Hotel Santa Monica Izabal

... shuttles. See, I always thought if you went for the pricey private option, you would be guaranteed certain things. Like a seat, perhaps. Inside the vehicle, even. So, when the rain started to fall on me as I was laying in the back of the pickup truck bumping along a rough, unpaved road, I couldn´t help but wonder where I went wrong.

To be fair, the road was clearly not their fault. The road (via the shortcut ...

... We expected to be able to use the fishing rods, or sail a little or scuba dive or participate in any of the discussions about where we were going and for how long. We were not allowed - so we ended up feeling very passive and that we didn't get the trip we thought we'd bought.

On reflection we had a good time but we all decided that this was due to the company and the location rather than the boat trip itself.

... s comemos un grande cenar a un delicioso restaurante, porque después salir Guatemala en un bote. Tomamos un bote fuera Izabal lake a Belize City. Es un tres día viaje a Belize a oceánico Atlántico. Todo viaje fue muy divertido, mi favorito de mi vida. Pero fuimos Belize entonces regresamos a Oregon

... Spanish), if this is the bus to Rio Dulce. No, the lady said, and she continued to babble on for the next three minutes. So I asked again, 'Rio Dulce?" And the verbal river continued. I told Mom I was going to check inside before the bus left (gotta trust the gut feeling). So I got off the bus, asked the guy who had just loaded our bags and he said, among other things I couldn't understand, 'No, wrong bus.' I ran back on the bus, yelled to Mom to get off ...

... happened:
We were waiting at the designated bus stop at 9am and there seemd to be about 15 other tourists waiting there. Our bus finally rolled up at 945am. Hmm, that cant be good for our schedule. Anyway we crammed into this bus - I ended up stuck in the middle of a row made for two between some woman and Leighann - Leigh claims she gets sick when she doesnt sit next to the window. She has used this on me a few times. Anyway, the ride from San Marcos to Antigua took us ...

... number 1 worst airline in the world for delays. Conveiently, they came through on that ranking as the flight was delayed 45 minutes. The passport arrived 10 minutes before the flight left, and our lovely airline buddies rushed us and our luggage out onto the tarmac, and off to Guatemala city we went.

Upon arrival, we were met by our guide whose name we still don´t know, and he drove us to Rio Dulce. So now we´re just enjoying the town. Tomorrow we have a boat tour of the lake. Stay tuned.

... him a foolish old man and did not heed his advice. Also as usual, he was right. The view more than made up for the strenuous hike...but I did fear that part way up the mountain, my heart was going to give out and that I was going to be eaten by what I can only assume to be the carniverous monkeys that were mocking me as I gasped for breath and attempted to keep the sweat from pouring into my eyes and effectively blinding me.

After the hike, we descended ...

... and peeling skin - it was like those places in Asia that people pay and dip their feet in to get rid of their dead skin, here we were getting it for free. There was a small overhang that you could swim under and it was like being in a sauna. The actual falls were about 12m high and in a jungle.

After an hour or so we were done so we walked back (holding our breathe as we passed a few stinky swines!). After our tractor ride we got back ...

... Tortugal (www.tortugal.com), which is at the lake side, a bit away from town and they went on to town and further to Guatemala City for their flight home. El Tortugal is a great place to stay and cheap (4 euro/night) for what you get (nice infrastructure, social room with internet, pool table, books and TV, great beds with fantastic sheets, a great setting on the lake, a wooden walkway over swampland through ...

... cover dozens of city blocks in reverse at speed and challenge rival companies' buses for position. The guys who dock the space shuttle can't do what these guys do. Our Fuente del Norte bus is an 'express' yet we make random stops. There doesn't seem to be a pattern since some wishing to board are passed by. I conclude 'express' means 'we don't stop for everyone, just for some'. The efficiency of the loosely organized ...