Sofia Somewhere

Our last stop of the trip was the tiny island of Flores located on Lake Petén Itzá . The small island town is connected to the mainland by a 500m causeway, and Santa Elena (the town opposite it on the mainland), San Benito (a bigger community to the west), and the island Flores itself are often collectively referred to as Flores. After our sunrise tour in Tikal in the morning, we headed to Flores proper, and spent the afternoon and one night in the charming little town. The colors of Flores We arrived in Flores a little before lunch, but our room wasn't ready yet, so we ate at a cute restaurant, La Luna , nearby while waiting. We chatted with our friendly waiter/manager, and he gave us a shot of rum at the end of our meal. I'm not a rum fan, but it was Ron Zapaca , a famous Guatemalan rum, so I decided to give it a shot (pun intended).  steak with pepper sauce & stuffed green squash We then spent the afternoon exploring the island. It's tiny, and we w...

The next stop of our trip was up north to Tikal , an ancient Mayan citadel. I knew close to nothing about the Mayan culture and civilization, and was very much looking forward to this part of the trip. We woke up early and took the 6:30 am flight from Guatemala City to Flores. In Flores we found our guide and shuttle waiting at the airport, and then with the rest of our group we were off to Tikal. It took us about an hour to reach the main gate of the Parque Nacional Tikal  complex (including a short 20 minute stop at El Remate), and from the gate another 20 minutes to reach the gate to the park itself. We changed our tickets to wristbands, and were off to explore the park. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Tikal is the ruins of an ancient Mayan city nestled in the jungle in the north of Guatemala. Once a major political, economic, and military center of Pre-Colombian Mayan civilization, it is now one of the civilization's largest archaeological sites. In ...