We started the travel day with breakfast and a big malaria pill. The travel clinic gave us malaria pills to take before we got to Guatemala so we actually started the regiment on the 9th and will have to keep it up for the next week or so. In reality, the pills are small compared to some of the vitamins I take but the directors say to take them with rich foods and I am up to that! Also there's a chance that lucid dreaming will be a side effect and that sounds super cool to me.
We were early birds and got to the bus terminal a half hour early. Perfect timing for us all we say down and waited. And then we kept waiting. And then we waited some more. To add insult to injury, we got sweaty while we were waiting. The bus was nearly 90 minutes late! But we got on our way and were in high spirits because we were going to another country after all! Things could only go up, of course.
Our they could go sideways... Things got weird fast. The bus driver had two companions who didn't actually seen to work for the company and at one point, they stopped without any explanation so one of the guys could buy hot sauce. That was rude sauce if you ask me.
Crossing the border can make a girl nervous -- and you'd think that I'd be a pro by now considering how many times I went back and forth between the States and Canada when I was on tour -- but we'd picked a company that had ASSURED us that they would have all of the paperwork for us and make sure we knew exactly what to do when we got to the border... Yeah, that totally happened.*
*It didn't happen.
In reality, the bus driver stood up, said "Get off. See you on the other side" and unceremoniously booted all of us from the vehicle. It was alright because we're smart and the whole process was straight forward but somebody isn't getting a good review on Trip Advisor!
Either way, we made it to Guatemala and better yet, all the way to our hostel in Flores! Our hostel is called Los Amigos and is unlike any places I've ever stayed before. It has been designed to be a tree house meets night club, the modern day hipster bungalow. And it has a travel desk that does tours!
We went to the travel desk right away because we knew what we wanted. The guy working there, however,was a wackadoo. Instead of telling me that they were cash only, he threatened to cut my credit card in half... Why? I don't know. We booked our first tour and that's the important part (we're going to go back tomorrow when there will, hopefully, be someone a little less eccentric and a lot more helpful).
To this hotel's credit, we've determined that Belize water sucks. We aren't actually drinking the water anywhere we go on this trip but the water in Belize was distinctly harsher on our hair! This hostel has the best amenities we've encountered so far. BUT for what it has in Instagrammable interior design, it lacks internet connectivity. They have like 45 WiFi networks and they're all as reliable as the bus company we used to get here. Precisely zero of those networks make it to my bed. One *kind of* reaches Whitney's bed but it's a stretch.
And oh, it's going to be an early night here (despite the night club attached to our hostel) because that first tour we booked is a sunrise hike to Tikal (famous Mayan ruins featured in Star Wars) and we need to be out the door at 3am.
P.S. Thanks to my cousin Sarah for serving as the tie breaker on whether or not to do a sunrise or sunset tour. Also thanks to Sarah for suggesting that we try fry jacks because they made up a portion of today's breakfast and we enjoyed them a lot.
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