On the flight from Guatemala City I had started chatted to an American called Will Tappe, and I ended up joining him for the rest of my time at Tikal. We got the minibus from Flores to the ruins, and at the entrance we sorted out our accommodation which (for us backpackers) consisted of “camping” under an open-sided shelter, in rented hammocks with mosquito nets! While we were figuring out the hammocks, Inés Noé, half British half Spanish, showed up, installed her hammock nearby, and announced that she was joining us to see Tikal. Thus augmented, the 3 of us followed the “yellow brick road” into the Mayan city, where at the first pyramid we met a Spanish journalist called María Torrellas, and thus 3 became 4 for the rest of the day.

The magic of Tikal is that it is set in dense rainforest. This hides everything from a distant view, apart from the tallest pyramids, which stick up above the canopy. Will and I shimmied up as many of these as we could, and had airy views out over the jungle. Neither of the girls seemed to appreciate heights. I remembered that Tim, the lawyer in Mexico, claimed to have spent the night at the top of pyramid #4, and said that the misty dawn view out over the treetops had been awe-inspiring.

A very pleasant afternoon was spent exploring, taking photos and chatting about everything.

Inés observed that I said “Atitlán” and “Panjachel” in a strange way. I said that I had been talking about those places a lot recently with Beate and Hans, and Inés quickly determined that I was saying “Atitlán” and “Panjachel” with a slight German accent!

Inés, it turned out, is following the same route as me, and expects to be in Costa Rica about the same time. She claimed that the “curse” of her life as a solo backpacker is that due to being bilingual, everyone wants to travel with her! (being attractive probably doesn’t help either..) She said she likes company, but said she has sometimes found it necessary to make unannounced pre-dawn escapes in order to “lose” erstwhile travel companions, for whom she no longer wants to be the unpaid translator!

Will mentioned that his father was one of the engineers at Grumman who had worked on the exterior design of the Apollo lunar module. I asked him if he knew why the ladder stopped so high up, making Neil Armstrong have to jump down so far, before his “one small step” off the pad. Will explained that they all feared that the lunar surface was very soft and that the pads would sink in a long way, making it pointless for the ladder to go any further down!

Back at the “campsite”, after some food and beer, we all settled into our hammocks and I tuned in to the BBC news, which proved popular to those within earshot. Eventually I turned off my little radio, and the murmur of conversation ceased, leaving just the nocturnal sounds of the rainforest…

In the morning Will went for an early wander, and Inés left for Flores in a car with people she knew, after telling me a date, and hotel, when she expects to be in San Jose, Costa Rica. She joked that I should later tell Will that she had suddenly “escaped” without saying goodbye…

I wandered back round Tikal again, finding more buildings with roofs, which made it easier to imagine the place being an actual city rather than just a enormous ceremonial site.

Then it was time to to leave Tikal and go and become a student for a week. After fetching my backpack and having a drink with Will I got the minibus to Flores. I ran into María again at Flores airport and ended up sitting next to her on the plane.

Eventually I arrived back in Antigua and went to the Spanish school, which had arranged for my accommodation with a local family starting that night. I found the place – a small simple house a little way out of the town centre, but clean and comfortable (at least the guest room was…). The family seems very friendly… and most importantly are able to speak to me slowly!

Let’s see how much my Spanish has improved by this time next week…