Xela- San Pedro- Rio Dulce

Leaving Xela

So I managed to stay 2 days in Xela with Ray before the cold and the grey got to me so I left him there to go climbing and I opted to go back to Lake Atitlan. I said a sad goodbye for a few weeks and in the process didn't notice the state of the taxi I was jumping into. It seems compulsory to have cracks in the windscreen here but this seemed an amazing feat of gravity that it was holding up it had so many cracks, or infact how the car was moving forward at all it was so so rusty. I checked briefly for Fred Flinstone feet but nothing. The car spluttered along the streets making rather strange cranking noises and then began to fill with black smoke coming from the boot..'Senor Senor hay humo' I told him slightly panicky...'Si si senorita' he chuckled happily. I ended up on the chicken bus option again but this time the bus drivers were a little calmer, the usual gaggle of vendors jumped on and off and a woman struggling to sing her songs for jesus and preach through her tears stayed on the bus for a while. Something that struck me was how many guys your saw passed out on the side of the highway. I wasn't sure if they were passed out drunk or had been knocked over, hoping for the former. At one point there was a dog in the middle of the road also nearly getting run over but he was trying to protect his owner who was sleeping with his feet coming off the verge onto the tarmac. The government has built bridges across the highways for the villages dotted along the side but the people don't really use them. It was great to get back to the Lake as we came down into the valley it looks so beautiful with its volcano, surrounding mountains and shimmering water in the sun.

San Pedro

Spent another 2 weeks in San Pedro crashing out verbs between 3 teachers and trying to have intellectual conversations in Spanglish. The current talk is of the Guatemalan president who has decided to divorce his wife so that she can run for presidency at the end of his term in September. She seems to have been a pretty big influence in his presidency so far and people are very divided on it thinking it a scam or that getting divorced is making a mockery of family values here. In between straining my brain I discovered a roof top hot tub over looking the lake and the volcano for the mere price of buying a beer which seemed to hand in hand nicely and eating copious amounts of tofu (weird Asian food influence in middle of Guatemala).

San Pedro to Rio Dulce

on Sunday we took a long ride to Rio Rulce (think about 13 hours in total) via Antigua where we got a really clear view of 'Volcan Fuego' puffing away and via Guatemala city where we took great pains at deciding to pay an extra £8 for the 5 hour aircon bus to Rio Dulce. The journey actually ended up being closer to 8 hours as we had to stop on the way several times for the driver to do his shopping whenever he saw a nice fruit and vegetable stall on the side of the road. We got to Rio Dulce in the dark and couldn't grasp what the place looked like. We called from a shop and a guesthouse sent out a boat to come and pick us up. It was so strange. We waited by the dock and out of the dark a little boat rolled up and we jumped in. We cruised across this river that seemed more like a lake in the pitch black with the boat driver holding a mag light in his mouth to warn people we were there. It was so beautiful with the stars out and this silvery water. We still had no idea what to expect and suddenly the boat took a left and went off down a little canal and we were slowly going through jungle. Giant trees grew on the sides with creepers that hung down and you could see how green the water was even in the dark. We pulled up a dock where we could see the lights of the guesthouse but I wished he could have kept going! last night we slept under a family of bats in the roof. Today we had an incredible day bathing under a scorching hot waterfall and taking a trip through a canyon by some local kids where we saw a Mayan face that had been naturally formed in the rock.