Well, when left Belize, they took my temperature at the border place when we crossed into Guatemala. They were looking to see if I had the Corona Virus, but I didn’t, my temperature was normal and I got another stamp in my passport.

Our first stop in Guatemala was in the campground at Tikal, these are some more very old ruins that were hidden in the jungle. We spent the night and went for an early and long walk around the ruins the next morning before other people arrived. On the way in we met a group of bird watchers looking for Toucans.

First we hiked all the way back to the Two Headed Snake temple, it was the largest temple and a hard climb up the staircase to the top, it was very steep. From the top I could see the next temple, straight across from us. I took control of the map and used the navigation to find our way to the next and the next and the next temple. Basically Tikal has a bunch of ruins in the jungle of Guatemala, with beautiful and strange looking birds, like the Oscilliated Turkey walking around. And some other animals too like the Coati, Anteaters, Tapirs, Howler and Spider monkeys too.

Then we had the big and horribly long bumpy drive that took ALL day. We must have driven Bruce up and over at least 12 mountains, I was really bored! That night we camped at a gas station because we arrived late and the campgrounds were closed. The gas station had a trampoline with squeaky springs, I really liked it because we haven’t been on a trampoline in a long time.

Semuc Champey, we paid a man to drive us to go and see the natural stone bridge called Semuc Champey. The road would have been too narrow, steep and bumpy for Bruce, so she stayed parked up for the day and had a big rest. The water bridge is best seen from up on top of the lookout, which we got to by climbing up more steep stairs. The view from the top sure was beautiful, i’m glad we walked this way. Then we hiked down the other side to go for a swim in those beautiful green pools. The water was a little bit cold, and there were all those ‘skin fish’ that’s what I call them. They nibbled at my feet for a long time, at first it really tickled and I couldn’t stop laughing. Then I got used to the feeling and I let them nibble away.

Chichi, is the short name for Chichicastenango, but I like to call it Chichi. It’s a down that has the biggest market in all of Guatemala. I’ve been to one or two and this one was by far the biggest. My mum brought a nice colourful piece of cloth for the truck and some coffee from a man who used some old fashioned weigh scales. At lunchtime there were these ladies who wanted to have their photo taken with me, but it made me mad because I didn’t want to. The last photo is of some stinky dried shrimp that a man was trying to sell as he walked through the market, they didn’t look good to me.

San Marcos la laguna. We have been locked down at this place for 6 weeks now. But first to get here we had to drive over lots more mountains to and then down the front of one last mountain to the lake. It was on a road that had these crazy steep turny corners, I was really scared, I thought we were giong to go over the edge and smash all the way to the bottom, but we didn’t and we made it safely down to our campground. It’s nice here, I like it, there are 2 other kids our age here that we like playing with. In the beginning there were lots of other people here, and when we were allowed to use the lake, I would go paddle boarding and swimming every day. My brother likes to jump off the dock, but it’s too high for me. We moved into a house with Grandad & Jen, Jaxon and I share a bed by the kitchen and front door. We have 4 pet gheckos, Crogan, Darcy, Skidder and Julia. They are nocturnal, and come out every night to go hunting. They like to eat the bugs, so that the bugs don’t get us. I like to hear them chirp. We do sometimes get some scorpions, thankfully they don’t come near our bed. Sometimes in the mornings we might find one in the kitchen sink trying to have a drink of water. But now the lake is closed and I miss the water. I do have a tree that I like to climb and hang from, it’s one of my happy places.

Did you know that it’s those cheeky early morning Grackles that wake me, then once i’m awake i can’t get back to sleep, so I go wake my mum. I get up at 6am in the morning and try not too make as much noise as i usually do. Them mum gets up and we have a cup of tea together. Slack lining is so much fun, it is taught by Josh, it’s actually really tricky to keep my balance because I keep getting the wobbles, I can stand on my own for 6 seconds.

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