovely chicken dinner, we killed a humungous bug, welcomed Mo to the casa, and enjoyed 2 more movie nights with the kids.

August 22:
Hotel shuttle to the airport by 7am :(