Flores, Guatemala

After Tikal, we took the Jungle Lodge taxi to our next stop, Flores. It is a tiny island in the middle of Lake Peten Itza. What a cute little spot. We had a beer, in this "restaurant", but didn't dare set foot on the outside edge of the dock. We were sitting just to the left of where the photo was taken and little kids were jumping in the water near that red umbrella.

Here we are at that very same restaurant. Nachos, guac, drinks, and great friends...what more could we want? I know, I know, none of you are giving us any sympathy at this stage of the game...but travelling was very hard work...whine, whine, whine...

Seriously, do I look like I'm having any fun at all? Dan, yes, but me???

A typical street scene here. It was a really cute town.

This is only one of the beers Dan and Ralph liked/consumed!! Again, hard work but somebody's got to do it!

Though a little town, Ralph still manages to find some hills for us to climb! We have to earn those drinks somehow!!

Cute little stores and buildings; another painting in the waiting!

Our trusty companions feeling mellow and a bit yellow! Someone should write a song about that...Donovan could probably do a good job!!

A great sun-going-down shot.

Looking out toward the museum island. Another great sunset.

This is now our new screen saver.

This is us, after the above photos were taken. This was such a cool restaurant, with an opening in the middle, out over the lake. The fish came in and ate bread, and we were even lucky enough to see a couple of turtles. The guys drank a lot of beer, but Lorraine and I stuck with wine, almost always Chilean and cheaper than in Canada. Here the guys are helping us out.

We asked what we should do, and were told, "take a boat trip to the local zoo.". So, before we left Flores on our second day, we did just that! This is our boat owner/driver.

Ralph negotiated a price...I'm not sure if he actually knew what boat we were getting?? This was it!!! Very leaky and squeaky, with just a small dry-rot hole on the side!

On the trip to the zoo, we saw even worse boats than ours! And, worse yet, they had to paddle uphill as you can see!

At the zoo, we crossed a suspension bridge...a bit scary considering the condition of it!

I forget the name of these pig things but they were noisy and smelly.

Great parrot shot.

After seeing monkeys in the wild, it was hard to view them in cages.

This little guy was just so cute!

The cougar and jaguar at least had large habitats and hills to climb and exercise.

The boat on the left is ours, waiting to take us back to Flores, from the zoo.

This would be the boat beside his...notice how narrow it is. They seem to just perch on the side as they don't actually fit inside.

Ahhh, it's good to know that the outside of the boat was more solid??!!

Here we are leaving the hotel in our Tuk Tuks. It costs us $1.50 each tuk tuk to the airport!

A bit of a hairy ride...but doesn't transfer well into a photo. What we didn't know is that we were in for an even more hairy ride!!

This is the view from our "plane" and I use the term plane very loosely here!! Yes, that's the wing!!!!!!!!!!

And no, Dan is not flying it!!!!!!!!!!!

And yes, that's one of the wheels which managed to touch down on the runway in Guatemala city!!! We were glad to be back and looking forward to returning to our boats. We didn't have much down time during this trip. It was exhausting, but we had a terrific time!

Next, once we fix the tranny oil cooler, we'll head to Nicaragua and then on to Costa Rica! Hope you've enjoyed this coverage of our land trip to Guatemala.