Day 206: Flores – Guatemala – Jan 9th

By 4am, people in our dorm were rustling and bustling as they were going on their own Tikal trip. By 7am, it seems like most people were already out of the dorm, and we had no choice but to wake up from all the commotion. We were determined to give our travel agency hell, as she messed up our itinerary and schedule.

The first thing we did was to head over to the travel agency to get this thing sorted out, but she wasn’t open even at 10am. Her office hours were supposed to be 9-6, but again this is Guatemala and we were willing to wait. We headed to a coffee shop and had a decent breakfast + coffee, with a view of a nice garden and the lake. We tried again at 1pm, but the travel agency still wasn’t open, and we even asked the stores nearby and they say she opens at 3pm. Okay, great, then why you tell us 9am!! We grabbed lunch, went back again at 3pm, still nobody!!!!

Now we were just furious, but just extremely annoyed. There are many travel agencies on the island of Flores, but this was one that was recommended by our guide book. A French couple was also looking for them, but it was because this travel agency was highly recommended by their guide book and they refused to go to anyone else. The main issue was that this travel agency had an English-speaking person, while nobody else can speak English, and all our tickets are under her travel agency… We had no other choice but to wait. We waited until 4:30pm until we gave up our hope and tried an alternative.

We walked into another travel agency, explained our situation and see if they could help us. Well, turns out the lady didn’t speak English but she understood our problem and helped us out like no other.She patiently tried every number on our ticket, the yellow pages, and even the internet before finding the right ones for both our bus to Guatemala City, and the organized shuttle to Antigua. She was put on hold for 10minutes, and peeled an orange for us to eat. She was so patient, so nice, and SO SO helpful! The highlight of the day.

The problem with last night was that the bus LEAVES the island at 9:30pm, and leaves the bus station on the MAINLAND at 10pm!!! Our travel agent didn’t mention this one critical point…!!!! So with our travel itinerary back on track, we finally breathed a sigh of relief. This time, we waited at the parking lot at 9:15pm… and got on the bus =)

Weather in Flores: This topic deserves its own comment. In the mornings/evenings it gets chilly. When the sun shines above, it gets blistering hot. Storms come and go, and within a span of 1hr we had 1) comfy breeze w/sun 2) light drizzle 3) thunder showers flooding the streets 4) comfy breeze w/sun 5) thunder showers flooding the streets. The humidity was constantly at 100%, despite being the “dry” season, and we quickly realized how much we didn’t enjoy humidity!!