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FLORES, RIO DULCE & LIVINGSTON, GUATEMALA - APRIL 2 - 9

Guatemala will be my 2nd border crossing and I'm not sure what to expect. It's a short bus ride from San Ignacio to the border and I breeze right through. When I left Mexico there was a $20US fee to exit the country and I find that there is a $20US exit fee again and only payable in Blz or US currency. Luckily, a cabbie warned me so I saved some Blz dollars before exchanging my money at the boarder for Guatemalan Quetzals. There is quite a change the second I cross the border; in Belize there are very few peddlers who approach you, in Guatemala it is a free for all. The taxi drivers are the most aggressive, they all want to drive me to Flores and ignore my requests to get a ride to the bus station. I finally find one that agrees to take me to the bus station for 100Qtz ($1.30US). It's less than a 5 minute drive and the whole way he is trying to convince me to hire him to drive me to Flores, my lack of Spanish ends up being an advantage and I just keep saying "Estacion de autobus por favor." He drops me off and I am soon on my way in a 12 person van with about 20 people crammed in, luckily I grabbed the front seat and 3 hours later for less than a eighth of what a taxi would have cost I'm in Flores.

Flores is a small island in Lake Peten Itza connected to its sister city called Santa Elena by a bridge. The main reason I'm going there is that the Mayan ruins of Tikal are only an hour away. Flores is beautiful with small cobblestone streets, a walkway around the perimeter and a real European feel, but it is smoking hot, around 39C and about 85% humidity without any wind. I decide to splurge a bit for a room ($30US) at the Casa Amelia which has AC, what a good decision. I take a walk on the walkway around the island admiring the views which takes about 30 minutes and my 100% cotton shirt is just soaked in sweat. I soon learn that I am only confortable in 100% polyster no sweat type shirts. Luckily most my T-shirts and golf shirts are that style, before I leave Flores I get rid of all but 1 cotton short sleeved shirt because they are unwearable in this heat.

The lake is great for swimming and other than booking a tour to Tikal for the next morning, I spend the rest of the day lounging around on a dock reading and swimming. That evening I have dinner at a nice restaurant patio overlooking the lake. Still there is no breeze and it is at least 36 or 37C and I can't eat quick enough as the sweat just drips off me and as the beers go down. Ahhhh, I'm so glad my room has AC.

I'm up the next morning at 4:30AM as my bus leaves for Tikal at 5:00AM. Somehow, I have lost my ticket again, I can't believe it. The bus driver makes a stop at his tour office right on the way and this time I can't sweet talk my way through the lost ticket and the big boss sells me another ticket; albeit at a heavily negotiated rate ($12.00US). We get to Tikal at about 6:00AM and we start a guided tour with our guide Boris. Quite a few Guatemalans have Russian first names which is a remnant of the civil war that ended in 1996, the rebels were supported by Russia. I'm so glad I was advised to go on the early tour, by 7:00AM it is already getting hot and it feels like it will be another scorcher. Tikal is another large Mayan city which peaked at over 150,000 in around 800AD. It was rediscovered around 1880 and the entire jungle throughout the 10 square mile ruins was cut down. You would never have known it now as the jungle is tall and thick. As we walk a km or 2 through the jungle to get to the ruins, we see many Spider Monkeys in the trees around us and then we come across a large family group of Coatimundis which are just like Raccoons only with a long noses and long tails that are often sticking straight up. Tikal is awesome with huge pyramids, the first of which we climb up on via a wooden staircase. The view of the jungle is incredible with a number of other temples and pyramids sticking up through the jungle, check out my gallery for photos. Unlike Caracol, Tikal has been left pretty much in the original condition as it was found, the few building that have been uncovered have not been restored to their original condition and in general, we are not able to walk up any of the large pyramid stairs as they are in very poor condition although there are wooden staircases up to the top of several of the pyramids.

It is quickly getting very hot and crowded. It is the start of "Holy Week" to celebrate Easter and 6000 people are expected to visit the ruins that day. The Great Plaza is the highlite of Tikal with 2 huge pyramids built across from each. One is called the Temple of the Jaguar which was built in honour of the city's emperor and he built a matching one for his wife although some say they are twin temples to honour the Sun and the Moon. There is also the Temple of the Mask and a large Palace for the royal family. By now it was approaching noon and also in the high 30ies, so I decided to catch the 12:30PM bus back to Flores as the lake was pretty inviting. The next day was a maintenance day to get some laundry done and update my blog for Belize. Again there was no wind and it was cooking out. I was glad to be leaving the next morning for Rio Dulce but worried this kind of heat & humidity was going to be the norm.

One thing about Guatemala, there is a huge military presence everywhere you go. In Tikal it was amazing to see both regular soldiers and special forces in full fatigues with body armour walking around the ruins carrying machine guns, assault rifles and shotguns. The special forces were in all black which must have been extremely hot. I even took some photos of them climbing one of the pyramid staircases which is more like a ladder. They were not very good at keeping the barrel of their guns facing a safe direction as the climbed up and down the stairs. On the roads, in cities and in villages, you will see military personal everywhere often in pickup trucks with a large mounted machine gun in the back.

On April 5th, I caught a bus SW to Rio Dulce which is at the east side of Lago Izubal, the largest lake in Gutemala near the Caribbean coast. The bus was a modern coach style bus but the AC could not keep up with the heat. None of the windows would open and it was a sweltering 3 hour ride. I went to my first choice of hotels (it was also a marina) based on my guide book recommendations and they were completely full because of Holy Week. Apparently Holy Week is a national holiday and many Guatemalans will travel that week. One of the friendly staff offered to make some calls to other hotels as she commented that most other hotels would also be full. After about 6 calls, I started to get a bit nervous but then she found a place that said they had a "bed" available. I said OK and she arranged for the El Tortugal Marina to send a boat to pick me up. Her last words to me was "Sir, take whatever they have as it may be the last room in Rio Dulce." My bed was under a thatched roof on a floor built right above the dock. It was a cross shaped area with 3 other beds. Each bed was tucked into an end of each arm of the cross and had mosquito netting as the whole thing was an open design with no walls. There were shared bathrooms and showers a short walk down below. There was a nice bar and restaurant on a patio overlooking the river. The temperature was a good 5 or 6 degrees cooler than Flores and there was a nice breeze. There were about a dozen sailboats in the 35 - 45 foot range docked in the Marina and most of the boat owners and crew were from the US or Canada. Apparently Rio Dulce is the best place on the Caribbean side of Central America to leave a boat during hurricane season. It is 20km up river from the ocean which keep boats safe from any ocean surge.

There are dozens of marinas along the river including one with a boat lift so you can leave your boat on the hard during hurricane season if you choose. It is one of the only places where your insurance will be valid during hurricane season. Most of the boaters at El Tortugal were there to prepare their boats for moorage during hurricane season after spending the last 4 or 5 months in the Caribbean. I quickly met many of the friendly boaters including Michelle from Texas and Susan from Prague but once again I discover it's a small world. I met a couple from Nova Scotia on a boat called Madcap named Jim Bisell and Beth Lusby who lived in Vancouver quite a few years ago. When I told them I lived in Deep Cove, they asked me if I knew Geoff and Marilyn Thorpe who were good friends of theirs and the Thorpes had lived right next to our house on Panorama Drive and had know my whole family for as long as I can remember. I ended up staying 3 nights at El Tortugal since I did not want to try and find another hotel during Holy Week but I was able to upgrade to a private room for the last 2 nights. There was not much to see in Rio Dulce but there is an old Spanish Fort just up the river guarding the entrance to the lake from pirates. The fort is call El Casitillo and was basically destroyed by these pirates in the 1700s before being rebuilt over a hundred years later.

On April 8th, I catch a morning water taxi to Livingston on the Caribbean coast. It is beautiful travelling down the Rio Dulce, about half the trip is down a winding river while the other half is through a large lake. There are many Pelicans and Egrets along the way and the last part of the river is through a wonderful gorge. Livingston is a small village only acessible by water. It is a unique community in Guatemala as it was settled by escaped slaves from the Caribbean Islands along with some native indiginous Guatemalans, these people are known as the Garifuna.

I book a couple of nights accomodations at the Casa Rosada which is right on the water and has a nice little bar and restaraunt. That night I go have a chicken, rice and bean dinner with a beer at one of the restaraunts the locals favour, it costs me $5US and it was pretty good. The next morning I go on a boat tour to the waterfalls of Siete Altares and to Playa Blanca along with a mother and son from Switzerland. Siete Altares would have been nice if it wasn't the dry season and the river was completely dry, so after a short hike we are off to Playa Blanca which is supposed to be the nicest beach on the Caribbean side of Guatemala. The beach is OK but I've seen much nicer ones but we are all dying for a swim after our hike up the river. I have never been in such warm water in my life. It's like swimming in a warm bath. The water is also very silted, you can't see your feet when you are standing in water up to your knees. Guatemala only has a small section of Caribbean coast but 3 rivers flow into the Caribbean which causes the water to be very silted and not the Caribbean blue we are all used to. I guess this is why there is very little tourism in this part of Guatemala and no large beachside resorts. It's still a nice relaxing day at the beach until a storm starts rolling in from nearby Belize. My new Swiss friends and I try to convince the boat captain to leave 45 minutes early before the storm hits to hard but he seems unconcerned and does not want to leave. Now the wind starts to come up and the ocean is starting to get rough but we don't actaully leave for another 1.5 hours which is 45 minutes later than scheduled. By then the waves are 4 - 6 feet with whitecaps all around and we have to pound are way straight into the teeth of the storm. The ride back to Livingston should have taken 45 minutes but instead takes 2 hours. It's an open style boat that you see everywhere in the Caribbean and we all get soaked on the ride back. That evening I have dinner at my hotel. Anyone planning on eating at the restaraunt places their order by 5:00PM and the kitchen only cooks those items. Luckily I had placed my order before the trip to Playa Blanca because I was not back until 6:00PM. Dinner sarts with a coleslaw salad with a very good olive oil based dressing. I odered the local specialty which is a coconut based soup with a whole fish, a whole fresh water crab (about 5" wide) and many large prawns and it is incredibly tastey. Mas had told me to take pictures of the food and I should have taken a picture of this. Dinner ended with some delicious lemon meringue pie.

The more rural areas of Guatemala are very poor with half the country living in poverty. It is not unusual to see women washing clothes in a river. Both Rio Dulce and Livingston have built in a central clothes washing area in town. It is an open square with numerous masonary washboards built in with running water. Whether it was 6:00AM or the middle of the day, these wash areas were always full. It was not unusual to see a small pick-up with a fenced in flatbed with 15 to 20 people riding in it standing. These trucks drive around and charge about 50 cents for a ride. Many of the locals drive scooters and they are everywhere. The people of Guatemala are very friendly and it is not unsual to have a local approach you and strike up a conversation. Unfortunately, my Spanish skills don't allow me to have much of a conversation and most locals don't speak English which will be the norm for most of my travelling. There are Spanish classes offered in many of the cities and towns and I think I may take a week of lessons (4 hours/day for 7 days) for about $60US.

I plan to spend a couple of more weeks in Guatemala going to Antigua, Lake Atitlan, Coban and the Pacific coast before heading to El Salvador and then Honduras. Bye for now.