Rio Dulce
Trip Start
May 23, 2007
1
16
22
Trip End
Oct 03, 2007
Livingston,
Guatemala
Sunday, July 22, 2007
It has been really nice to relax this weekend and get recharged. Traveling 2 weekends in a row was very tiring, but I enjoyed every minute. Earlier this week I hit my first real wave of homesickness. Everything piled down on me and my frustration and irritation grew. I reached my apartment just as the tears started flowing. After shedding some tears I knew I had to call my parents and talk. After our phone call I felt lots better. I think I was just at a point where I feel like I{ve gained enough knowledge that I am ready to return home and start my regular life again. I really miss my church and singing in the church choir. I miss all my regular activities, my family and my friends. I don{t miss driving or the food or any of the material things, just the people and the social activities.
I have some made some really great friends here and there are at least 2 people I know I will remain in touch with after leaving Guatemala. I came here to help the people here, but I think what is changing the most is me. I have rediscovered who I am and what I want when I return home. I am becoming more and more confident about myself and finding that it is okay to give your heart to people. Yes, you may get hurt or be sad when you have to say goodbye, but the caring and sharing of love gives you the greatest feeling. I was so happy on Friday I think I was walking on air. I just felt so good about me and the choices I{ve made this year that it was radiating through me to the outside and a friend commented on how I looked radiant.
The downside to this week is that I have bedbugs. It took a little while to discover them especially with traveling so much the last couple weeks but they are now worse. Everyday I wake up with new red, itchy spots. I have cream to stop the itching but halfway through the day I am scratching like crazy. It just plain sucks! This week the cleaning ladies will fumigate my bed and change all the linens, but I guess that may not entirely get rid of them. I will be washing everything I own and finding some bug killer spray for my suitcase and things. Hopefully they will go away!
Now for my trip to Rio Dulce, the Sweet River. We left at 5am on a Friday morning. There were about 14 of us in the van. Not too far into the trip our van was stopped by the police. They were looking for something wrong with the van or the driver so they could make us give them money. But nothing wrong was found and we were again on our way. We drove east to Guatemala City and then northeast from there. On the very curvy road between Xela and the Capitol we were all feeling a little queasy. Luckily I had remembered my dramamine and took it right before we left. A mother and her 2 daughters were a part of our group and the youngest girl was feeling very sick. I shared my dramamine and we moved her to the front.
After passing the Capitol we were driving through lush green hills with a definate increase in temperature and humidity. We arrived at our destination about 90 minutes behind schedule. We couldn{t wait to get out of that van after 10 hours of driving. Our hotel was right on the river and in the jungle. We had to take a boat to reach it. The lobby and restaurant are open buildings with thatched roofs. There is a boardwalk connecting all the cabins to the bathrooms and the restaurant. It had a pool and looked just perfect. We sat down to eat lunch ready to relax a little.
After a quick lunch we boarded our private boat and went to San Felipe Castle. Our tourguide was very nice and funny. Our tour was in English, but the questions had to be in Spanish because he doesn{t know English! After our tour and lots of photos we boarded our boat for a tour of Lake Izabel. It was great to feel the wind on your face and watch the sun go down on the Lake.
We were back at our hotel to relax, swim and have dinner. Kelly and I shared a cabin with 2 twin beds each with a mosquito net over the beds. The planks covering the walls had small gaps and we worried about having extra guests staying in our room, but luckily no spiders like some of the other cabins.
Saturday we had a breakfast buffet of pancakes and fresh fruit. Yummy! Then we were off. We toured the Rio Dulce river by our private boat again. Stopping occasionally for commentary in Spanish by our guide. We pulled up to riverfront tienda for bathrooms, water and we had a great time. Boys in wooden boats showed us the fish and crabs they had caught.
We went through a lush green canyon for 20 minutes and then arrived in the Atlantic Ocean. We went past the town of Livingston to the 7 alters. I am a naive traveler in an undeveloped country. To me when the trip itinerary says that you will see the 7 alters I envisioned walking along a path beside the waterfalls. Not so in Guatemala. We went up a rough path and down some wooden stairs so I was encouraged by this. But then we had to cross the river to the other side by walking through the river holding on to a wire strung across. The scary part was that we crossed on top of a small waterfall so if you fell you would cascade over rocks. We went up the river through pools walking in the river on slippery rocks. Of course I was wearing flip flops so I was worried about slipping and falling. I took my shoes off and tried barefoot. But it{s slow going barefoot because the rocks are also sharp. I have terrible balance and I needed something to hold onto so I crawled over some of the rocks. I{m sure it was a site!
I decided maybe shoes would be better but Kelly was carrying my backpack with our things in it and she was way ahead of me. A Guatemalan tour guide was escorting 3 guys to the same place as us and he ended up giving me a hand the last way through the rocks and river. It{s hard for me to ask for help but I was very glad for his help. Part way to the final waterfall I was frustrated and wanted to give up. I was about ready to cry when I slipped and I fell rear first into a pool of water that was very cold. And I just laughed and laughed. The tension was broken and I finally made it to our destination. It was worth the effort to get there although I did worry about going back down. I was mostly concerned if I fell and broke something or had a head injury how would they get me out of there and to a hospital. There are no helicopters to come whisk you away.
So we swam in this deep pool below a fairly tall waterfall with lots of cold water cascading down over you. Some people climbed up the side of the waterfall and jumped off it into the pool below. It looked extremely scary and dangerous. I don{t know how they did it!
It was time to head back and our guide Josue told me that I should get a head start. I was insulted even though he was right. We slowly made our way down through the river again. This time I had my shoes and knew the best route so it went faster. I did fall on one rock but luckily fell on my side and my padding kept me safe.
We took our boat to Livingston to eat lunch and tour the town. There are Guatemalans who are the descendents of Africans here in Livingston. They speak a language I believe is called Carife and not Spanish. A few woman in our group got there hair braided by ladies there while we waited for our lunch. We walked the main strip looking for gifts and then it was time to go back to our hotel.
This time there were spiders in my room. We had our guide kill it. It was even larger than the spider I saw at Lago Atitlan. With it{s legs it was the size of my hand. Gross! After dinner back in our room we had 2 more big spiders. It was pouring rain outside but I couldn{t sleep with those things in there. We went to the lobby and got the guy there to come and kill our unwanted guests. I didn{t sleep well that night thinking about spiders crawling all over the walls and my bed.
All Aboard for Livingston
The next morning when the light was coming out I peeked out of my netting and was relieved to see no more spiders!Then it was time to board the van for our long journey home. It was a long ride home but the trek there and back was definately worth the adventure!
Comments
We miss you, too.
Hi Diana,
Your blog was so funny - and inspiring. I admire you for being able to see the humor in your scary situations. I can just imagine you taking that 'prattfall' into that cold water. You are right the mission often changes the missionary.
We miss you, but choir hasn't started yet, so no need for you to miss that, yet!
Keep your chin up - we love you!
Donna et al.
You'll try anything!
Hi, Diana. It's been fun reading about your adventures, whether you are on the bus, in class, working in day care, scaling waterfalls or dodging spiders and rude men. I especially enjoy getting a peek at how you are feeling from time to time and how you will try anything...dancing, eating food with unknown green bits, etc. You are very brave. It should come as no surprise that you quickly learned to just go with the flow after your experience in IGOV! I've been most surprised by the cold weather you have experienced. I guess I always thought of Central and South America as hot, but I should have known better because of the lushness. Looking forward to your next blog and your safe travels and return. Cindy