Flores and Tikal

Left Lanquin on Tuesday ( I think) and arrived in Flores after another horrible 8 hour shuttle ride. Flores is a little island town. I like to call it Antigua's ugly sister. It has the same colorful facades as Antigua, but none of its colonial charm or gringo energy. I checked into a hostel called Los Amigos which is really nice. The first night it was so full I had to sleep in a hammock. On paper it seemed like a pleasant idea, but in actuality, it was a sleepless night. Between the mosquitoes, the people waking up at 4am to go to Tikal and the hammock itself, I probably got about 3 hours of sleep that night. The hostel itself is great. It is very sociable and they serve really great vegetarian food. dorms are only Q30 a nite, hammocks Q20, and dorms with bath are Q40.

After that restless night, I relaxed all day in the hostel, just hanging out. There isn't much to do in Flores, basically, everyone is here for the Mayan ruins at Tikal. I went on my second morning . I had to wake up at 4am after getting just a couple of hours of sleep. Caught a shuttle to Tikal for Q60 and hiked around beautiful Mayan ruins for a five hours and caught the shuttle back. I was pretty exhausted and had developed a painful sore throat by then.

I wasn't planning to stay for so long, but I decided to stay and recuperate at the hostel and enjoy the delicous healthy food while I can. Buses to El Salvador leave at 6am in the morning, so I didn't want to deal with being sick and waking up early and dealing with a city like San Salvador after riding a bus for 9 hours .