Guatemala
Central America

From Las Lagunas after checkout, you can catch a ride back to Flores island and check in to your new hotel there. We stayed at Hotel Casa Amelia and it was fine for one night. The room was quite plain but clean enough. There is no AC but you can open the window at night and the view from the window in the morning over the lake is beautiful. The location was great right on Flores island across from the water and close by a ton of other restaurants and bars. While on Flores island I would suggest eating at Restaurante Raices which had a yummy lemonade with soda (which was blended like a slushie!), great tacos, and a great burger. It is also right on the water and you can watch fish and turtles swim in the water below you as you eat. Dona Goya has a great breakfast - you can sit on the top deck for a nice view of the water, and Skybar is a cool rooftop bar with good drink deals for Happy Hour and a beautiful view of the sunset. One thing to note about Guatemala in general as well is they speak predominantly Spanish. Of course this may seem obvious but we have been spoiled in our past travels to countries without English as the first language because they always seem to speak English anyways! But not here. At least, not everywhere here. There were many bars, restaurants, and hotels that had menus, instructions, or staff that speak in Spanish only. So, my advice would be to brush up on your Spanish before you go, or make sure to have Google Translate handy. 

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I would suggest to plan for just one full day on Flores island. With the island being quite small one day is enough time to explore the entire island, and its surroundings. You can start with walking around the island itself, which takes about 15 mins from end to end, and a little longer if you want to explore the different side streets and shops in between. After exploring the majority of the island itself, you may be ready to expand your exploration to the waters surrounding Flores. There are many longtail-type boats available for hire to explore the lake and surrounding area - they all just float in the water along the side of Flores and you can go up to one and bargain a price for your destination when you are ready to go. I would suggest to  go to a nearby rope swing spot called Jorge's rope swing, a hike to a viewpoint called El Mirador Del Ray Canek hike, and to the local animal sanctuary which was across the lake. These three stops and a ride home should cost about 50Q for the boat and driver which translates to about $10 CAD for the day. You can start with Jorge's rope swing which is so much fun and a highly recommended stop. It was free to visit and there were multiple rope swings at different heights into the lake, along with a small bar serving cool (not cold, but cool) drinks and a few small snacks. You just tell your boat driver how long you plan to spend here, and he will leave and come back to pick you up at the agreed upon time. We stayed here for 2 hours and that was a perfect amount of time. This was the best stop of the three, so it would be best to spend the most time here.You can then continue on then to the hike, it is in the San Miguel area which is just a few mins by boat from Jorge's. The hike is short and sweet with just a 10 min walk up a semi-steep hill to the viewpoint. While we were there the tower was under construction so it was a little lack luster, but it was interesting to do and a little exercise never hurt anybody. Lastly, if it interests you, you can visit the ARCAS animal sanctuary. Again, like everything in Flores it is fairly small and old, but very reasonably priced. We had a good time here and spent about 40 mins visiting with the animals. We saw a few big cats, some crocodiles, turtles, birds and lots of friendly monkeys. There is a larger, slightly more expensive zoo called the Petencito Zoo close by as well if you feel like seeing more animals.