Rio Dulce, Guatemala

Trip Start Apr 07, 2006
1
19
31
Trip End Aug 18, 2006


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Guatemala  ,
Tuesday, June 27, 2006

I headed back into Guatemala with the aim of spending a couple more nights here, and then heading out to Belize. So I headed to Rio Dulce, a town on a big river that flows in to the Caribbean. On my first night there I met an Austrian guy (Gregor) and he said there was a hot waterfall about an hour away, so the next day we hopped on what must be the most dilapidated bus in Guatemala and went to Finca Paraiso. Because of all the rain the water wasn't as hot as usual, but it was still nice sitting in warm water above a 3 M waterfall. We also hitched a ride further along to some limestone cliffs for a look.

The next day I travelled down the River Dulce to a place called Finca Tatin for a night. Finca Tatin is only accessible by boat, and is in the middle of the jungle, about an hour from Rio Dulce. Finca Tatin is the kind of Guatemala that my dear Grandmother didn't want me to go to after watching ¨Survivor: Guatemala¨ because of the ¨dangerous¨ jungle 01_Warm waterfall at Finca Paraiso
01_Warm waterfall at Finca Paraiso
 . At Finca Tatin you cant go to the bathroom without having a spider, scorpion, [brave] mosquito trying to bite your arse or some other previously-unidentified-insect for company. Even the 10M walk there across the submerged walkways (the water level is higher than during hurricane Mitch) are lined with toads, turtles and crabs. If you manage to get through this, at least the vampire bats aren't a worry because each bed has a mosquito net and the poor dog provides them with their nightly meal.

There was a good bunch of united nations people there so it was good fun. The next day I headed to Livingston with Eli (American girl) - her to phone and me to sort out a boat ride to Belize. Somewhere during the afternoon Eli remembered it was her birthday so I bought her lunch and we had a few beers. Also somewhere during the afternoon we both decided that it wasn't the right time to leave and to spend another night at Finca Tatin. 5 nights later I finally managed to leave.

The typical day at Finca Tatin was: wake up; have coffee; read; breakfast; swim; lye in hammock; sleep; go for a walk in the jungle and swim back along the river to the finca; lunch; take the cuyoko (dug out canoe) up river for a swim; read; watch the rain; lye in hammock; play cards; have dinner; play cards till the early hours; kick dog out of room for making a noise while licking his bat bites. No wonder I couldn't leave.
Finally after 5 days the 8 of us that were there all along had to split up. Gregor and Eli stayed in Livingston, while I headed up to Tikal, still unable to leave this beautiful country called Guatemala.....
Slideshow Print this entry Guatemala City hotels