flores, guatemala

we left mérida at 2315 on domingo (sunday) on a secondo clase (2nd class) autobus. we brought our huge backpacks on the bus and slept with them on our laps. although it wasn´t very comfortable, it was nice to know that it was safe. it would suck if we lost them. although i slept a lot, it was a pretty light sleep and i woke up a lot. at one point we stopped at some fiesta with loud music and the driver went in and changed his shirt and came back a little later. odd. also even though most people were trying to sleep, he had loud musica blaring. it sounded a lot like rammstein (german industrial metal/rock). i really am not sure how i slept through that! eventually we arrived at chetumal, one of the last towns in mexico.

from there we were planning on catching a bus to flores via belize city but when we went to get tickets the mean/unfriendly lady just said ´cinco y seis mañana´. so we´d have to wait till the next morning. we consulted our handy lonely planet and found out about another bus station. so we took a taxi there and hopped on an old american school bus painted green with a sign saying ´belize´. it started out with just a few other people (some mexicans and two gringos) but eventually kept filling up. we got to the belize border and it was the quickest thing but we had to pay 100 pesos ($10) to get out of mexico. the bus picked up a bazillion people along the way to belize city. the bus was so full (and we had our backpacks on laps the whole time) that people had to stand in the isles. when we got to belize city we had to get on a different bus to venque the border city. i slept some, people watched and listened to music. when we were about 10 minutes away from the border the bus stopped and they couldn´t get it to start again for about 15 minutes. we were worried and a lot of people got off and caught rides with people. it did start up again and we go to the border. it took forever to get through this one cause they only had one person working the counter. 30 belizean dollars ($15 us) here to get to guatemala.

once we got into guatemala a boy probably about 12 came up and asked if we´re going to flores and we said yes. he said we can take a van with AC for US$30 and we´d read that buses would be $5 to flores so we said no. we were again consulting the book later when he comes and said there were three guys wanting to share the van and it would be US$15 each. we thought about it cause it´d be nice to have ac but it was still a rip off. we talked to this german guy who was traveling and he said we could find something better. we took a taxi to the bus area, which was only 1km away. ´¿cuánto cuesta?´ Q40. Q7=US$1 so almost $6. ¡SI! we got in and drove around looking for other passengers. eventually, about a dozen other people got on besides the driver and assistant, plus a few babies. i´m not talking about a bus here but a passenger minivan with all kinds of extra seats that fold down. we were packed in like sardines. the road to flores was straight and pretty wide with no other cars so it was a nice, safe ride. we got to the first hostel we wanted to stay at but it was all full so the driver took us to another place that is a hotel. instead of being in bunkbeds we got a double room with a fan, own bathroom and a balcony for US$10! what a steal. i´m liking guatemala lots.

i didn´t eat much yesterday because we were traveling in buses but we did have a dinner at a yucatec-peten restaurant. i had pollo con chaya (local plant) which basically made a salsa verde y arroz y yuca. i was starving so i could´ve eaten anything but it was pretty good. i also had a gallo cerveza, which is THE guatemalan beer. they are very proud of it and there are signs for gallo everywhere. gallo means rooster so there are pictures of it everywhere as well. it was decent and better than corona. maybe similar to XX.

today we are just walking around the town and hanging out. i had a huge burrito con pollo y palta (avocado) y arroz y muy picante habañero salsa. this habañero salsa was very spicy but it had such a good flavor, i´m hoping to find some to buy. it was actually from belize. last night i had the flores habañero salsa and wasn´t that impressed. this morning i had some more of the flores one with breakfast (huevos con tomates) and it was a little better. so i´m thinking the quality of flores salsa is not very regulated. this will be an early sleeping day, as we are heading out at 5am to tikal. i´m pretty excited because it´s HUGE and in the jungle! plenty of bug spray for sure. i heard that part of star wars episode VI was filmed there. cool!

alright, it´s siesta time. hasta luego.