Flores

We landed in Belize City and took a bus a couple hours later to Flores, Guatemala. The above is a view from our hostel, Dona Goya. Flores is an island in the middle of a lake and the surrounding views were beautiful - water and jungle! Since it was the jungle, it was flippin' H-O-T. I think my body went into shock from coming from such a cool climate to a stifling hot jungle. My fingers swelled up like sausages! Gross. The best part about our hostel was the rooftop deck, which housed a few hammocks.

Comfy!

 

 

The city was doing construction on our street so we couldn't exactly sleep in even if we wanted to, the noise was so bad. But the waterfront of Flores was very nice and walkable. Mark visited Flores a few years ago and said the waterfront wasn't nearly as built up as it was now.

The construction zone outside our hostel.

We spent two nights in Flores and ended up visiting a zoo that was on a different island a short boat ride away. Zoo pictures in the next post! Meaning... monkeys. And a hefty-looking jaguar.

#11: Backpack in Central America

Tikal, Guatemala

In no way did we cover all the ground we wanted to (our preliminary itinerary before we booked the tickets took us through all seven countries in three weeks – what were we thinking?) but I can partially cross this goal off my list! We trekked through the jungles, mountains and beaches (though briefly) of Guatemala and Honduras; we originally intended to hit up northern El Salvador as well but decided to partake in the world celebrations of Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Antigua, Guatemala, instead. Everyone else seemed to be heading to Antigua for those crucial days leading up to Easter so we decided that maybe we should, too. I’ll be posting some pictures and anecdotes over the next couple weeks as I try to get back into a routine.

#67: Take a red-eye flight

Done: Seattle –> Houston –> Belize City

I see the appeal about leaving in the middle of the night so you can hit the ground  running in the morning, but I can’t say I’m a huge fan. After all my talk about being able to sleep on flights I still had trouble staying asleep (falling asleep was no problem). I blame the documentary about the Foo Fighters that I was watching during the 20 minutes of free TV the flight allowed us. Once the TV was shut off, I couldn’t stop thinking about the Foo Fighters or their music.

Then of course the sleep disrupted by a layover in the Houston airport, where we found a quiet terminal where we could fall asleep on the floor for a couple of hours.

But it was worth it.

We’re baaaaack

Sorry for the dearth of posts, but I didn’t want to post anything without also including pictures – we’ve finally sorted through them all (800+ AFTER sorting) so I’ll be putting together plenty of posts with corresponding pictures as soon as everything is more organized. But to tide you over, here are some short highlights from our excursion through Guatemala and Honduras.

• Meeting fellow travelers from all over the world: England, Germany, Ireland, Holland, Canada, Scotland, Wales, etc.
• Climbing over the bars of the jaguar pen to peek at the sleeping jaguar 25 feet below.
• Snorkeling at Utila, one of the Bay Islands north of Honduras.
• Experiencing the Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations in Antigua, Guatemala, some of the largest Holy Week celebrations in the world. Lots of Catholic parades!
• Kayaking a mountain lake in Guatemala.
• Visiting Chichicastenango, a world-famous market in the mountains of Guatemala.

The trip was such a whirlwind that I can’t believe I’m back at work, wandering around in a daze trying to remember what I was doing three weeks ago.

Hours before departure

Is this really happening? Our bags are packed and ready to go! By this time tomorrow we'll be in 90+ degree weather in Flores, Guatemala, which really couldn't be any better timing because my frustration at being cold is at an all-time high. And being cold is making this girl uber-cranky. I'll probably be saying that about the heat in a couple weeks but at this point I really don't care. I just need some warmth!

First stop: Houston. Second stop: Belize City and then trekking through Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras!

 

Terry? Seymour?

Did I mention I almost ruined our trip to Central America?

I remember having a conversation with Mark when we got back from Belize in 2008 on whether I should change the name in my passport to Heather Seymour from Heather Terry. We decided at the time that it could wait – when you use your passport, it’s the only form of identification they check so the only name that needs to match is the one on your passport and the one on your airline ticket. So I never changed it.

Fast forward to Sunday night when Mark realized that my passport still read Heather Terry but he’d bought my ticket under Heather Seymour. Cue panic. I got on the phone with Continental first, heeding Mark’s advice to say as little as possible about the situation and only say the name was wrong and needed to be changed. The conversation didn’t go well -- “Why is the name wrong? Is it only misspelled? What name is on your driver’s license? These tickets are non-transferable.” My call was then transferred to an international agent, at which point I handed the phone to Mark and escaped to the other room.

I don’t really know how Mark did it, but 20 minutes passed until he came in triumphantly and said they’d changed it for us. I was a mess by that point, sitting in tears on the couch clutching a pillow and telling myself everything was going to be OK and trying to watch “Celebrity Apprentice.” (And no, “Celebrity Apprentice” is not part of me being a mess! We love that show!) Mark had seemed fairly confident the whole time that they’d change the name (unlike myself) but couldn’t resist throwing in “I would’ve been sad to go to Central America without you!”

Can you imagine if we’d gotten to the airport and realized our mistake? I don’t think I would’ve been going anywhere. Thank goodness Continental has the foresight to send a “check your personal information” e-mail a week ahead of time.

From depressing to awesome

Seattle, Washington

Flores, Guatemala