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 :-)
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| Eryn enjoying her taco. mmmmm...... |
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| The place had a cool vibe if it wasn't just so dirty-feeling |
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| Every sheet you see is an entrance to a room...... |
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| The incredible breakfast! |
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| Eryn and the cool street outside the hostel |
We drove into Belize City, which is not cool and is kind of scary, but does have $3 fried chicken and a very interesting mix of cultures. Like Asian and Creole and Jamaican. Fun times. And they speak English, which was a welcome relief. From Belize City, it's about 40 minutes on a "water taxi" to Caye Caulker (which was also like $5). It was so fun watching the water turn from brownish to kind of green to incredible turquoise. 
I did my laundry at a laundromat at 7am and hung it out to dry. 
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:
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.
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 :-)
