Central America: Flores

For the trip into Guatemala and onto Flores we were serenaded by the sounds of a mix CD...much to my amusement, we got to hear Kenny Rogers, Air Supply, The Bangles, Lionel Ritchie, and the Eagles several times over. The driver seemed to really love it, it must have played fully 4 times! We made it across the relatively short distance, but it took a long time. The roads are an interesting mix of crushed limestone, dirt, pavement, and lots of potholes. The speed limit on the straight stretches of road was 80 Km, but we were crawling along. I understand why, after all some of the potholes could swallow you pretty nicely. At times, the van actually drove OFF of the road, on the shoulder, because that was in better shape. Huh. Well, it´s always nice to slow down and check things out, right?
Flores is a little island, with a road around the whole perimeter and then several steep roads going to the center, it's kind of a big hill. The roads are all one way, and I witnessed an amusing thing that happened to an oversized truck. The truck was trying to get down the hill from the center plaza, and cars were parked on one side of the narrow street. Because the truck was one of those supersized SUV type things, and this town is obviously better suited for rickshaws and small vehicles, it got stuck between the curb on one side and a car on the other. A group of guys actually had to pick up the car and move it as close to the curb as possible (the cars owner was not around, so it couldn't be driven to safety). Then someone got into the car and held the mirror back so it wouldn't scrape the side of the truck. In the meantime, on the other side were two poles and another curb. The truck made it by about an inch and a half. It took at least 6 people to get the SUV out of that predicament. Oh, the cars stuck behind that truck were so mad!
Today is some sort of festival. Heck, maybe every day is some sort of festival, I have no idea. There was a little parade that made their way around that perimeter road a few times, every once in awhile stopping to dance for the crowd or toss fireworks into the street.
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I may look like I am ok (do I?) but today was actually the hardest day for me. From the moment I woke up, I have been dealing with little incidents that have either bothered me a little, bothered me a lot, made me want to cry, or pissed me off. There was a misunderstanding about the van to pick us up, and where to bring our luggage. I had cold, dry white toast for breakfast, and then 20 minutes later finally got butter and tea. There was a a misunderstanding about my food bill at the Trek Stop, and despite having been the first one to go pay my bill without being asked, no one remembered that I had done so and as we were leaving there was some fuss over that. The border crossing was stressful for me. We are supposed to pretend that we are just small bunches of friends going across by ourselves, because our guide is not licensed/registered to work in these countries. As a result, we are kinda on our own and although it's not rocket science, it can be difficult at times to understand which long line you need to stand in NEXT. And today there were three separate lines and two of them required payments in a combination of currencies because I didn't have enough of one or the other to cover it. Finally arriving at the hotel, I was given a small room by myself, awesome! But then a couple of hours later the guide told me I needed to pack up and move in with Claudia, because her roommate had moved in with 2 other girls...blah blah blah. I was ok with that (not thrilled, I would always prefer to be alone) but I went. As soon as I opened the door to the room, the mildew smell just about knocked me over. I am usually NOT a complainer about the places I sleep. Really. I'm not. I slept with bedbugs before, and thought it was kinda funny. But I had a mildew-y room in India for 2 nights and for the rest of the trip everything I owned smelled like that. I was not going to stay in a room that was as bad as this one. I got moved back to my original room, by myself, the other girls rearranged themselves and all is well. But the stress finally got to me and I cracked. I have spent the last several hours pointedly ALONE, with earplugs in, and reading a new book.