We flew from Guatemala City to Flores and got settled in at La Casona Del Lago which as you can see was a very nice hotel.

The highlight of the trip was the visit to Tikal.

The picture shows the layout of Tikal which is hard to envision once you get into the plazas.  The site is much bigger than you would imagine.

Tikal was the capital of a state that became one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya.

There are thousands of ancient structures at Tikal and only a fraction of these have been excavated, after decades of archaeological work.

The most prominent surviving buildings include six very large pyramids, labelled Temples I - VI, each of which support a temple structure on their summits.

Tikal reached its apogee during ca. 200 to 900 AD. During this time, the city dominated much of the Maya region.

After awhile you begin to get a sense of how extensive the ruins of the city are.

 The main plaza of the city in ancient times.

One of the numerous temples.

 Mike is climbing one of the temples.  You can get an idea of how steep some the the temples are from this pictures.

Looking down from the temples we climbed at the main plaza.

From the top of Temple V you see other temples off in the jungle. 

The picture to the right may look vaguely familiar.

In this picture you get an idea of how the jungle vegetation completely covered the ruins before they were uncovered.

 Next morning we visited the City of Yaxha.

Yaxha contains more than 500 structures including 9 temple pyramids.

A stairway up the back of the highest temple leads to the top. 

In this picture you can see again how the pyramid was entirely covered by the jungle vegetation.

There I am at the top of the pyramid.

 People at the top of another pyramid.

From the top you see other structures popping out of the jungle.

A final pyramid at Yaxha.

After leaving Yaxha we drove to Belize City which is on the Caribbean Sea.

The last stop on the tour was the City of Lamanai.  The city is reached by boat up the New River.

 A snake cactus plant wraps itself around this tree.

We saw a number of birds moving upriver but it was a little disappointing in how few we saw.

Another bird

 Another bird

Lamanai was occupied as early as the 16th century BC. The site became a prominent centrer from the 4th century BC through the 1st century CE. 

Lamanai continued to be occupied up to the 17th century AD.

Another ball court which may have been a ceremonial area as much as a game court.

This temple was high and steep.

Mike and Charlene on top of one of the temples.

Back on the New River the tour comes to an end. 

Next day we flew home.  No problems just a long trip to get home.