We arrive to Río Dulce by car from Tikal which is about a 4 hour drive. The mileage is not that high but the roads aren’t great, although in fairness they’re better than what we had to endure the last couple of days. We pass through a number of towns including the town of Dolores. and see some nice scenery.
Río Dulce is not the prettiest of towns, the draw are the river front properties that we are heading for. We get out of the car to wait for a boat to take us to our hotel and we have a little look around.
Our hotel is no more than a five minute boat trip down the river and is called Hotel Tortugal.
We’re not hungry enough for lunch so we get a tea and coffee and a piece of coconut cake at the very cool open bar/restaurant area.
We are staying in “playa 3” which is a small bungalow with a patio and a hammock looking out onto the water.
There are wooden walkways connecting the river front to the back of the property so we take a walk around.
Later in the evening, after a G&T sundowner on our deck, we have a really good dinner in the restaurant, a whole mojarra river fish. It’s delicious and that garlic bread is fab!
Next morning we are taking a private boat trip to Livingston. Our captain doesn’t have any English so this is going to be fun!!
We sail in front of Fort San Felipe which was built in the 17th century in an attempt to stop the continuous pirate attacks. It looks so nice in the sunshine and it’s lovely and relaxing in the boat.
Further along we sail through a canyon and as we slow down and hug the wall there is fresh water running into the river.
We stop at some hot springs and are able to have a dip. The water feels close to boiling coming from the hole in the cave but as it mixes with the river water coming in, it’s very comfortable.
There are many little turn offs on the lake and we enter an area like a little cul de sac with some beautiful properties on the water and some gorgeous water lilies.
We circle “bird island” and see so many birds such as cormorants, gulls and pelicans all happily hanging out together. Back on the shore side there are many decks for the birds to perch on.
It’s quite a distance to Livingston, which can only be reached by boat and which apparently is one of the most interesting villages in Guatemala. Its atmosphere appears much more in tune with Jamaica or the Honduran Bay Islands than the Central American mainland.
The history of this small river town comes from its population of the ethnic group called Garifuna who are descendants of black slaves.
We go to a Garifuna restaurant to try their famous dish – tapado. It is a coconut soup made with plantain, green bananas, fish, shrimp and crab. It’s really tasty. We also try fritters made with green banana which are also very good and served with delicious fresh prawns.
We walk around the town for a couple of hours and soak up the atmosphere. Again there are very few tourists and nobody hassles us. There’s plenty of reggae vibes and it feels like a very chill place, poor and dilapidated but with happy people going about their day.
Back on the boat it will be about an hour and a half to get back to the hotel. Our captain cuts into a couple of fresh coconuts so we have delicious coconut water for the journey home.
I’m really enjoying this boat ride.
Back at the hotel we chill out on the patio and after a quick call home from the hammock (gotta check on the folks) we have dinner again in the open air restaurant. It’s fairly busy this evening, plenty of people coming in, some from boats they’ve moored and others from other hotels.
Next day we have brekkie at the hotel and say goodbye to Angela, who seems to run this place (she’s a South African with a yacht moored nearby!) and get the boat back to the harbour. There we meet our new driver, Cecil and I think he’s my favourite so far. He is really smiley and he has a little English so between his English and Shane’s Spanish we are able to communicate very well.
We drive over the big concrete bridge and it’s about an hour and a half to the ruins of Quiriguá. These ruins are famous for their stone carvings, and stone stelae. The site is just off the main road and there is a massive banana plantation on either side that goes on for miles. Cecil tells us that these are bananas for export.
We explore the site ourselves and see the site’s largest stela which is 8 meters (25ft) tall and depicts Cauac Sky who was the Mayan leader of Quirigia and is depicted here crowned with an elaborate headdress.
There are 10 other stelae in the plaza, a small acropolis to the south, and a ball court. The carvings are fantastic and we see images of frogs, turtles, jaguars, and snakes, and a Buddha-like figure on Zoomorph P (a zoomorph is a word used to describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals).
As we walk through the park we see a row of ants carrying leaves. I’ve never seen this before and it is mesmerising to watch.
More ancient beautifully carved stellae.
After a couple of hours back on the road, we stop at a little town called El Rosario and the driver pulls into what looks like a truck stop but then he brings us into what looks like a hotel reception and out the back is a very modern resort called Valle Dorado. The lemonades were giant and the food was really good.
We are now crossing the border into Honduras but we’ll be back to Guatemala in a couple of days. See you in the next instalment!
odohertyelaine 