So we take off out of Tikal in a mini van blasting some 80´s love songs. Cramer is passed out in the back with his head bouncing around like a rag doll. One hour later we´re in Flores. I decide on a place out of the Lonely Planet guide called Hotel La Union. We´re both exhausted from the early morning hike and throw our bags on the bed. I head across the street to hit the internet for awhile. Outside the sky opens up and it just pours for about 20 minutes complete with ear splitting thunder. It always takes awhile to adapt to each new city we enter. It usually takes a night or so to get into the flow of the city. Flores is a really cool and unexpected city. It´s has a population of about 10,000 and is situated on a small island in Lake Peten Itza. Flores is clean, colorful, and full of colonial style buildings.
After being through many cities down here, most of them pretty run down, Flores is like a shining jewel. It´s full of shops and restaurants, many with balconies over looking the lake. It´s still early afternoon and I´m still trying to feel the FLOW of Flores when I see Stephanie, one of our German friends that we keep running into, standing in the street talking to a couple of people. They´re staying right across the street from us. The plan, according to Stephanie, is for all of us to go down on the dock right next to our place and swim. I´m down, but Cramer is going to sit this one out. Suddenly there is a huge crew of people down on the dock all ready to jump in. I end up meeting a guy, Dan, and his sister both who are from Mequon, WI. Next thing I know there is an international dive off going on. There are people from Germany, USA, Ireland, Denmark, and a few other countries too. There are some ugly dives, but the water is warm and the company is good. After swimming I´m definitely feeling good about Flores. 
After awhile we all head back to our rooms to clean up. We meet up again with most of the same crew for beers and pizza. It´s funny, because we bring in our own beer to the restaurant and they don´t even care. We end up haning out with our new friends for awhile drinking and improving the world´s impression of Americans. Cramer and I are like ambassadors, changing one foreigner´s mind at a time. So far so good. Our plan is to leave Flores the very next morning and head to Antigua. So after a few too many drinks we head back home to get some sleep before another long day of buses. Joy! I wish we would have stayed here a night longer. This is a chilled out city with some great scenery, good restaurants and bars, and a nice central location for seeing other sites. Flores is a great city to stay in to see Tikal and other sites in the area. If I´m back this way again I´ll definitely stay here a few more nights.
The next morning we´re packed and ready to go. The tuk tuk (yes they have tuk tuk here too) takes us to the bus station and we load our stuff in the bus. We have got a coach bus, but that doesn´t really mean much more comfort. The bus smells strongly of flower perfume, like old lady perfume. It´s fine if its just for a few minutes, but it´s literally burnng a hole in my brain and doesn´t seem to go away the whole trip. I think I´m going to puke. The AC vents go from being too cold, to too warm. I just alternate between being warm and clammy and cold and clammy, neither which are good. They have two movies playing during the trip, Man on Fire with Denzel Washington and A Baby´s Day Out. They´re both in Spanish, Man on Fire is a decent movie and I´m watching most of it, but the volume is on level 10 and the speaker is a foot from my head. I even have my noise cancelling head phones on and the sound just cuts right through them. 8 long hours later we arrive in Guatemala City. Guatemala City is huge, dirty, and dangerous. Atleast that´s what we´ve heard, but we have no interest in staying here any way. We grab a taxi to the nearet Chicken Bus station and hop on the next one leaving for Antigua, which happens to be about 2 minutes after we get on. Remember Chicken Buses are just old US school buses painted up in cool colors and serve as the cheap mode of transportation down here. There are a lot of rumors about why they´re called Chicken Buses, some say because people bring Chickens on them. Other say it´s because they pack so many on the bus, it´s like Chickens in a cage. Either way they´re cheap and leave often. Its only $1 to get to Antigua. 
It´s about 7pm at this time and there is only a few people on the bus. I´m thinking that this will be a great trip, windows down, plenty of room, only one more hour until Antigua. Well about 10 stops later and the bus is packed to the gills, every seat is taken with 3 people to a seat. Everyone else stands packed shoulder to shoulder in the aisles. Persnonally I like being on these better than the coach buses, because atleast I can put the window down or up to adjust the temperature. Unfortunately the seats are not very comfortable so about a 2 hour ride is about the lenght ones ass can hold up. About 50 stops and 90 minutes later we pull into Antigua, which is only about 30 miles away from Guatemala City. Cramer and I our waiting for the bus to pull into a bus station, but it never does. We almost get stuck on the bus as it goes back to Guatemala City. We scream at the driver who finally stops and then slither slowly through the packed bus with our huge packs. We left Flores at about 10am and finally arrive in Antigua about 10 hours later. Time to find a place to stay...
It´s about 7pm at this time and there is only a few people on the bus. I´m thinking that this will be a great trip, windows down, plenty of room, only one more hour until Antigua. Well about 10 stops later and the bus is packed to the gills, every seat is taken with 3 people to a seat. Everyone else stands packed shoulder to shoulder in the aisles. Persnonally I like being on these better than the coach buses, because atleast I can put the window down or up to adjust the temperature. Unfortunately the seats are not very comfortable so about a 2 hour ride is about the lenght ones ass can hold up. About 50 stops and 90 minutes later we pull into Antigua, which is only about 30 miles away from Guatemala City. Cramer and I our waiting for the bus to pull into a bus station, but it never does. We almost get stuck on the bus as it goes back to Guatemala City. We scream at the driver who finally stops and then slither slowly through the packed bus with our huge packs. We left Flores at about 10am and finally arrive in Antigua about 10 hours later. Time to find a place to stay... 
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