On the tourist track, but not for long...

Days Traveling: 20
Spanish Fluency: 7%, haven´t been practicing much
Overall Feeling: caliente por que hace calor? lol

I’ve spent 3 days in Flores and I must say this is my favorite little town by far. It’s also the most built up out of all the towns we´ve seen, but there´s more of a Guatemalan feel here than there is a ¨I sell you this, best prices¨ kind of feel that I’ve experienced pretty much everywhere else. Flores is a tiny island, so you don’t need to walk more than a few steps to hit the water, although it’s warm (Which stinks because it feels like 97 degrees everywhere you go). We spent all day out there yesterday, chatting (attempting to) with some local kids and other touristas on one of the docks. A couple days ago we went to Tikal, the second largest Mayan Ruin that´s known of. Its crazy how some companies jack up the prices to get you out there! Some travelers we met spent Q400+ ($51+) to get there, get in the park, and have a guide that left them half way through the tour. We paid about Q260, Q150 for park entry and Q60 for the bus ride which is the cheapest we could find through San Juan Travel, but the trick is to get a local guide at the site and not someone beforehand. That way we only paid Q45 per person for 4 1/2 hours of lecturing on the site. He was even a plant specialist and pulled me aside to tell me about all the medicinal plants as we passed them. It was wonderful and such a great value compared to the Q100 that others paid. But enough about spending, Tikal was SO FREAKING AWESOME. I highly recommend a trip there because a lot of the buildings are fixed up for our viewing pleasure! The more adventurous attempt El Mirador, the largest Mayan ruin discovered, but its a 6 day trek and I don´t have hiking boots (thats the excuse). Plus its like $200 for the trek.

On our way up to Tikal from Coban (the most boring city in all of Guate) we stopped at Lanquin and Samuc Champey. Lanquin is great for cave and bat watching, tubing, and relaxation. Samuc Champey has natural cool water pools that are so epically beautiful, it was hard to believe. There were also hundreds of yellow butterflies everywhere, which added to the magical feeling. I think that so far, Samuc Champey is my favorite place in Guatemala. On this short leg of the trip we haven’t spent much time with locals since most of what we’ve been doing is tourist stuff, but we plan on heading to Yaxha, a Mayan ruin on the lake and staying there for a few days to relax ad such. It’s not in the Lonely Planet, so I’m really excited about that one! After that we wil be volunteering in Belize in the rainforest somewhere, more on that later.

Sorry for not uploading pictures to go along with my stories, but its so freaking hard with the internet connection :( As soon as I can, I will.