I’ll be honest with you – I didn’t want to leave Mexico and for a brief spell I seriously contemplated turning north. With Mexico love and border crossing trepidations damned, I said adios Mexico, hello Belize, adios Belize and hello Guatemala. All of the exits and entries were like butter but being a little leery of the ease at which visas & such were attained, I figured that the Latin version of Roscoe P. Coltrane (Dukes of Hazard) was going to jump out of the bushes and shake me down for some silver.
Going off of a hot tip from Ken & Carol (Yoda class adventure riders), I took up digs in Flores - my jumping off point for the ruins of Tikal. The town of Flores was built on a small island in Lake Petén which is now accessed by a manmade land bridge. The rough cobblestone streets follow the island’s anthill shape and are framed by faded pastel buildings. On one of said streets I found the Los Amigos Hostel and following the rhythm of things I ended up staying for five days.
After getting acquainted with some hostel folk over a few cold pops and turning in before midnight, I woke up early enough to enjoy breaky and be bouncing down the steep streets of Flores and heading to Tikal by 0800. Good enough for Star Wars, the ruins at Tikal are pretty sweet. However, I may have to take a break from kicking it around Mayan Ruins because they are all starting to feel akin to National Lampoons European Vacation: “Big Ben, Parliament!”
Bonus highlight of Tikal: taking a different route back to Flores by following the dirt road that looped around the other side of the lake…Vroomm, Vroom!
The day after Tikal my friends David and Michelle from Ireland, whom I meet in Valladolid, rolled into Flores. Travel is cool and travel connections may be cooler. That said, I blame at least one of those foot dragging days at Los Amigos on those damn Irish! They made me laugh all night and feel like crying the whole next day. It’s kind of hard to leave a place that houses cool people, has good eats for cheap and two bars – one for day & one for night.
In the a.m. I will be heading south towards Lanquin with a stopover somewhere around Chisec.
