Flores, Tikal and Río Dulce - sweetest of them all!

The island of Flores and the city of San Elena right next to it are considered to be just a very touristic spot where people visiting the Mayan ruins of Tikal stay for the night. But for some reason I liked it. Maybe it was the friendly service by a nervous teenager at the restaurant next door, or the relaxed atmosphere of the family-run hotel I stayed in, or perhaps even the company of some funny, but bit lonely Swedish girls.


All the beds of the dorm were always empty by 7am since everyone began their day trips at Tikal by 5am or took their buses to Belize, Palenque or somewhere in Guatemala in the early hours of the morning, and only laud birds kept me company as I pulled my blanket to my ears 'for just another 5 minutes'.


Another option for anyone heading to Tikal is staying by the lake in El Remate, half way from Flores to Tikal, which is recommended by many.

My trip to Tikal was supposed to start at 4.20am and after waiting out on the dark street for 50 minutes the bus did finally pick me up – some damn Israelis had overslept and the driver just waited for them which is a friendly but quite annoying Guatemalan custom. Just guess if the Israelis made even the smallest gesture to apologize when they finally showed up over an hour late with perfect hair and make-up. Lovely. I couldn't help thanking them loudly.

But Tikal was amazing. The cost of the trip wasn't the lowest, 120 quetzals(12€) for transport + guide and 150 GTQ (15€) for the entrance, but so totally worth it. And the entrance fee goes to the maintenance and renovation of this spectacular site, which is definitely something I was happy to contribute to. During the guided 5 hour walking tour I saw, besides dozens many amazing pyramids, a crocodile mum with kids from about one meters distance, petted a tarantella, met a herd of these furry babies (coatis), hanged with three spider monkeys, spotted two tucans and loved the jungle.





But who knew that Río Dulce, a five hour bus ride (60 GTQ, 6€ by Santa Elena) southeast from Flores, which most of the travellers I had met discribed as 'nothing' was the city to capture my heart. I arrived on Wednesday and got a dorm bed at the Hotel Backpackers for only 25 GTQ (2,5€) a night. The place wasn't too impressive with beds lacking blankets and pillows, dirty lockers, constant load music all through the night and extremely slow and bad service of the restaurant, but the people I met in the dorm, Mike and Robert from the U.S. and Andrea from Canada made all the difference: I was planning to head to Livingston down the river the next day but ended up staying in Río for five days.

First Andrea, who lives in the area a few months every year, took me to one the most amazing places I've ever been to: hot waterfalls of Finca Paraiso. This paradise is located an hour bus ride (towards El Remote 15GTQ, 1,5€ one way + 10GTQ/ 1€ entrance fee) from Río Dulce and consists of pools of water where hot volcanic waterfalls mix together with cold mountain spring water and little caves that make the place by far the most exciting spa I've ever been to.

I was planning to visit to local orphanage, Casa Guatemala, the next day, but after meeting two crazy Finns trapped in American bodies, Mike and Robert, and their booze loving Swedish friends (the friendly giant, the ladyboy Swede and the sarcastic medium sized Swede) I decided to spend another day just chilling in Finca Paraiso. In the evenings we became regulars at Cafe Sundog bar in Río.


After good 4 hours of sleep I finally visited the orphanage on Saturday. Boat took off from our hotel, which donates all its profits to the orphanage, at 7am and the day trip including meals cost 100GTQ / 10€. I know it sounds weird to take a day trip to an orphanage but I was told by volunteers who live in the hotel that the place is a complete community of its own, kids like visitors and the money these visits bring is vital to Casa Guatemala.

And I fell in love with the place and its inhabitants! Casa Guatemala is located in a beautiful place down by the river and consists of a school, a farm with animals and agriculture and houses for about 20 teachers, 15 volunteers, 25 workers and 250 girls and boys of which about 100 are orphans and 'belong to the house'; rest of the kids come from poor families and stay at the house to go to school and to get decent meals every day, but were on Easter holidays with their families when I visited the place. The location is beautiful, everything well-organised and the volunteers full of love for the kids, but lack of money and volunteers makes it all tough.

For example taking care of 25 5-9-year-olds alone all day and all night with 2 hours of running water a day and electricity in the office only doesn't sound like to picnic to me. But after being able to teach one kid to read, another one to count, fixing some tears in little clothes by sewing by hand, holding one girls hand as we walked past cows she was afraid of and getting another, badly traumatised, frequently crying little sweetie to laugh by lifting her up in the air and spinning until my head started spinning too, my heart had totally melted. So there might be change in my travel plans for August-October and a 3 month, extremely tough volunteering period waiting for me in Casa Guatemala.

Please visit their website to see if you would be interested too – help is always gladly accepted but especially months of November and December is when there are not enough volunteers helping the kids out! Visiting volunteers can stay 1-2 weeks, pay a fee of 235 US$ per week for food and housing at the Backpackers hotel, other volunteers pay 300 US$ for minimum 3 month stay living at the house itself.

Next stop, Guatemala city! Love you all!