Blogs from Flores, Petén Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean

Our trip began with a flight from Miami to Belize City. We picked up our bags and made it out of customs fairly quickly. We got right in a cab and headed to the marine terminal to catch a bus to Flores, Guatemala. we should have gotten money from an ATM before we left the airport but the airport was so small we were outside and in a cab before we even thought to look for an ATM. at the marine terminal we bought bus tickets but we had two hours before it left so we took a cab tour of Belize city and had lunch from a local restaurant that looked like the back of someone's house. Nothing is open in Belize City on Sundays so we were lucky the cab driver knew where to ... read more

After a day of recovery on Tuesday in Playa following the blue parrot beach club me and the boys went to cenote cristalino, another fresh water pool. We spent the day throwing ourselves off the rocks into the water, I was the only one man enough to go for the dive, nailed it, got a call from the GB dive team in the afternoon asking if I was about for London in the summer, they reckon I am more talented than Tom Daly. Not surprised!!! We met a couple of Belgian lads back at the hostel and went out to the blue parrot beach club with them on Thursday. They were good lads, one of them was freaking mental and spent most of the night trying to convince us to go to a Mexican strip club. ... read more

Stress free boarder crossing again due to our early morning start and the fact that it was just as cheap to take the taxi instead of the bus, so we did just that and had door to door service at the time we wanted to go to the border of Belize and Guatemala. By 8.15am we'd filled out our tourist questionnaire and paid our exit tax and were in a shuttle bus waiting to travel the 140kms to Flores... ( think we got a bit ripped off but after Belize this place is so cheap you kind of don't mind....) Rather than the chicken buses we have become accustomed to we got to ride in a people carrier that was brand new, only us in it and it reminded me ... read more

Beauty ' your name is Guatemala. Today we went over and saw the MAyan ruins of Tikal. A totally profound and sweaty experience. Entering the park is fairly easy as tours are arranged through various travel agencies. The ride takes about an hour from Flores Island and provides a nice introduction to the jungle and the community villages along the way. The ruins were fantastic and the walk through was lovely, even in 80 degree heat. Yeah ' you heard me ' the whitest girl on the planet ' say that 80 degrees in the jungle isn´t too bad. Be still your heart! At a leisurely stroll you can see all that the ruins currently have to offer including the El Grande Jaguar, the Lost City and Temple 4 of Star Wars fame. The ruins are ... read more

Although Belize is obviously part of Central America, we were ready to explore a country that would be a happy medium between straight up ghetto and Disney Land for Americans. Now we didn’t give Belize a fair chance, we know, but we were ready to move on no matter. In our opinions, Guatemala was going to be our first real stop into Central America. Flores was first up, but first we had to get across the border. We had a leisurely breakfast and hopped on the 11am chicken bus bound for the border. We got dropped off an annoying 2km from the border and shared a taxi with a few other travelers. Normally, yes, we would walk it but was HOT and mid day so the couple bucks we spent was well worth it. Of course ... read more

The journey from Belize to Guatemala was an easy and interesting one. We caught the water ferry from Caye Caulker to Belize City and jumped on a bus bound for Flores in Guatemala. The bus was 'air conditioned' ie all windows open which actually made it surprisingly cool and there weren´t many people on it so we could spread out. Good news as it was really uncomfortable! We crossed the border with no issues - this was my first land border crossing, the previous one being done via ferry. We hopped off the bus at the Belizean border, walked through and got our passports stamped and paid our exit fee, then walked across the border into Guatemala and back on the bus. Almost immediately some differences were notable. The quality of the roads was shocking, and ... read more