Traveling to Flores / Santa Elena

In the morning we took a long, hot walk to the Castillo de San Felipe (castle), which sits along the Rio Dulce and Lago de Izabal. You can tour the castle for a small price, and it looks like one of the nicer places to swim. (We, or course, did not bring our swimsuits!) This is a really nice castle with beautiful grounds…A very tranquil escape from the noise of Rio Dulce town.

This afternoon, we were off to Flores and Santa Elena, our stop-off point on the way to the Mayan ruins of Tikal. After a 6-hour bus ride, we arrive at the bus stop in Santa Elena and took a taxi to our hotel, the Casona del Lago. This is a beautiful hotel, complete with a pool, hot tub, and a great restaurant! The hotel is in Santa Elena, but sits right on the lake looking out at the island of Flores. I have to say I was pretty excited about the air-conditioning! There was also a small computer station with Internet access.