Today we woke up early so that we could get packed and head out on the water taxi back to Belize city. The taxi left at 8:30 and is an hour boat ride back to the mainland so we were concerned about making the 9:30 bus to Flores, Guatemala, but the boat people assured us that the bus would wait for us. After disembarking, we quickly purchased bus tickets and waited for the bus to load. We soon realized that once again, in Belize the run on "Belize time". Our bus finally loaded up and took off at 10:30.
The air conditioning that the ticket lady had promised me would be on this express bus of course did not exist, but luckily once the bus was moving and there was some air flow, it was a little more bearable.
It was a 5 hour bus ride to Flores, so along the way we chatted with the other passengers. All other 6 people were travelers like us and one of the guys was from LA; small world!! We became fast friends with Alex, the 22 year old traveller from LA, who has done and seen more in his young life than most people I know. Upon arriving to the city, we all ventured over to the Los Amigos Youth Hostel. Alex had stayed here before on his last journey through Guatemala so we trusted his recommendation on the place. Once we had secured a room for the next two nights, we headed out for some drinks.
Flores is a pretty small town so we walked the length of it before deciding to head back to the hostel for some drinks. Alex was catching the overnight bus to Antigua at 8:00, but we couldn't let him go without first playing some giant Jenga.
The hostel seems packed with people and has many buildings on the street it is located on that they use for lodging. You can tell that security is a big concern as all of the doors have multiple locks and you need someone to buzz you in from inside to enter. The hostel is pretty nice though; it basically looks like a jungle and the main lobby area and restaurant/bar is covered in trees and ferns. We were able to get our own private room again, which was still pretty inexpensive, only $17USD for 2 nights. The only thing we haven't liked so far was that the shower barely has any water coming out of it; it is literally like someone slowly spitting water droplets on you. Alyssa tried to adjust the shower head and was electrocuted because they have some electrical wires running through the shower head- seems weird to me. Otherwise, so far so good! I was a little worried about the crossing into Guatemala but we had no problems at all, it was an exit fee of $37BZE to leave Belize and then an Entrance fee of $3USD or $21 Quetzales and then we were home free! Hopefully it continues to be so easy. Tomorrow we head to the Mayan ruins at Tikal.
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