Flores Island

About this place

A pretty little town on a round island in Lake Petén Itzá, joined to the mainland by a short causeway. It is the capital of Petén and the usual base for Tikal and Yaxhá. Houses painted blue, yellow and pink line cobbled lanes climbing to a small square at the island's crown, where a white twin-domed cathedral stands. The island was the site of Nojpetén, capital of the Itza Maya, the last independent Maya kingdom, which held out until the Spanish took it in 1697, a century and a half after most of the region had fallen. A lakeside promenade loops around the island in about half an hour, lined with restaurants and cafés looking over the water, loveliest at sunset as the lake and sky colour. From the dock, boats cross to San Miguel village opposite, the La Potrona lookout and a small animal refuge. In some years the lake rises and floods the promenade and the lower streets. Petén is a vast, thinly populated region, so travel by day on tourist shuttles or known tours, and keep away from the Mexican border areas.