Flores could only get better after my first nights experience and today I had a sunset trip to Tikal booked through the hostel. Tikal is an ancient Mayan city about an hour away from Flores and is one of the biggest Ancient ruins in all of Central America. It is widely considered to be more impressive than Chichen Itza in Mexico and after going I definitely agree. A scene from Star Wars was filmed here which I found fairly interesting and I went to Youtube to find the particular clip after the tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecJAH7e79PA&ab_channel=freelanceoz
We watched the sunset on the top of a ruin in complete silence (as per instructions from the guides so you could hear all the animals) and it was really amazing. It was a long day of walking so after the tour I went back to the hostel and we got some food and went to bed 🙂
The weather in Flores averaged around 38 degrees during my stay here so you could only do so much walking before running for some cover but the Island of Flores which is kind of seperate to the mainland and is where all the hostels, bars and restaurants are located is really nice. Today was my birthday and I slept in and then got a nice meal with people from the hostel. At 3pm we ventured off on a sunset boat/party through the Flores lake. We stopped off at a very cool rope swing and cliff jumping spot (which we had to sign a waiver for in Spanish before going lol). It is literally the backyard of someones house that he has made swings and platforms into the water and he charges people 25 questzalas to use. The ropeswing was so fun. We then got back on the boat, which was sort of like a flat raft, with a bar and music and places to sit and drunk copious amounts of alcohol on the water for the next few hours as the sun set. Everyone was buying me drinks (and shots) because it was my birthday and it was nice to spend my birthday with many people I had met on my trip, some even from back in Mexico. The hostel volunteer organiser even somehow located a candle and put it in a tequila shot for me lol and everyone sang me Happy Birthday. The night continued after the boat party into the hostel nightclub and as you know by now, the rest of the night is a blur that can’t be recalled. A memorable birthday on a boat somewhere in Guatemala.
The next day was predictably slow and not a whole lot was accomplished. We made it to a bar for sunset and then watched the beer pong tournament that was happening at the hostel – no one from the boat party the night before was feeling up to participating. Hangovers at 27 hurt.
That is all for Flores.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/cpQFEyD2yb5WihtD9