Flores ----> Lanquin, Guatemala

One of my least favorite parts of backpacking is the roll-of-the-dice that comes with taking a bus from one town to another.  They tell you its a 4 hour ride and 10 hours later you finally arrive to your destination.  They tell you, "sure, we have AC", and later you find yourself hanging your head out the window to try and catch a hot breeze because, oh sorry, the AC is broken.  You never really know how the trip will go, but it's the only choice if you don't want to spend 3 months sitting in the same city.  

Mike and I joined 15 other people in our bus to travel the 8 hours from Flores to Lanquin.  Surprisingly, there were no surprises.  The ride was beautiful and the only challenge was to pick a new position every 30 minutes so your butt doesn't fall asleep.

We arrived at my favorite hostel so far, El Retiro (thanks Kim!).  They know exactly how to host and how to make you feel at home when you are far from it.  They even went so far to host a massive x-mas eve dinner with stuffing that made me feel like I should be searching the kitchen for my mom; so so good. 

X-Mas lights everywhere in the communal dining room 

Now that I look at it, my plate looks like the size of a car and that roll is legitimately the size of my face. It wasn't far off in real life.  2 Jews, in Guatemala, celebrating X-Mas.   What a combo.