Navidad in Guatemala

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So, we left Antigua last week and headed for the jungle for christmas fun. We got a bus at 4.00 which was a hair-raising experience if only because apparently red lights meant nothing to our shuttle driver, by which I mean he slowed down from about 60 to 50 for a red light. But arrived at the inevitably grim bus station in Guatemala city in one piece, and waited in the office with the all too familiar sound of the electronic christmas medley to pass the time.

Our arrival in Rio Dulce was less than pleasant as we discovered that our boat journey to get to Livingston would be 3 times more expensive than we hoped. The expense was due to the boat drivers having realised their niche and unionised, thus fixing the price at an extortionate rate. After traipsing around almost getting a cheaper ticket and then realising that the guy had lied, Ben being livid tried to convey to the salesman how bad it is to lie with the communication barrier in place I am not sure Ben got the satisfaction he was after!

Without satisfaction but with a whole 2 pages of spanish profanities in my pocket I somehow resisted the urge to let fly. It didn´t seem sensible to abuse the man who would inevitably take us down the river ( profanities saved for another time, and they´re good ones too!!!) Although feeling slightly done over the ´tour´we went on down the river was pretty spectacular and reminicent of Jurassic Park. Our arrival on the Carribean coast was a sweaty one to say the least but enjoyable none the less.

Having spent the night in Livingston, the smallest most stereotypical carribean town ever, we then awaited our boat ride to the Jungle. The boat ride was only 20 mins long but it had been raining all morning, and when I say raining I am not talking the English light rain that soaks you through but full on tropical storm raining. The first 10 minutes we were safe and the second 10 mins were something else.

After being drenched in rain not seen by English folk, we arrived at our Jungle residence over the festive period. We were pleased with everything about the place, from the casual ´help yourself attitude´ to drinks and things to the lack of pan pipe hell!!! We stayed in a hut literally in the Jungle and although there seemed to be Tarantula corpse stuck in the roof netting, we were safe. This is more than can be said about our clothes as it turns out nothing dries in the Jungle EVER.

The immense amounts of hammocks, the sun deck, the rope swing in to the river and the jungle at our fingertips gave us plenty to do over the next few days. Although, if I am honest I mainly slept, the hammocks and the heat floored me! The food was really great, home made, large portions and reasonable priced. Although the fear that we would run out of money (there being no ATM obviously) had us hungry a couple of days!

All in all it was a brilliant time apart from the creatures that lurk there, which were strange and plentiful.
We now find ourselves on the other side of the country by Lake Atitlan in a town called Panajachel, its lovely here (obviously) and we´re settling down for some new year good fun.......

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Photos

Jungle Boogie
It´s better than what jesus got......