Rio Dulce

Hey folks. Since the last time I really updated you guys on what´s up I´ve been doing some cool stuff.

Last weekend we got up to the east of Guatemala, to Rio Dulce. I went with five other people, mostly dutch (Rowena, Susana, Roos and Elisa) and one german (Marius), two with were coming back with me to Antigua. The other three went off more yet to the east via Livingstone to Belize or the Peten (far north of Guate). I´m not sure. I probably could make it out of Rowenas postings at waarbenjij.nl (link above) but my dutch is kinda bad.

Anyway. It was great. The trip there Saturday morning was interesting, especially when our shuttle which would bring us there turned out to be only a shuttle to Guatemala Ciudad, where we had to get on a public (hmpfh!) bus. It was an experience though, I especially liked the little preacher girl. Nobody seemed to care about her, but when she was finished they threw money at her. Praise the lord. :)

Well in Rio Dulce we got a nice hotel for the night, Tortugal. It was 90Q for a double room, so we paid 45Q per person. Quite affordable for a really good hotel.

During the saturday afternoon we took a small boat to Finca Paraiso. They had natural hot tubs. The small lagoon was cold, but the waterfall going in to it was really hot. We also climbed up to be able to lie in the hot water. Cool stuff!

Sunday during the day Elise, Roos and I tried to figure out how we could be able to go to this place Quirigua without missing our bus home. They left really early, at 3.30 I think. It turned out we could go by shuttle all the way home, as it was going there anyway (didn´t stop them from charging 25 dollars though). The shuttle was leaving at three though, and we didn´t expect to be back from Quirigua until four or so. This is when the shuttle driver decides he can pick us up along the way. If we leave at four from Quirigua (to Rio Dulce) and he at three from Rio Dulce (to Antigua, passing Quirigua), we would pass eachother on the way, as it´s a 1.5 hour distance. Apparently the drivers would then recognize eachother, stop right wherever we would be and switch shuttles.

Sounds bound to fail, with northern ears. The Guatemaltecans didn´t seem worried though...

I´m actually quite sad we didn´t get the chance to see if the plan would work or not, as we were back at two already. Quirigua turned out to be interesting, but much smaller than expected, so we did it in an hour and called it a day.

Quirigua is this Mayan place, with obelisks and big stones representing dead (obviously) mayan leaders, and a temple ruin. As I probably won´t go up to the really big Mayan leavings in Tikal or so it´s good to have visited it. I will soon put pics online. Until then, Rowena (link above) has already done so. Check it out!

Well. I´ll have to return to you on other stuff I´ve been up to, and my plans for the future. Dinner soon!