I know I know you expected me to be in El Ramate but I couldn't find a good place to stay (cheap) so I came to Flores and got a place for less than $10/night. It is only just a room but it will do. It is hot as hell again and humid to go with it.
I lost some time thIs morn but it wasn't too bad. I waited to the two pommies guys and they had a couple of girls in tow. We looked at getting a colectivo to Flores but they decided it was too much at us$25 so we gonna take taxi to the border then bus to Flores. I negotiated with a local guy to take us to the border so that worked well.
At the border is the usual money change vultures. You just have to take it and get rid of old money and change as little as possible. They ALWAYS have a **** rate. The others seemed to struggle with the concept so it took awhile. The Aussie chick had backpack and 4 carry bags and money stashed in little purses in everyone. She rummage around then got some money and thought about it, then decided not that lot and rummage some more. At one point she had a calculator out trying to work it out. The crazy thing is they are all going back so they coulda kept that lot and just changed a few dollars.
The border was the easiest one I have ever crossed. First counter pay exit tax$40, next counter hand over passport, no paperwork, stamp and I am out of Belize. Walk across no mans land and dodge the taxi muffin. At the counter, no paperwork again, hand over passport. She didn't say a word, no questions at all, stamp and I am in Guatamala.
Now we gotta get the bus. It will cost about $7 so I negotiate with the taxi muffin for a taxi for $10 but the boys think it is too cramped. They elect for colectivo, for 7quid, till I negotiated down to 5 quid each. Now these boys havnt done much colectivo before. As always they fill it up past what you think is a comfortable level. We are in like sardines. So it became a long trip for them. When we got to Santa Elena we pulled into bus station so I knew this was the end of the line. Flores is on an island across the causeway so we have been dudded. The boys wanted to stand a argue but as always the driver don't care. Suck it up and move on. Then they paid some rediculous amount for a tuk tuk across the causeway? I don't understand them and I am going to cut them loose.
As I said Flores is an island and pretty much all about tourists. The place is mostly hotels so there is plenty of competition so that means cheap. I got my room for less than $10/night. It is only just a room but it is clean, well cleanish, has wifi and breakfast included. I will be out all day tomorrow at Tikal and leaving the day after that. Not much more to say about Flores really, it is all about Tikal around here. It is hot as hell again and being an island surrounded by water it is soooo humid, my shirt was ringing wet by the time I got here.
Weeellll it turns out my cheap room is not so good after all. It is now just after midnight and the bar next door is still playing their **** music. It is sooo loud I may as well be in there. I have paid for two nights but I will be moving tomorrow. I am sitting in the lobby making sure the night guy doesn't get any sleep as well. I hope I can find somewhere tomorrow, there are a lot of bars around playing loud music and the islands is soo small it is gonna be hard but I am prepared to pay almost anything. My new hotel room was great, and cheaper. I slept for 11 hours on a comfortable bed with minimal noise. Happy days.