Normal service resumes

Apologies for the 2 month break in blog writing. Since my last post from Japan, I've been to LA and Colorado, had a travelling hiatus, went to Vegas, went to Belize, and am here writing this in sunny Guatemala. Phew. The last couple of months have been pretty schizophrenic, and it took me a while to get back into the world of backpacks and hostels and conversations about where you've come from and where you're going, but I think I am now.

In order not to make this post inordinately long, I'll skip all that happened in the US, plus gloss over the week spent in Belize at the beach and on a sailboat in the Caribbean and start here in Flores, which is the town that you stay in in order to visit the Mayan temples at Tikal. It's on a small, hilly island in the middle of a huge lake, and is very scenic. It's obviously a massive tourist trap, but it's nice.

I'm staying in a pretty perfect hostel - one of those ones where everyone knows each other and spends the day hanging out in hammocks listening to Manu Chao and drinking pineapple shakes. I think everyone that has ever visited Flores will have stayed here, and with good reason.

Everyone is here to visit Tikal, which I wasn't particularly excited about, feeling more that I should visit it as you shouldn't come to Guatemala without going, but it turned out to be utterly stunning and well worth the visit. I had to get up at a hideous 4.30am to get there for opening at 6am, but since I chose not to join everyone else on the guided tour, I had the whole entire place to myself for the first couple of hours, and spent them sat on top of one of the temples looking out at the jungle listening to my iPod. Ok, so I know nothing about the history of Tikal, but hey, Maya Schmaya, right?

All other activities undertaken in Flores have involved finding ways to escape the heat: yesterday we used the pool of a posh hotel (it was completely empty - it's heartbreaking how quiet things are here, only the backpackers are here) and today we went and swam in the lake, although it's very shallow so it felt like taking a hot bath.

For various reasons, both financial and personal, I may have to shorten my trip down by a couple of months, and this is something I have to decide in the coming weeks. I seem to be unable to make a firm decision, though, so I have decided that I am going to travel one day at a time and let the decision make itself. So far I know that I am going to Semuc Champey tomorrow, and after that I have idea. Down to Panama, but fast, skipping Honduras and Costa Rica? Straight from Guatemala to South America? What about Cuba? And do I want to go back up into Mexico since I didn't get there this time? All suggestions, educated or non, welcome.