Alone and Dirty in Flores

Following the ruins, Kristin and Melissa flew home out of the town of Flores. Which meant, that for the first time ever, I was completely alone in a foreign country trying to get along with my sad little broken Spanish. Immediately, I needed to call a taxi. I knew I had seen a lot of little red taxis around, but I had no idea how to call one. I asked the security guard. Like this:
"Taxi?"
"ok." He looked around but did nothing.
"Poquito rojo?" (That means little red.)
He laughed and whistled at one for me. Whew!!!
I got in the tut-tut. I was charged about $3 to get to the hostel I was hoping to stay at. They were full. So I called ANOTHER tut-tut who drove me 2 blocks to "Los Amigos," where we had originally planned to stay. I was meeting two other girls from our group here, who had taken the bus from Guatemala City. He charged me $3, too. I was mad, but I don't know how to argue well in Spanish. Dang it all. t
Los Amigos Hostel is hands-down the scariest place I have ever stayed in my life. It cost about $7 a night to stay there. I'm pretty sure it had never seen bleach in it's life. Prior to this stay, I liked to think about myself as kind of a hippie. Here I realized that is a flat-out joke. I may dress comfy and be laid back, but I shower far too often, talk too clean, and do not smoke nearly enough pot to be a good hippie. They had hammocks here, that I was excited about from the website, but I wouldn't touch these. At all. At all, at all. My room was basically in the lobby and I shared it with 9 other people. yep. nine. Well, at least I got a top bunk. And I told myself the sheets were cleaned and hunkered down. I am so grateful I can sleep anywhere.
So- the reason I stayed here was that the two girls I was meeting here were extremely cost-conscious. But they were nice, and we actually had a blast, so here we were. And, luckily, for only one night.
We did eat dinner across the street at a place that was absolutely phenomenol. Best $3 taco ever and the strawberry smoothie was the best I've ever had. We also went to a movie theater (not my idea!) and watched Batman in English with Spanish subtitles. It left me thinking that's not such a bad way to learn Spanish.
Breakfast also was incredible. For less than $10, I had granola and yogurt with papaya, mango, and pineapple and scrambled eggs. One girl was a little upset that I had ordered it because our bus was scheduled to leave in 15 minutes, but, um, I was starving, and I had been in Guatemala long enough to know I had plenty of time. Plus, I would have been all kinds of irritable on a five hour bus ride with no breakfast. But I got it to go and we all shared and it was all good :-)

Eryn enjoying her taco. mmmmm......

The place had a cool vibe if it wasn't just so dirty-feeling

Every sheet you see is an entrance to a room......

The incredible breakfast!

Eryn and the cool street outside the hostel