MEXICO

hello everyone. yes we are still alive and no we did not do any mushrooms. palenque was amazing, beautiful, really one of our favorite places ever. its magical. there are ruins everywhere: huge mayan pyramids, but its sooooo alive. its in the middle of the jungle. there are waterfalls and tide pools it really is paradise. everyone should go. after palenque, we decided to go to guatemala because my visa was about to expire and i had to leave mexico. so we met this really cool girl from holland named Orissa and her cat Balam (jaguar in mayan). they traveled with us for awhile. we stayed one night on the mexican side of the border before crossing the river to guatemala the next morning. all night long we heard these howler monkeys and Dad i have to tell you its worth another trip to mexico just to hear these guys. they sound like dinosaur/monsters and then you see them and they are so small. but it was a great experience. then we got to guatemala and had to wait for like 6 hours to get a bus but we had good company so it was ok. we met two english girls who were really cool. and we played cards on the floor in the waiting room. Oh! guatamalan immigration is soooo funny. its like a taco stand. then we finally got to flores (a main city that is an island) and it was very nice even though it was pouring and the place we stayed had no hot water. the next day we took off for Tikal, the ancient mayan city that is even deeper in the jungle than palenque. its very expensive to go and stay there but well worth it. there when you walk to the ruins there are hardly any signs and you feel as if you are discovering it all for yourself. we went 2 days and still have not seen everything. just from the entrance to the main pyramids its 30 minutes walk. we saw monkeys, wild turkeys that are more beautiful than peacocks. we saw woody woodpecker, parrots, huge spiders and crickets, eagles, and so much more. it was amazing. today we left there at 6am and we reached our destination of Antigua, Guatemala at 10pm. we are hunnnnngry and dirty and tired. but very happy. hope all of you are well. we will be here for a few days at least (cleaning clothes mostly) so we will write soon. love, mucho mucho amor, charlotte and miguel