The view across the lake before breakfast at 0700.
And the hotel pool area.
We left the hotel around 0800 to head for Tikal, widely considered to be one of the finest examples of Maya architecture.
Tikal National Park encompasses 575km2 of jungle and thousands of ruined structures. The central part of the ancient city alone contains 3,000 buildings and covers about 16km2. Archaeologists estimate that the Maya settled in the area now known as Tikal in about 900 BC and over the centuries Tikal grew into an important ceremonial, cultural, and commercial centre. Most of the city's huge temples were constructed during the 8th century AD when Tikal became the greatest city in the Maya world with a population of perhaps 100,000. Like other Maya complexes, Tikal fell into decline at the end of the 9th century and was virtually abandoned. The causes of the Maya empire's collapse remain a mystery, but wars, famine, overpopulation and resource depletion have all been blamed.
Tikal's great stone monuments languished for centuries and were gradually reclaimed by the jungle. Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, and his motley band of conquistadors marched by Tikal in 1525, but they failed to see its temples concealed by 40m tall kapok, cedar and mahogany trees.
Spanish friars later wrote of a great city hidden in the forests of the Petén but it wasn't until 1848 that an expedition sent out by the Guatemalan government officially discovered the ruins. Swiss, German and British archaeologists soon followed to clear debris and begin studying the site, with Tikal's structures restored to their current condition during the 1950s and 1960s by a joint venture of Guatemalan Govt and Pennsylvania University.
The main entrance building roof was being replaced although why I didn't photograph the whole building to give a sense of scale I have no idea - but they were a good way up.
Enormous trees still shroud Tikal's buildings, which cluster in groups reached by wide causeways meandering through the tropical forest, home to toucans, parrots, wild turkeys, howler monkeys, coatimundis and countless other creatures - obviously with this wealth of fauna and flora my hopes were quite high.
This Ceiba pentranda (Kapok tree) with its magnificent buttress roots was first.
Then we were lucky enough to come across a small flock of ocellated turkeys (Mellagris ocellata) which are a relative of the North American wild turkey and considered endangered.
Initially they look quite scruffy.
But when you get a chance to study their fabulous colouring.
I keep having to remind myself they are "ocellated" turkeys not "oscillating" turkeys!
Ian then spotted this Roadside Hawk (yes, it really is called that) perched in the trees just above us.
We saw the same species, or possibly even the same bird, a little while later on one of the monuments.
And a band of coatimundis, which belong to the raccoon family and are diurnal omnivores but primarily eat fruit and invertebrates.
And a couple of the best ALTs (animal like things) I've seen in a long while. An anteater.
And a piggy.
There were one or two interesting fungi but I didn't dare lie on the ground for better angles in case of chiggers or fire ants (actually I don't know if there's even anything like that in Guatemala but I wasn't taking any chances).
This is a brown jay, similar in size to our magpie and just as bold - what I shame I clipped his toenails.
A rubbish picture of a howler monkey.
OK that's all the interesting stuff, now I'll turn my attention to the numerous piles of old stones.
We spent a couple of hours walking round with Emilio giving us detailed explanations but as usual most of it didn't go in.
There is still so much to be discovered.
This is one feature I do now recognise wherever we go - the ball court.
So far Ian and I haven't climbed any of the structures a) because his knee wouldn't like it b) they are really steep and c) there's generally no handrail, but here there was a metal staircase so we gave it a go. Up top there wasn't a great deal of railings to stop you falling off the edge so I didn't move around much.
We had fabulous views of some of the other temples in the complex and thanks to my 100-500 lens I could even see the people on top of structures quite a way away.
You can see the staircase we climbed up on the left.
We then had "free time" to wander on our own and so I took a lot of duplicate pictures and by then the hoards had arrived, but actually I think I'll use some with people in as they give scale.
I left Ian having a rest and climbed up a few of the stones opposite.
Actually I was quite brave as some of the steps were quite dodgy with nothing to hold on to and as always coming down was even worse.
I've arrowed Ian on the next two shots to illustrate how high up I was.
We then went to the Sylvannus G Morley Museum which supposedly has ceramic and jade displays (I didn't go round it as I was tired). According to the sign outside there was also an extensive orchid display but nothing was flowering.
When we'd finished our visit to Tikal, Emilio once again offered to take us somewhere for lunch; another friend's restaurant which this time served authentic Guatemalan food. The place was close to El Remate (where we'd originally supposed to be staying) and it was a complete dump; it reminded me of a grotty beach bar except with mud everywhere instead of sand and loud football on the TV (World Cup). There weren't any menus so Emilio ran through the few options, all of which were inedible to me so he arranged for a salad which unfortunately was 50% radish and after a few mouthfuls I offered the plate to Gill who seems to enjoy picking over my leftovers! and gave Ian my cutlery, as the rest of the food had been served on polystyrene plates, no cutlery and the accompanying sauces were in plastic bags.
But the beers were OK.
Back at the hotel we enjoyed a half hour soak in the pool, repacked our cases ready for another early start tomorrow and enjoyed another nice meal in the hotel. Tomorrow we go back into Mexico.