We took a taxi to the border and passed through, paying the official departure fee from Belize and the questionable 20Q to enter Guatemala. We ignored the border taximen, offering overpriced transport to a nearby city, and found a little restaurant nearby where we sat down, had a couple sodas, and enjoyed a bit of shade. We then asked for advice on how to get a collectivo to Flores, went around the corner to the station they told us about, and waited. What came was neither a bus nor a taxi, but a tiny mini-bus no bigger than a VW bus packed full of peopl e. My “seat” was a 4-inch wide stool shoved in the space between 2 other seats, and Jay shuffled in next to the other people in his row.
We drove for a couple hours, letting off some and picking up others. Although there was never an empty seat, the driver didn’t turn anyone down – at times the assistant hung out the sliding side door to allow more standing (crouching) room for new passengers. In this manner, we sardines made our way to Santa Elena, disengaged our limbs from the pile with the other passengers, collected our luggage from where it had been tied on the roof of the van, and hopped straignt onto a tiny tuk-tuk taxi that took us across the bridge to our destination: the tiny island of Flores, Guatemala.
Having no idea of the available accommodations, we asked theh driver for a hostal in the center. He took us to “Los Amigos Hostal” – an amazing place with lots of animals, hammocks, flowers and a restaurant that served incredible custom-made fresh smoothies. We got a private little cabin and a hammock outside, where we sat and enjoyed the late-afternoon sun, birds, and flowers before venturing out for some late dinner.
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| Flores, Guatemala |
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