An interesting journey to flores

After 3 different chicken buses and one boat across a river i made it to the northern part of guatemala in the peten region. I am staying at a hotel named the Las mesas de los mayas.. whatever that means. Tikal the site of some spectacular ancient mayan ruins is just a 45 minute shuttle ride away. I am stoked. I booked a sunrise tour that begins at 5am so i can see the sun rise against the backdrop of the mayan temples. In the background I am hoping to hear some howling monkies. Maybe I can play along. I have been practicaling my howling and bowling and I think I got it down. I´m also hopeing to do some ziplining over forest canopy. Let´s see if it can top my zipline adventure at Lake Atitlan.

Flores is an interesting town and reminds me a bit like Antigua in that there are a butt load of tourists. I´m so accustomed to being the only non guatemaln guy in town with ppl givuing me glimpses of curiousity but here I feel kind of normal again. I used to use the brown skin confident I am guatemalan don´t fuck with me demeanor to fool everyone into thinking I was a local in santiago, but also my refusal to parade around in the male huipiles and the embroidered shorts is what gave away my facade. So flores.. what else can i say, it´s a cozy little island surrounded by a nice lake with tons of great restaurants. My trip from Coban to here was a bit interesting. I must start off to say that my goal in these last 2.5 months has been to experience guatemala as it is. No tourist shuttles, no planes.. just be one of the locals. This has it´s exceptions as I like to splurge and find my niche at coffee shoes that serve great desserts and pies which the avg guatemalan usually doesn´t go to b-c they´re too expensive. I´ve also been great at trying guatemalan food, however a couple things I won´t eat. Heres my list of foods that I aboslutely won´t eat.

Number 1 (this tops the list). A nasty yellow ball that is filled with cauliflower. It may look tempting and good but It´s the nastiest thing one can ever imagine. I was served this the first time at the host family i was living and i iddin´t like it then, and 1 month later i gave it another shot at someone´s house and i almost vomited. It´s just nasty and gross....

Number 2.
Chorcheta. however u spell it. It tastes like what i would imagine urine to taste like. i swear.

Number 3.
Certain types of Tamales. esp that have bones in them. I guess it´s dependent on the maker however the manyh tamlaes i have tried had bones in them.

Number 4.
Frijoles in the shape of crap. I like black beans but when they come in your platter in the shape of a terd, it takes away your appetite.

Number 5
Instant coffee. I hate this shit


but i digress.....

So from coban I set off to travel like the locals and opted to take the chicken bus to get to flores. I must say the hotel I stayed at was pretty damn nice and i was sad to leave such a cleanly and nice environment at only 10 dollars a night. Anyhow, I got off to a rough start and the adventure began by trying to0 find out where all the buses leave from. My lonely planet book was wrong and it had me going around in a goose chase. That brings me to point number1... always ask MULTIPLE ppl for directions. a few ppl will lie, a few ppl don´t know so they give an answer, a few ppl give too detailed instructions which is counterproductive... the truth lies somewhere in the middle. After finding the bus station, I got swept away in the mad rush as i was being grabbed by conductors of various buses to take their shuttle. not knowing what was going on, i got swept away by one dude who grabbed my bag w-o permission and made his way to a bus. this was fine with me, as i was already feeling lazy and it was nice not to look around for buses and act lost. Here i realized i was going to be taking a communal shuttle which was packed with 20 other guatemalan ppl in a van that was meant ounly to sit 6. Interesting ride as i was packed as tight as a sardine in a tin can. The city i wanted to reach was Sayaxche where i would take a connecting bus to flores. sweating like a madman tight between some guy whereing a cowboy hat and a fat guatemalan lady who didn´t wear deodarant i was relived that at the very least i found the right bus.....

2.5 hours later, the conductor stopped the bus and informed me that he was going to drop me off at a gas station where i had to flag another bus down headed to the Sayaxche direction. I immediately realized this wasn´t a direct bus to the city and the conductgor had fooled me all along. he had taken me to the point where one has to change buses. Dropped off literally in the middle of nowhwere with my suitcase in hand, i stood by a shell (yes interestingly shell) gas station, praying that a shuttle would arrive. all of a sudden i felt so vulnerable to the elements in the middle of nowhere with gas station attendents staring at me. My prayers were answered 30 min later when a shuttle headed for sayaxche arrived.....

2.5 hours later, i arrivbed in the town and got off at the center of the city. only to look around and realize there were no buses. After asking around, I was told i had to cross the river via a boat ferry to the other side and then catch a bus. I finally made it to the other side and to my relief there was a bus to flores.

15 min later, a dutch couple hopped on the bus. What a pleasant surprise. Finally some tourists and not only were they tourists. They were the same couple that hung out with me when i was in Coban and my semuc Champey tour. Both were headed to flores. It´s nice to have someone have your back.. theres a bit of a feeling of saftey when u recongize a familiar face. We finally made it to flores.

Tomm the plan is to see tikal. The hotel i am staying at is nice however, it´s pretty freaken hot and humid. my AC doesn´t seem to be working well. Anyhow, I just got back from a nice dinner of a pizza bagel and coffee. i feel great. i might call it an early night today, as i have to be up by 4 am tomm. other than that all is well and I am trying to schedule interviews through email right now. i have gotten 11 invites thus far. Sounds like dec and jan will be really busy and a big pain in the ass.. also means that in 2 months my adventure in central america and south america wil have to come to an end.