The journey from Palenque to Flores takes around 8 hours and is a combination van, boat, bus adventure, at a cost of $340 pesos. The bus leaves at 6am from El Panchan which is also were I got the ticket from.

I used San Juan travel for the trip and other than a bus mechanical issue it was great (it didn't break down but it was pretty sick by the end of the trip), all of the connections were set up with people waiting for you. The first part of the trip is a 4 hour van ride to Frontera Corozal; where you clear Mexico customs which costs $100 pesos ($10.00 US). Then a 35 minute boat ride down the river, then a climb a steep mud bank to catch the bus for Flores. There are money changers on the bank of the river and you can change pesos to quetzals which is recommended, no banks in Flores will change it for you. You get ripped off a bit but if you are not returning to Mexico it is worth it. 5 minutes into the bus ride you stop at Guatemala customs in Sayaxché they don't check bags you just show your passport and tell them how many days you want, I got 90 just in case I end up staying longer than planned. There is a $40 Quetzals fee to get into Guatemala. Then a 3 1/2 hour bus ride to Flores with a stop at the ATM machine in case you need $'s.

I stayed at Los Amigo's hostel in Flores. It is one of the best hostels I have stayed in. Funky decor with a swing in the lobby and lots of nooks and crannies to hide out in. A 6 person dorm room with private bath is $40 Q and the private rooms are $60 Q. The hostel has a restaurant that is really cheap the average meal is $25 Q - $60 Q and they are huge, mostly vegetarian meals. Beer and blender cocktails that run about $15 Q. This is a very busy place and is usually full, the staff are incredibly helpful and you can book most travel arrangements through them. Check out their web Site for some great travel advice on traveling through Guatemala. If you want to meet people this is the place, as well as the folks I came in with from El Panchan I met a ton of others who it turns out were all going to Tikal the same day. I highly recommend the blender drink with Strawberry juice, Bananas and rum in the huge fishbowl glass.

I booked my trip to the Tikal ruins though the hostel and once again it was via San Juan Travel. The buses leave at various times but I wanted to be up there as early as possible so I booked on the 5am bus which gets you to the ruins when the park opens at 6:30am. The cost was $60 Q including return, you can take whatever bus you want back they run at 12:30pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm and the last one leaves at 6pm. No need to book the return just show up at the bus stop 10 minutes before the bus goes.

The park is very large, I didn't hire a guide but I did purchase a map. It costs $150 Q to get in to the ruins. They are beautiful, it was foggy when we got there so it gave it a very ghostly feeling. The wild life was very active in the morning, I saw howler monkeys, regular monkeys all types of birds and a wart hog looking thing. You get through the park via dirt roads and paths through the jungle, for the most part I took the paths instead of the roads they were way more interesting. There is something about walking through the jungle with no one else around that makes you feel connected with nature. In some cases I would go an hour before running into anyone else. Some of the ruins are incredibly high, number IV and V are particularly scary, 4 is the tallest one but V has the nastiest set of stairs on it. On most of them you don't climb up the stairs of the ruins, they don't want to damage them so they have ladders and stairs up the sides so you can get to the top and sit and enjoy the view. Again with the height issues on both IV and V, I stuck as close to the back wall as I could get. I met a Shaman at Group F who in employed by the park we had a great conversation in Spanglish he was very fascinated with my tattoo and kept poking me in the arm. He had the whole black lips thing which looked a little scary but a super nice man, he took me around and showed me were the howler monkeys where. All of the people who worked for the park were great there were lots of times when I was the only one in the section of ruins and they would walk around with me and try to explain about them. I really have to learn Spanish there is a whole world of info out there I am missing. After 7 hours I had managed to see all of the ruin sites so I headed for the 2pm bus and back to Flores .

 
Flores is a town on an Island, it is very nice and old world. The people are great and the lake is clean so you can swim, it gets very hot there. There are any number of tours you can take including a boat across the lake, renting a canoe etc. There are a lot of restaurants laundry facilities etc. pretty much everything you need is in a 6 block radius. The streets are either stone or dirt and the taxi service is motorized Tuc Tuc's that cost about $5 Q. Just around Flores you don't need them but if you want to go across the bridge to Santa Elena they are a great alternative to walking in the heat.