Back to Guatemala - on to Sayaxche

---

On 7th May 300 Qs got us a lift on a lancha to Bethel where we sorted a dolmus. Oddly it only took 2 hours to drive back along that same unmade road. Ashley saw a grey fox but I think I was asleep at that time. There were certainly hummingbirds at the place we waited for the microbus. We got dropped off at a junction then caught another microbus to Sayaxche where we booked into the Hotel Rio (with real AC!). At this point laundry was becoming a problem. We started washing a couple of bits out in the shower...

I liked Sayaxche. Dusty frontier town - no more than a dozen streets in each direction and building out all the time. The ferry from where the microbus dropped us into town was 2Qs each and there was also a car ferry which provided Ashley with hours of amusement. Half way across the river they had to move the lorries about to balance the thing. Fun to watch and there was nothing much else to do. We wandered around. We saw a circus being set up (though that was the next day). We texted my parents to find out the results of the UK election. We generally wandered around looking at stuff. There was nothing for tourists. Got a bit worried about where we could eat but eventually found the Maya Cafe Restaurant which turned out to be excellent in every possible way. The streets in Sayaxche do not have names or numbers but it's down near where all the doctor clinics are. The food was good, plentiful and cheap. We had beers there then more in the hotel courtyard and stayed up past 10 in the evening!!!

Next day we commissioned a lancha and Carlos took us along the river to Ceibal where we got totally eaten alive by mosquitoes. We were literally covered in swarms of them. I had more than 100 bites (OK, it's been some time since I got to a computer - the bites are now mostly healed up).

Nonetheless it was very worth it. Didn't see much of the jungle due to fighting the ravenous swarms but the ruins are very impressive and well worth seeing. Also the river trip was excellent./ We saw monkeys, herons, vultures and a turtle bigger than a dinner plate but not as big as cartwheels.

The trip was followed by more doing very little in Sayaxche then dinner back at the Maya cafe restaurant where I had the fish - probably tilapia - fried in batter and it was excellent (fish and chips, Gaute style). This was followed by beer at the hotel with lizards.

---