TRAVEL | GUATEMALA | TRAVEL DESTINATIONS
F is for Flores — My A-Z Of Favorite Travel Destinations
A unique city in Northern Guatemala.
Prior to leaving Canada to travel full-time in 2017, my all-time favorite F destination would have been Fiji. I wrote about Fiji in Globetrotters back when we were writing about celebrations. I celebrated the turning of the millennium in Fiji, and it was a fantastic experience.
But now that we have spent time in other F destinations, there is certainly one that takes up an equally fond place in my heart.
That place is Flores, Guatemala.
In 2018 we left Nicaragua because a civil war had broken out in the country. We fled south to Costa Rica and spent a month in Samara healing from our traumatizing ordeal. It was there that we met our German friend Nico who had also done the same thing. Some of you may recall reading about Nico in my other writing, as he visited us in Morocco in 2020 and also Bulgaria in 2022.
The three of us would occasionally sit around in the hostel and try to figure out where we were going to go next. Our orbits had been turned upside down with the happenings in Nicaragua, and we were all trying to re-orient ourselves. It was in speaking with Nico one day that the idea to go to Flores was born.
Because we had a housesit lined up in Livingston, Guatemala later that year, we figured that heading up to Guatemala was likely the best bet. As I was looking up flights one day I noticed that we could fly into Flores.
Flores is ‘flowers’ in Spanish, so my interest was piqued already. ‘What a nice name for a place,’ I thought.
“Awe, we can fly into a place named Flores,” I announced to Chris.
Nico perked up immediately, “Oh yes, Flores is beautiful. Then you can visit Tikal.” He had spent a bunch of time exploring that area on a previous trip he had made to Central America.
He then went into a bit of an exuberant dialogue about why Flores is a great spot and all the places that we could visit near the city.
But I didn’t really hear any of that. I was stuck on Tikal.
Some have said that Tikal was once the capital city of the Mayan empire. I knew basically nothing about it at that time, but the name triggered something in me.
Somehow, someway, when he mentioned Tikal, it brought up some sort of strange past memory. Had I seen pictures of Tikal and vowed to visit someday? Had I lived a past life as a Mayan? Something was so familiar.
I was certainly intrigued, and it seemed that our plans were finally set. We would fly from San Jose, Costa Rica to Flores, Guatemala. After spending a month at the same hostel in Samara, we were well-healed and ready for a new adventure.
I should mention that it was in this hostel in Samara that we painted our first-ever mural project. That project would evolve into what would become Artistic Voyages a couple of years later.
We arrived in Flores after sunset and were a bit nervous about how we would get to the hotel that we had booked. We knew that it was across the water from the city, and we would have to take a boat across. I worried that the boats wouldn’t be running in the night, but my fears were unfounded, of course.
As our taxi from the tiny airport made its way across the causeway to the Island of Flores we couldn’t help but already be enthralled with what we were seeing. Flores is a tiny island that sits in Lake Peten Itza, Guatemala’s third largest lake. It is home to roughly 14 000 people and operates as the capital city of the country's most northern department, El Petén.
The tiny and narrow streets of the island had us enthralled, as did the numerous fires and grills that were glowing orange along the sides of the roads. We could already smell the delicious food cooking, and we could feel the happy and upbeat vibe of the residents on this busy evening.
We stared out the windows wide-eyed and intrigued. This had a very different feel to it than what we had left in Costa Rica.
“This is so cool!” I announced to Chris. He heartily agreed.
The taxi whisked us to the edge of the lake and we told a man with a boat where we were staying at in San Miguel, the community on the other side. He understood where we were going and our luggage was transferred to the boat. After just a short 5-minute crossing and a couple of dollars worth of Quetzals, the Guatemalan currency, we were unloading our bags at our hotel's doorstep.
The next day we wasted no time in heading back over to Flores to do some exploring. It’s safe to say that we fell in love with Flores immediately and decided that we wanted to stay a while. We made fast friends with some ex-pats that were hanging out at San Telmo Restaurant and Cafe, and started telling them what our intentions were.
We needed a house to rent if we were to stay a while.
Our request went out amongst the people that we met but nothing seemed to be coming our way in the beginning. After about 4 days we started to feel like this just wasn’t meant to be. We tend to operate in a way that if things fall into place, then it is meant to be. If they don’t, then we move on.
We made plans to leave the next day and head to El Remate, a small community that sits at the other end of Lake Peten Itza, and much closer to Tikal. From there we would go and explore the ancient city, then would decide where to move to after that.
The afternoon before leaving, Chris went to visit a local tattoo artist in his shop and I went back to San Telmo Restaurant to use the wifi and get some online work done. I ran into one of our friends that we had made and he was talking to Guatemalan a woman. I sat down with them and joined in on their conversation.
After about a minute Bill looked at me with wide eyes, “Oh, this lady is leaving her house and needs somebody to live in it.” Until he saw me again, he had forgotten that we were looking for a place.
I quickly went and got Chris and we made arrangements to go to the house to check it out that evening. It was located just behind our hotel, across the water, so we were familiar with the neighborhood and really liked it over there because it was quieter than the bustling island.
It was a 2 bedroom house that was sparsely furnished but it had 2 double beds and a big dining room table, plus a couple of hammocks hanging on the large front porch. The price was $225/month plus a small amount for electricity and water that we had to go into the city and pay each month.
The timing was perfect because she was set to move out in the next couple of days. With us heading to El Remate, the exchange could happen when we returned. We were thrilled!
Thus started roughly 4 months of us living in Flores.
Over the course of our time there, we would visit Tikal 3 different times. I was as thrilled with visiting this magical place as I thought I would be, and I couldn’t seem to get enough of it. I truly imagined myself living in the stunning temples and city labyrinths. Amazingly, only 16 square kilometers of Tikal have been uncovered, but they believe that it is much, much larger in size.
In fact, most of Northern Guatemala and Southern Mexico is covered in Mayan ruins, but some believe that Tikal was known as the capital city. Like most of these ancient civilizations, they don’t really know why people left, though there are theories, of course.
The season that we stayed in Flores brought the Golondrinas to the city. They are a type of swallow that migrates from Canada to Central America, and they arrive in huge clouds. Every day as sunset would near, we would hear their cries and would look out over the lake to see thousands of them flying into the city to sleep on the electrical wires. It was an awe-inspiring sight and we took great joy in watching them arrive every day.
While in Flores we also took care of a tiny little kitten for a friend of ours. She was the owner of San Telmo Restaurant, and she was leaving the city for a couple of weeks. Her plan was to just leave it with her staff, hoping that they would feed it and take care of it for her. We had already witnessed how little anyone paid attention to it, so we offered to take it to our house and care for it for the time she was away.
She agreed and we were thrilled.
Her name was Ix, which is pronounced eesh. It is the Mayan word for jaguar and let me tell you the name certainly fit her feisty mood. She loved to attack and bite at our ankles, hands, and anything else that she could get her little teeth around. She really entertained us and we had so much fun taking care of her.
Sadly after we returned her to her owner, then left for a trip to Mexico, she ran across the road and was hit and killed by a car. I cried for a whole day over that one.
We got our second mural painting gig at San Telmo Restaurant as well. From the second-story bar, we had a stunning view over Lake Peten Itza and spent many hours painting symbolism that depicted the plant medicines of Ayahuasca and Peyote, as requested by the owner.
We had a lovely time in Flores and made many wonderful friends that we continue contact with today. If we were ever to return to Central America, visiting Flores would certainly be high on our list.
And if you are considering heading to Guatemala, we definitely recommend stopping in at this underrated, yet spectacular city, on your way to Tikal.
This post is part of the A-Z Favorite Destinations posts that were started by Sam Millichap. Many others are also taking part in this challenge including Adrienne | Anne | Jerry | Nishan | Ronald | Michael | Dan | Robert | Darren
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