New Years Eve in Flores

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We woke up at 6am and I visited the local bakery for a cinnamon pastry and morning coffee for breakfast. It was a very pleasant walk two blocks with the colourful colonial style architecture and empty street. At 7.40am the bus picked us up from the hostel to take us into Guatemala City to transfer to Flores in the North. We spent most of the bus journey talking, planning the rest of the days on the trip and a brief stop for food too. At 8pm we arrived at Flores.

We woke early the next morning and decided to spend the day relaxing on the island of Flores. By the waterfront there were many restaurants serving pancake breakfasts with honey, strawberries and unlimited coffee for $3. I enjoyed this while looking over the lake. After breakfast we walked around the island , visiting the shops and restaurants and to see the colourful houses and cobbled streets. We decided to take a boat tour over the lake in the afternoon to the highest point in the area with views over all of Flores. It was a private boat and the tour lasted an hour and visited the sites around the area including a stone carved horse statue and a wood carved Mayan face on an old tree. There was a lot of wildlife around the lake including lizards birds and fish. During the afternoon we relaxed in the hotel before the New Year’s Eve celebrations . For sunset we enjoyed beers on a roof top terrace, and then on the way hotel we picked up the bottle of Möet that we had earlier that a local shopkeeper stored for us in his fridge to chill for us for the evening celebrations. Very kind of him, and he even gave us glasses too!
We returned to the balcony to open the champagne, popping this over the street and onto the roof of the next building. We were enjoying drinks and music on the balcony when a couple on the neighbouring balcony came out. We got caught in conversation for a few hours and enjoyed more drinks with them before going out for dinner. We decided to go to the nicer and quieter side of the island for a good meal, enchiladas to start and fresh white fish with rice for a main. Fried white fish with rice is the most known regional fish in northern Guatemala, so it was nice to spend the evening with an authentic experience. After the meal we decided to go back to the hotel to sleep to prepare for the next day at Tikal.

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Photos

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Cobbled streets in Flores

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Pancake breakfast

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Waterfront

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Pizza on the waterfront for lunch

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Colorful
Love cobblestoned streets