Day 61 - Saturday 19th November 2005

12 hours sleep sorted me out and I was ready to hit the streets & Guatemala had to offer. People who had travelled in the country had been raving about it when I had spoken to them so I wanted to see if it lived up to the hype. The town I had chosen to commence my quest was Flores, which is actually a small island connected to the mainland by a kilometre long causeway.

First impression of the town were ok, nothing special. It reminded me Mexcaltitan on the Pacific coast of Mexico, due to the layout of the streets and the sedate pace. There were differences of course, the main being the presence of cars and tuk-tuks in Flores. After walking around the cobbled streets for 15 minutes - roughly the length of time it took to circumnavigate the island - I pretty much got my bearings. Not long after that, I had seen most of what the island had to offer. I did need to do a few things such as book my Spanish lessons for the coming week, so I took the opportunity to do just that. I paid US$150 While I was at it, I also booked a my place on a bus to the Mayan ruins of Tikal - leaving at 4am the following day.

Why 4am? Sunrise was supposed to be the best tie to visit as you get the place to yourself and its not in the heat of the day. And of course you can see the sunrise over the jungle.

During the afternoon I caught a tuk-tuk to the village of Santa Elena & had a look around. This was more like the Guatemala I had expected, dirt roads, noisy buses belching out noxious fumes and people riding motorbikes all over the place and crazy markets. I wlaked around the aformentioned market attracting a lot of stares from locals (I knew my good looks would be appreciated somewhere!) and avoiding the loco motorbike riders. I saw a motorbike shop and out of curiosity went in and asked how much a brand new kawasaki 200cc off road price went for. I was quoted Q3120. Thats about 250 quid! Hmmm…. Should I invest!?!

On a side note, I think I am going to start putting photos of the different beers I am drinking, so here is Gallo the most popular beer in Guatemala, so I’m told. You may be able to tell its popular by the other clues in the picture. I had this beer while watching the Barcelona Vs Real Madrid game during my lunch in the afternoon (well it was nightime in Spain).