Guatemala Part 4.5 — Flores

Flores deserves its own post even though we technically covered it already. It’s a tiny island town on Lake Petén Itzá connected to the mainland by a causeway — cobblestone streets barely wide enough for a VW Bug, houses painted every color they had at the paint store, a white church at the top of the hill, and everything sloping down to the water. You can walk the whole island in twenty minutes and we walked it a lot more than that.

One thing we noticed right away: the lake is winning. The water has risen enough that the outer street along the waterfront is just gone — lampposts standing out in the lake like the town is slowly turning into Venice. Nobody seemed too worried about it.

We took a boat out to Islote Santa Bárbara, a tiny island with a radio tower and a one-man museum absolutely packed with oddities — Maya artifacts, jade, carved bone, and a straight-up human skull in a display case surrounded by shell jewelry. About $10 for the ride. There’s also a random antique car parked on a dock overlooking the water, because of course there is. The boys took turns driving it nowhere. We swam in the lake off the island — everyone in, water so clear you could watch your feet the whole time.

Dinner was a lesson in Guatemalan Chinese food: the plates are MASSIVE. We learned this the hard way. One order of fried rice was the size of a couch cushion, beef and broccoli, and enough orange chicken that it could feed a small village. The giant folk-dress puppets standing around town watched us waddle home.

Finished the day with a sunset over the lake that looked fake — huge orange sun dropping behind the hills while locals waded out in the flooded shallows. Not bad, Flores, not bad.

Next up: Tikal.

#unpavedparenting