Flores

Two in a row. Lucky me!

May I also take this opportunity to apologise for the delay on this blog. We are currently deep within the Guatemalan rainforest and WiFi is basically non existent. Anyway. 

After a rather pleasant shuttle and a surprisingly seamless border crossing, we arrive at the island city of Flores. City is a major overcompensation as the island is about 1 km squared. Much of the northern end of the island has also been flooded but no one seems to notice. Off to a lovely little restaurant for supper. My BBQ ribs came with a watermelon. Strange but rather enjoyable. 

Day 1 is relatively uneventful with a trip to the mainland in search of football shirts, lunch and a reconnection with capitalism after the rather un-Americanised Belize. We come across a semi abandoned shopping mall, stepped inside and were given some very odd looks by the Guatemalan shoppers. Decided there wouldn’t be any football shirts so we promptly left and settled for a Burger King across the road. Not much done in the afternoon and then back to Cool beans for din dins. Lovely.

Day 2. It’s Tikal time! Hearing fables of the famous 3am wake up sunrise Tikal tour. We once again break the mold and opt for the 12pm start sunset tour. Admittedly this was more due to the physical repulsion the ideas of a 3 am wake up caused us rather than trendsetting but alas. Free breakfast at the hostel goes down a treat but I opt for a second breakfast of pancakes with bacon and maple syrup as we look at the nine hours of walking faced ahead. Into the shuttle then a 2 hour drive up into the jungle. Get to know the group consisting of the legends, a French couple, tall annoying bloke from El Salvador, two chaps from Emanuel School, Clapham and a small American woman. The A Team. Won’t go into to much detail about the tour as I’ll let the pictures do the talking but it consisted to many ancient buildings, much flora and fauna and many sore legs after. Back on the shuttle and then some tacos in Flores and off to bed. 

Look the Star Wars place!

Day 3 is a lie in and off to Jorges rope swing across the other side of the lake. After some initial enquires about boat prices gives Q100 (£10)pp each way, this is laughed off and we negotiate with another driver for Q60 each for return. This is better and we head across. Some swinging action ensues and some rather embarrassing dives from a 6m platform as well. A snake then falls from a tree and wraps around some blokes leg before disappearing into the water below. We call it a day. Head off for supper and receive a bowl of milky soup which Guatemalans call ‘carbonara’. It was £2.50 though so who’s really complaining. 

Oh yeah Dhani buzzed and dyed his hair. I think this deserves its own paragraph. Decent buzz, terrible dye and he’s ginger the following day (It’s slightly purple now which I think is an improvement but more on that later). 

It’s off to the Semuc Champey place … I think we’re going to Nicaragua as well now. Exciting! 

Luke-warm regards, 

CWF