From Belize City we wanted to fly into FLORES and then take the bus out once we were done, just to see the sights from both land and air. It was a good choice, as both modes of transport were quite an adventure.
After boarding the small propeller plane in Belize, we took off, did a circle, and landed again. Where we here already?? Surely this looked just the same as the airport we just left??
Well, it was the same airport. We had returned, as the pilot had forgotten two travelers. Can't imagine American airlines doing that, can you? So, now we were finally all aboard. That made six of us, and it was back into the air to try this again.
I’m not a nervous flyer, but my knuckles were a tad bit white at the end of the hour I can tell you. The pilot (who I was sat directly behind) would bank and dodge the fluffy white clouds like this was a NASCAR race. Sharp right. Sharp left. Up. Down.
Once we did finally bank to land in Flores, we had the most stunning sight of the "island" below us, with all the quaint streets and red roofs. We got a $3 cab ride from the airport to our hotel, dumped off the bags, and had time to explore.
The streets are all cobbled and hilly, with pastel-colored buildings and a laid-back feel. I was immediately at home here. The town is easy to walk around, as it’s only about 6 streets wide and 7 streets long. There were no Americans that we met, but plenty of European backpackers and Guatemalans on their own vacation.
Flores is set on the lake, and all the local kids were swimming and having the time of their lives. You can swim in the lake at your own risk (the water looked a bit mucky), or you can got on various boat trips.
The backpackers were wandering town, drinking Gallo beer and buying up the cheap goods. I could easily have been in any old European town, except that once in a while I would see something quite odd. Men (well, boys it looked like) would be guarding random buildings with huge rifles bigger than themselves. There was one outside a bank. Okay, that I understand, but then there was another guarding a grocery store and yet another guarding a Pepsi truck. How weird. I wondered if the Pepsi truck would be a big heist for robbers.
I wondered these streets with Karl or sometimes just alone to shop, early in the morning and late at night, and never felt threatened. The shops have all kinds of jewelry, woodcrafts, and clothing, and it was all really cheap compared to what I later saw in Belize.
Buses ran all through Flores, though the main bus station was just over the causeway in Santa Elena, but all the hotels, however small and cheap, would arrange for the bus to pick you up from their front door, which came in very handy with the early starts.