Flores, Guatemala

To get from Caye Caulker to Flores, we took a water taxi from the caye to Belize City, and from there caught a bus to Flores. Belize City, at least the part we saw by the cruise ship terminal, is nothing to write home about (or blog about, as the case may be). The bus to Flores was advertised as having air conditioning, which of course meant that the windows on the bus opened but that was about it. And actually it wasn´t that bad, except when we had to stop a few times for odd construction delays and the glorius rushing air from outside stopped for a few minutes.

The border crossing was interesting. When you cross into guatemala by bus, you have to get off the bus, leave all your stuff, walk through customs and immigration, pay about US$20 to various officials, and then finally emerge on the other side to find your bus driver, who has used your time inside the border crossing to pick up a few more customers under the table for the ride to flores. Pretty smart on his part really. We made it to flores in about 4.5 hours total, tired and sweaty, but were pleasantly surprised to find our hotel had a gorgeous view of the lake, air conditioning, and even cable tv. We watched Jersey Shore! It was great.

Today we are exploring Flores and Santa Elena, the neighboring town, and tomorrow we will be waking up super early to catch a 430am bus to Tikal, an ancient maya city, one of the largest in the world, originally inhabited in 900BC.

Also, everyone wish my mom a happy birthday today! Thanks for not naming me Belize, mom!

(below) Hello globalization - ¨tuk tuk¨ taxis crossing the bridge from Flores to Santa Elena

 

Photo from our balcony in Flores