After a few more days of Island Living, we took a 1 1/2 hour water taxi to Belize City and hopped on a mini-bus for the trip across Belize and into Guatemala.
The bus looks much better on the outside than the inside as it takes travelers on the 5 hour trip through Guatemala every day. Immigration between Belize and Guatemala took over an hour, three different lines, and random payments but we made it to
Flores before sunset..
On an island in Lake Petén Itzá, Flores is connected to the mainland by a causeway. Our hotel led directly to the esplanade where it took about 15 minutes to stroll completely around the island. We stopped for a lovely sunset meal overlooking the lake.
Transport by boat is readily available
and we watched the locals celebrate the balmy evening by leaping over a low wall into the lake.
Our main reason for stopping in Flores was to visit the ruins of
Tikal, about an hour away. The next morning we left at 5am to avoid the heat of the day and arrived amidst the fog.
Tikal is not as excavated and restored as most of the ruins we have visited and the pyramids were spread through the dense jungle. We even ran across this jungle dweller. How brave am I?
