Blogs from Flores, Petén Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 5

Happy Holi to all my east Indian friends around the world. I don’t teach next week because of this holiday called “Holi” in India. Good question. Yes, the word “holiday” in English likely is derived from this Indian tradition. I am sad to inform you that you haven’t lived your life until you have experienced Holi with a child’s heart, in India. I am not kidding. Make sure to put it on your bucket list. Here are links to my first two holi-days: Holi 1 Holi 2 I am now in northern Guatemala. It is much warmer here than it was in Antigua. I came to northern Guatemala because I wanted to see the seat of civilization for the Mayan people and I needed a jumping off point, so I decided to stay on an island ... 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

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

I feel like saying Happy New Year! I don't know why. Happy almost new month! This morning we got up & had salty eggs & the most delicious drink. They're called Licuados here & they blend fresh fruit with either water or milk & serve. Yummmm! I had a Papaya Licuado this morning with water. MMMMM! Mircos came to gather us up calling to us "hey gringos." :) That's us! We gathered our things & headed for the road to catch our mini bus. After walking in the hot hot sun for about 25 minutes a bus arrived & picked us up. We paid our $1.50 each for the hour bus ride into Santa Ilena, the town just next to Flores. The ride was fairly uneventful & we were just grateful that the bus wasn't jam ... read more

Much to cover in this blog! On Christmas Eve we took a bus from Guatemala City to Flores, up in the northern rainforest of El Peten, a journey of about 500 km which took 8 hours. We then went on to the small village of El Remate, about halfway between Flores and the Mayan site of Tikal. Our hotel was La Casa de Don David, a charming collection of small casitas in a lush garden backing on to Lake Peten Itza. We could fill a whole blog about our stay there, but as well as Tikal (of which more later), we went horseback riding through the rainforest while our guide taught us some new words in Spanish. If anyone could have heard us chanting ‘pajero / pareha / pareho’ (‘small bird / a couple / smooth ... read more