Tikal to Flores to Coban – Travelin'

As Shreya mentioned in her earlier post our micro-bus back to Flores was M.I.A. We woke up early in the morning and got a great view of Tikal and rainforest waking up. After our hike we headed back to the hotel collected our stuff and had some breakfast. We started talking to some of the other micro-bus drivers and they had mentioned they knew of the micro-bus company we came with and the red colored micro-bus they normally have. So we camped out near the entrance to the park and waited for a red micro-bus. After about an hour and a half after the estimated time of arrival of the micro-bus we figured that we had been bamboozled and decided to catch a ride with another driver who gave us a deal if we gave him the receipt from the original micro-bus company. I'm not sure how that worked out, but it seemed to work out.

After getting to Flores we headed out to find our hotel. We read that Flores was a small island and we found our hotel pretty quickly. Our view from the room was pretty amazing:

View from our hotel!

We decided to get cleaned up and get some lunch. As we started walking along the lake we found a place that had a “24hr Happy Hour” with rum and mango juice and mojitos for 5Q ($7 ~ 1 Quetzal). In addition they had a veggieburger and veggie burrito, we were sold:

 

Afterward we went for a walk around the island. We didn't really realize how small the island was until we came back to our hotel...It was really small :) After completing a few laps we decided to figure out something to do the next day. We read about a place called Ixpanpajul which had a few hikes through the forest and long bridges above the rain/cloud forest. It was another opportunity to try and catch a glimpse of a Quetzal so we decided to give it a try. The website for the place said it was only about 25min away and that they offered a free shuttle to get there. We went downstairs to the front desk of the hotel to ask to use the phone. They were super nice and told us that they would call for us. After talking to them they told us it would 300Q total and they could come at 2pm. We were a little confused and we asked the clerk if it is normally free. They said they weren't sure and that we should talk to a tour agent (we were also looking for a micro-bus to take to Coban). We walked over to they recommended and he also stated that it would 300Q since it is a “private facility.” He gave us a good deal for the trip to Coban but we hesitated on getting the van for Ixpanpajul. We've had this issue before and decided to call the place once again. This time when the front desk called they said that it would be free and they would come pick us up at 2pm. Lesson learned: Whenever in Guatemala, always ask twice. It's like they want to make sure you really want whatever you're asking about. Now that this post is longer then I planned (and taken way too long to write), check out these pictures from the suspension bridges and cloud forest!