"I know I'm happy to be on the road again, but now I'm worried my luggage will fall off..." - Lanquin to Flores

Our ride from Lanquin to Flores was LONG. Incredibly long.

We were up early, ate some amazing breakfast at the hostel restaurant, and picked up our bagged lunches that we'd asked for the number before. Curiously enough, mine was tagged with "Aranna". Even when I write my name out, it is still somehow confused. 

We argued with the bus drivers that showed up to pick up passengers (all going to different places) about what bus we were to get on. Again, not having printed vouchers was becoming an issue. He didn't believe we had paid, I showed him the confirmation on my iphone. Eventually, however, it was decided we would be on the already very full bus.

The trip started out fine, slowed down by a street market but generally seemed to be making decent time. However, soon enough things slowed down completely. 

The bus started making questionable sounds and after a bit more driving we stopped on a gravel road in the middle of a banana grove to investigate. First it was assumed our tire was flat, but that didn't seem to be the case. I took a guess that it was the axle and it turned out to be the case. Without any other parts available, the rope that was currently being used to hold our luggage on top of the bus was removed and used to secure the axle until we could get to a garage. 

Back on the road we drove for about an hour. Tired and exhausted, the hungover other travelers were grating on our nerves (well, mostly mine, as Meg has the divine ability to not have to hear them). We came to a garage and pulled in. Somehow they had a part to fix the bus with. It took about 2 hours but they fixed our bus and we were back on the road, luggage once again secured and making decent time. 

back on the road, thank god!

11 hours later we arrived in Flores, a small town that is something of an island, although it is connected to the main land by a road. The town itself is comprised of 3 different towns, but we stayed in Flores proper. 

Once again, we were happy that we had booked our accommodation ahead of time, as it seemed to be difficult to find somewhere to stay. We opted to stay at the Hospedaje Yaxha, a small guesthouse situated above a restaurant. The people running it were expecting us, and though they didn't speak any English were happy to try to communicate with us. 

Tired and starving we showered and went for a walk around town in the hopes of finding somewhere open that we could get a drink and some food. We managed to find both at Cool Beans Cafe. The free wifi, cheap beers and amazing nachos were enough to entice us in. 

It wasn't a late night, however, as we were off to Tikal in the morning... and had a 4am wake up call to contend with.