An apartment and school… or not

After 8 weeks living on the road between hotels and some camping to say that I was excited about having an apartment where we were going to spend 3 to 4 weeks, especially one on a lake, in a hot area where Fritz could go to school would be a bit of an understatement.  We had chosen the school in Flores precisely because they had an apartment, there were other schools in San Pedro where we could have a bungalow but even though this was more than twice the money, I really wanted to have an apartment.

We arrived at the school around 2 in the afternoon, the drive had been long and we had gone from the temperate climate of the mountains (63 when we left) to the heat of Paten (93 when we arrived).   At first we couldn’t find the school, we saw the signs but when we walked in it was a café.  After going in and out a couple of times I finally asked the girl behind the counter where the school was and were informed the school was upstairs.  I asked if the director was there and she said no one would be back until 7 PM, I then explained that we were there to get an apartment and that Fritz would be starting school the next day so if she could call the director and let her know that we were here we would greatly appreciate it, unfortunately the phone was out, so she suggested we come back at 3, when someone else would get there, and they could take us to the apartment.  I changed clothes in the bathroom while Fritz gave the dogs some water and then we had a beer while we waited.  Around 3:30 the other worker arrived and after a bit of a discussion we all hopped in our truck (me in the back with dogs) and drove to the apartment.  

 

The tour of the place lasted about 30 seconds, it was a room, no kitchen, a card table with three folding chairs, no closet or dressers and three extra small single beds, oh and the dirtiest bathroom I have ever been in.  In a less than polite manner I explained that this was not going to work for us, the girl who had brought us very kindly said that she would see what she could do and left, I thought to find the director so we could figure out a solution.  Less than an hour later she was back, not with the director but with a portable stove and a bottle of water explaining that she could make us a kitchen, when I (less than politely) explained again that for this amount of money we expected more and that this was really, really less than acceptable and that the director should really be there to explain to me what had happened, she shrugged and said basically “take it or leave it” so we left it.

Luckily we were able to find a hotel right across the street from the school, with air conditioning (not in the apartment), a lake view (not in the apartment), wifi (not in the apartment) and a sitting area (not in the apartment) for less money. 

 

Thoroughly disappointed, frustrated as well as hot and still not feeling well, we came up with a new plan, we would see Tikal, drive back to Semuc Champey and the Candelaria Caves then check out the bungalows in San Pedro.  The next afternoon we headed up to Tikal, we thought that we would spend the night at the Jaguar Inn so we could get to the ruins really early the next morning and then head out.  An hour later we were informed that under no circumstances could we take the dogs to Tikal (would have been nice before the 60 kilometer drive but oh well).  So back to the hotel, paddle boarding on the lake and at 6 am the next morning we were on our way.