Romantic Flores Get-Away
We just got back from our 5 day 4 night visit to the island town of Flores, Guatemala. It is a small but quaint town on a clear lake called Petén. Access to the ‘island’ is via a manmade causeway and serviced by a curious mode of transportation called ‘tuk-tuks’. For 5Q a person (roughly 60 cents) they will take you into the sister town of St. Helena for
major shopping or a quick lunch at Pizza Hut. There are many delightful restaurants in town however and it was at one of them we learned many things about the Mayan ruins around the area that were inhabited during 400-900 AD, including one called Yaxha’ (Pronounced “Yashaw”) more on this later.
The hotel we chose
to stay at was the Casazul, which was decorated all in shades of blue. We had the third floor “penthouse” with a huge balcony/patio.
The patio was furnished with a rattan sofa, two matching high back chairs, a coffee table and two sets of wrought iron breakfast tables, at which we enjoyed our morning coffee and the gorgeous view
of the lake. Then, off to one of the many cute restaurants for breakfast, where we discussed our day and watched the town come alive.
One of the highlights was a museum on an island in the lake. We hired a boat to take us ther
e and the owner of the ’museo’ Luis showed us all the amazing Mayan artifacts in his little museum. While most museums that have 2000 plus year old artifacts have everything under glass and it's, "look, but don’t touch", not his. H
e offered and even encouraged us to hold, touch and even play the ancient musical instruments. Jim got to blow a 2500 year old conch shell horn and we even held an obsidian ball that was used in one of the ball games that decided life or death to the combatants. There is some discussion as to whether the winner or the looser was sacrificed to the Gods.
After hearing Dieter’s (who’s worked on many other Mayan sites including Tikal & Yaxha, uncovering and stabilizing them) seminar at a local restaurant over dinner one night, we decided to go ourselves and quickly found a van to take us there.
It’s an hour and a half ride from Flores with the last ½ hour over semi paved and totally dirt roads. There
were another 3 couples along with us and we decided to meet back at the van at 1:30 PM so were free to explore at our own pace for the next 3 hours! Boy, just about wore us old folks out!! We enjoyed that the ruins were all on one level so the only climbing we did was purely optional. As we wandered through the ruins, we couldn’t escape the feelings of mystery and reverence, it’s truly a magical spot!
Jim opted to climb the pyramid called “Red Hand”! While there are very nice wooden steps built up the side of the p
yramid(122 steps) there were also 2 flights of 42 and 72 steps each to get to that level. Just about wore Jim’s poor knees out, but what a view! You might even say, ‘Fit for a king!’ Jeanie even spotted and chatted with both a crew member and a contestant that was in the “Survivor Guatemala” reality show !
Our ride home from the ruins was momentarily held up while we waited for a parade of over 2 dozen horse back riders doing a “U” turn on the main highway in one of the ‘aldeas’ that we passed through! They were all garbed in their Sunday best with one little girl ‘honored’ with a crown! No idea what the parade was for, but pretty neat considering where we had just been.
From there we ask to be dropped of at the ‘Linea Dorado’ buss terminal to buy our next days ticket out of town. Then a last candle light dinner of the local “Blanco” fish. For desert we walked to the church plaza overlooking the whole town and lake and ate Sarita ice cream while watching the sun set over the lake. Am I the big spender or what…?
We just got back from our 5 day 4 night visit to the island town of Flores, Guatemala. It is a small but quaint town on a clear lake called Petén. Access to the ‘island’ is via a manmade causeway and serviced by a curious mode of transportation called ‘tuk-tuks’. For 5Q a person (roughly 60 cents) they will take you into the sister town of St. Helena for
major shopping or a quick lunch at Pizza Hut. There are many delightful restaurants in town however and it was at one of them we learned many things about the Mayan ruins around the area that were inhabited during 400-900 AD, including one called Yaxha’ (Pronounced “Yashaw”) more on this later.The hotel we chose
to stay at was the Casazul, which was decorated all in shades of blue. We had the third floor “penthouse” with a huge balcony/patio.The patio was furnished with a rattan sofa, two matching high back chairs, a coffee table and two sets of wrought iron breakfast tables, at which we enjoyed our morning coffee and the gorgeous view
of the lake. Then, off to one of the many cute restaurants for breakfast, where we discussed our day and watched the town come alive.One of the highlights was a museum on an island in the lake. We hired a boat to take us ther
e and the owner of the ’museo’ Luis showed us all the amazing Mayan artifacts in his little museum. While most museums that have 2000 plus year old artifacts have everything under glass and it's, "look, but don’t touch", not his. H
e offered and even encouraged us to hold, touch and even play the ancient musical instruments. Jim got to blow a 2500 year old conch shell horn and we even held an obsidian ball that was used in one of the ball games that decided life or death to the combatants. There is some discussion as to whether the winner or the looser was sacrificed to the Gods.After hearing Dieter’s (who’s worked on many other Mayan sites including Tikal & Yaxha, uncovering and stabilizing them) seminar at a local restaurant over dinner one night, we decided to go ourselves and quickly found a van to take us there.
It’s an hour and a half ride from Flores with the last ½ hour over semi paved and totally dirt roads. There
were another 3 couples along with us and we decided to meet back at the van at 1:30 PM so were free to explore at our own pace for the next 3 hours! Boy, just about wore us old folks out!! We enjoyed that the ruins were all on one level so the only climbing we did was purely optional. As we wandered through the ruins, we couldn’t escape the feelings of mystery and reverence, it’s truly a magical spot!Jim opted to climb the pyramid called “Red Hand”! While there are very nice wooden steps built up the side of the p
yramid(122 steps) there were also 2 flights of 42 and 72 steps each to get to that level. Just about wore Jim’s poor knees out, but what a view! You might even say, ‘Fit for a king!’ Jeanie even spotted and chatted with both a crew member and a contestant that was in the “Survivor Guatemala” reality show !Our ride home from the ruins was momentarily held up while we waited for a parade of over 2 dozen horse back riders doing a “U” turn on the main highway in one of the ‘aldeas’ that we passed through! They were all garbed in their Sunday best with one little girl ‘honored’ with a crown! No idea what the parade was for, but pretty neat considering where we had just been.
From there we ask to be dropped of at the ‘Linea Dorado’ buss terminal to buy our next days ticket out of town. Then a last candle light dinner of the local “Blanco” fish. For desert we walked to the church plaza overlooking the whole town and lake and ate Sarita ice cream while watching the sun set over the lake. Am I the big spender or what…?
