Rio Dulce, not so dulce but beautiful all the same


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Published: February 12th 2009
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Riverside livingRiverside livingRiverside living

A view from te brdige towards the hostel - that building on the right with the orange roof, thats the backpackers hostel =) Nice location eh?
Tim Version:
* Double bussed again to Rio Dulce, found the main side to be hectic and dodgy so stayed on the more beautiful quiet side at an incredible hostel.
* Visited the local fort, but didn't feel like river voyaging so was done and ready for Antigua quick.

The water loving version:

An apparently very beautiful place, I made Rio Dulce my destination and headed off. Upon reaching it, it feels like an end of the line port town, which I guess is partially because it used to be! Along the main street are loads of people trying to hawk lifts to Livingston and up the river, as well as many guys on bikes trying to get you to go to various hotels. This is all on the busier side of the bridge as Rio Dulce is split between the two, so after some looking around I left the busy side and headed to the smaller quiet side and am glad I did, much more peaceful! I stayed at a place called Backpackers Hotel, which from the bridge looked quite grand on the river front with a restaurant and reasonable private dock, but it turned out to be one of the cheapest places I've been able to stay thus far, incredible! Especially since it has such a beautiful spot! It even had hot water and the internet for free! Perfect.

There wasn't much daylight left so I took it easy and crashed for the night, but the next morning I got up and decided I'd visit El Castillo de Florencia, a reconstructed Spanish fort not too far away. Its the local tourist attraction, and touted around town so I wanted to see what the fuss was about. On the way I grabbed some vendor food but then couldn't find anywhere to eat it, so when I found a hotel that looked deserted I plopped myself on their steps are started eating.. then a lady popped out of a room to see what the hell I was doing! I ended up having a wicked conversation with her, her helping me with Spanish though she spoke no English, and from what I can gather she was working for her employer nearby and they had put her up in the hotel ad picked her up and dropped her off each day for work, not a bad little deal and she seemed happy enough!

The castle when I reached it is basic but you can see why it was so important. It protected a very narrow part of the river that would have been impossible to get through without being blasted to bit by the Spanish cannons, and so protected well against raiders. The grounds around the castle were good to lounge in for a while, nice and green and a good local picnic spot, but I did discover a restaurant and pool setup that once would have been beautiful but is now all boarded up and the pool empty and full of rubbish. I'm amazed at so much tourist infrastructure in many of these countries that just lies in waste! Anyway, I'd like to know more about why but that is research for later...

Back at the backpackers I did some reading and writing with a beautiful river view, then clocked up some PC time later. It was unfortunately very cold that night so I froze a bit trying to get to sleep, but thermals and a beany helped a hell of a lot. I would have been a bit screwed if I had only packer for hot weather, as I know many had who only planned to travel Central America.

There are many river cruises you can do from Rio Dulcer to reach the really beautiful parts of the river but it was nothing I felt like doing right now so I made Antigua my next target and left the next morning, later than planned but still in plenty of time and got to have a good cruisy breakfast with plenty of time to say goodbye to the river and surrounding beauty. It was going to be a longer bus day today so the time to chill in the morning was very appreciated!


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Where di the tourism go?Where di the tourism go?
Where di the tourism go?

Old infrastructure, ruins now
Be nice to the tourists hehBe nice to the tourists heh
Be nice to the tourists heh

These signs are all about the place...
Religious processionReligious procession
Religious procession

Slowly, slowly, and with some terrible tinny music...


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