Trip to Antigua and Tikal

We left for Antigua on Friday afternoon on a coach bus for the four hour ride back to Antiqua, a colonial city that used to be the capital of Guatemala until a big earthquake when the capital was moved nearby to Guatemala City. Antigua has preserved its colonial architecture and cobblestone streets and is lovely. However, upon our arrival on Friday it was pouring rain and the skies were dark at night. The streets narrow enough that our coach bus required much maneuvering to navigate the corners and finally deposited us on the sidewalk with our luggage and buckets of rain pouring down on us. After walking a few blocks in one direction, then back in the other we were soaked having to step into the cobblestone streets and several inches of water often as the narrow sidewalks do not accommodate two way pedestrian traffic. Our hotel contained a courtyard three stories high with tropical plants and rooms on two halls on either side of the courtyard rising three stories. Very quaint. We changed into dry clothes, grabbed a quick dinner and fell asleep until our 3:15 a.m. wake up call for our 4:00 a.m. departure on bus to the airport in Quatemala City. Our flight to Flores for Tikal was only about an hour but the prop plane was small and bumpy so I was thankful to sleep. A bus took us from Flores to the Tikal National Park where we stayed at the Tikal Inn--a lovely series of small villas with palm frond roofs and stucco walls, many surrounding the pool where Hunter, Cole, Jacob, Ben and Adam and a few others had a blast for three hours on Saturday and again on Sunday morning in a series of chicken fight tournaments.