Blogs from Flores, Petén Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 3

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

There are shuttle services from Semuc Champey to Flores (20 Dollars) but being on a pretty tight budget I decided to go by public transport in an effort to save a bit – a decision I regretted later. It all started with a 5am bus from in front of the hostel back to Coban, followed by a decent walk between stations, a five hour trip up to Sayaxche in a super-cramped mini-bus, a boat across the Rio de la Pasion, another cramped mini bus up to Santa Elena and finished off with a ‘tuk tuk’ (small three-wheeled taxi) across the bridge to a hostel in Flores. The only consolation was that it did all end up costing less than the shuttle, although for the sake of my sanity it was probably worth spending the extra. On ... read more

There were a couple of options for the border crossing into Guatemala. You could do the standard chicken bus for $5 Belizean, but with 4 of us $25 bz for a taxi to the border was the better choice. In a stroke of luck the taxi driver was very helpful, full of advice about managing the crossing. Borders in Central America can be simple, and can be tricky. They can also be as expensive as you let them be. Technically, entry into Guatemala was free, but we were aware that this was unlikely to be the case in practice. We knew there was an exit fee for Belize, and we were ready for that, but we were unsure what we were likely to have to pay to enter Guatemala. The driver explained the process to us ... read more

Well its been a bit since a posted something here but it seems the farther north I travel the crappier the internet connections seem to be. Since I last posted I have seen and done a lot. I hiked a volcano! Volcano Pacaya to be exact. It is a small volcano near Antigua. As far as Antigua goes, I did not care too much for it. It i full of of gringos and all you hear is english. Which also explains why everything was overpriced there as well. The volcano was amazing. I didn't get to see any lava as it had just exploded last spring but we did get to toast marshmallows over some flames there and walk into a steam cave! It was definitely the highlight of Antigua for me. I spent about 4 ... read more

Julie says... Our adventure to the jungle temple was delayed by illness. First of all, the ride out to the small village we were to depart from, Carmelita, was supposed to be only 2.5 hours. We left at 5:45 AM. BUT the bus that brought us there... put it this way: at one point, while the guys were banging around on the engine, I asked Alex, "what are they doing?" to which he replied, "It probably has something to do with this bus being a rotten piece of shit." It could only go about 25 mph, and after about half an hour, it blew a tire. Moments after the tire was changed, the engine blew up. Not sure what happened exactly but it took them about an hour to fix it. Not to mention, the exhaust ... read more