Flores

Flores stands on the site of Nojpetén, "great island" in the Itza language, which the Spanish called Tayasal. The earliest archaeological traces on the island date from around 900–600 BC, and the settlement grew substantially around AD 250–400. Later the Itza Maya, who had come from the Yucatán, made the island their capital, a planned ceremonial centre with more than twenty temples, plazas and defences laid out across the lake.

Hernán Cortés stopped at the island on his way to Honduras but moved on without attempting a conquest, and the Itza kingdom remained independent until more than 200 years after Columbus first reached the Americas. In 1697 the Spanish attacked by boat and destroyed the city, making it the capital of the last Maya kingdom to fall to the Spanish; many Itza fled. The colonial town of Flores rose from the ruins, and barracks were built on the plaza immediately after the conquest. Because the island has been lived on since before the conquest, it is counted among the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the Americas.

For most of the following centuries Flores was a remote outpost of a sparsely populated department; the first photographs of the town were taken in 1897 by the engineer Claudio Urrutia of the Guatemala–Mexico border commission. It became the capital of Petén. From the 1960s the government offered land in Petén to settlers, and the airport and Tikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, made the town the gateway to the Maya cities of the north.

Flores is the heart of a conurbation that people usually call by its name alone, taking in Santa Elena and San Benito across the causeway. The island's identity is bound up with Nojpetén and the Itza: the name of the lake itself echoes theirs, and the plaza at the top of the island displays Maya sculptures brought from the ruins of Ixlu. Itza Maya, once the language of the island, is now close to extinction, and the village of San José on the north shore is home to its last speakers. Spanish is the common tongue, and since the 1960s, when the government began offering land in Petén to settlers, the department has been shaped by newcomers from other parts of Guatemala.

The church on the hilltop is the cathedral of the Apostolic Vicariate of El Petén, and Catholic and evangelical churches anchor community life, as across the country. The lake is part of daily culture: people swim from the piers on the island's west side, boatmen ferry passengers to the north-shore villages, and evenings are spent on the waterfront watching the sun go down.

Crafts reflect the forest. Carved woodwork, sold along the road between Ixlu and El Remate, is the typical souvenir of Petén, and shops on the island sell textiles and copies of Maya jade masks found in royal tombs. Spanish schools on the island draw students who stay with local families.

Flores shares an urban area with Santa Elena and San Benito on the mainland shore. As the capital of Petén, Flores is the department's administrative centre, and the conurbation concentrates its commerce, services and tourism; the municipality also stretches far north across thinly populated forest to the Mexican border.

Tourism, above all visits to the Maya sites, is the main source of income. On the island, many houses have become hotels, hostels, restaurants and travel agencies selling shuttles to Tikal, Spanish classes and treks to El Mirador. Santa Elena is where most local people shop and work, around the old market, the bus terminals, the banks and a shopping mall at the end of the causeway.

The day starts early. Tikal shuttles leave before dawn to beat the heat, which builds towards the middle of the day, and life on the island moves to the waterfront in the late afternoon. Tuk-tuks buzz between the island and the mainland, and boats take people across the lake to San Miguel and the north-shore villages.

Flores eats much as the rest of Guatemala does, with tortillas at almost every meal, black beans, and tamales for holidays such as Christmas. Lake fish is the local speciality, served in the restaurants along the island's waterfront alongside grilled meats and tortillas. The Petén forests have long supplied chicle, the natural gum gathered from wild trees, and wild honey from the Tikal forest is sold in the town.

The cheapest food is on the mainland. Around Santa Elena's old market, street stalls sell simple meals, and after dark sellers near the bus station grill chicken with spring onions and serve it with tortillas. On the island itself, food stands set up in the central plaza and in the little park halfway along the causeway, and taquerías cluster at the island's entrance.

Licuados, fruit smoothies made with water or milk, are the everyday drink, and Guatemalan coffee is served in the island's cafés. A locally produced habanero chilli sauce is sold in Flores.