We are back - Guatemala part 2

Central America Caribbean » Guatemala
November 19th 2016

Published: December 16th 2016

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AdventuresOfTheWartas

Boat ride to Livingston

The weather gods weren't with us. It rained quite heavily and we only had an open boat but they provided plastic tarps to hide underneath

We spent a whole day traveling back from Copan/Honduras to the Caribbean coast of Guatemala to a Rasta/Afro town called Livingston. This journey involved two tuk tuks, three chicken buses (complete with vitamin selling sales men, Christian preachers, burrito sellers) and a small speed boat ride. The boat was fun however we missed some of the most superb coastal scenery given the storm we were riding through. We had plastic tarps over our heads to keep us dry that somewhat limited the visibility. Once we arrived in Livingston we went on yet another boat ride to our final destination.

Sweet river

Rio Dulce is a very beautiful river which makes its way via a large inland lake to the Caribbean sea.
The boat trip is spectacular along high white lime stone cliffs or so we were told. We didn't see too much as we were hiding again under a tarpaulin to fend off the rain in our lanchas that were not built for rain.
The place it took us to made up for it though. Finca Tatin is the brainchild of an Argentinian architect who purchased a parcel of land in one of the sidearms of Rio Dulce. He build

Or hut in the jungle

around 10 huts into the jungle, a large open dinner platform and a large chill out area full of hammocks. Most importantly it had a riverside pontoon complete with rope swing which we took full advantage of. Our hut was built over the river edge and had its own resident spider and a loud choir of frogs who began singing loudly under our floor every evening. We slept to the sound of the rainforest and rain at night.
The weather cleared up the next day and we went on a kayak tour to explore the mangroves that grow along the river and to visit a thermal hot spring. The day after we went on a jungle hike with a local Mayan guide. He showed us the jungle and what medicinal use the various plants and trees have. We stopped at a cave with a small stream running through and the opportunity to jump of a 5 metre cliff into a, lets say, refreshing pool. After a quick exploration of the cave we went further past some farmland and visited our guides Mayan home village which consisted mainly of small 1 or 2 room family huts, roaming piglets, chooks and giggling,

River next to our hut. Comes with rope swing

barefooted, toddlers, a small football field and a kiosk that sold the very bare necessities.

Where is the money??

On our last day we rode the speed boat back down through the spectacular george (imagine green and mist covered prehistoric Jurassic type scenery) and visited Livingston township. The town had nothing to interest us except to go to the bank. Unfortunately someone else was also keen to get their hands on our cash as 4 days later we realised that the ATM must have been tampered with and our bank card details were copied. They then spent their time traveling around Guatemala and withdrawing over $1500. Luckily we have more than enough cards with us to get money but a nasty surprise nevertheless. The bank is currently trying to recover the money so we hope we get it back...

Rio dulce - the town

Hostel Kangaroo, how could we miss a place with that name. Build by an Australian on a small river inlet off the lake that feeds Rio Dulce. He and his wife run this place which to our disappointment didn't have any meat pies. There was actually no Australian food at all as his wife

Hot waterfall

The river below is quite cool but the waterfall is about 35 degrees

is the chef and she happens to be Mexican.
We only stayed here as we wanted to break the long journey to our next intended stop Semuc Champey. In the end we were quite happy to have spend a few days here. We did an excursion to a hot waterfall, which our Aussie host claims is the only one in the world. The hot water gushing over a ledge and falls into a very pretty pool with a cold river flowing through. On top of the waterfall we discovered the thermal source and some very pretty natural hot pools and spent some time having a family bath. A very, very beautiful spot set in a nice piece of jungle.
Next we went to what must be one of the nicest canyons we have ever seen. The canyon is narrow and very high. Trees are growing on its side and they are full of Spanish moss and other plants. All that is admired while some poor soul paddled us upstream in his small home made boat. We couldn't do a river trek up deeper into the canyon as all the recent rain made it much to deep and fast flowing but

Christmas decoration at hostel kangaroo

we believe the scenery became even more beautiful further along the canyon.
As we had some time the next day we kayaked across the lake to visit a small fort that was meant to protect the city from pirates. It was like many forts not that successful and was captured a couple of times by pirates just to be rebuild a bit bigger. Dillon enjoyed our excursion here and had us reenacting the pirate battle firing canons, capturing the pirates and locking them in the dungeon's.

Semuc Champey

Off to our next destination in a shuttle that took 2 hours on good roads (but with a mad driver going at double the speed limit and overtaking 2 semis at a time round the bends), followed by another 3 hours on bumpy, windy and small roads (no more speeding though), followed by a ride in the tray of a 4WD on even worse road (pitch black, steep mountainous very narrow roads). We were pretty happy when we arrived at our new hotel called Oasis (Kellie was on edge for a few hours after this 8 hour nightmare trip).
Oasis is build on the side of a hill next to a

semuc champey pools

turquoise river. It features a large deck overlooking the very pretty countryside which just invited us to linger just that much longer.
We didn't make the trip for the hotel though. The star in this region are the scenic Semuc Champey pools. They are a set of large limestone encircled pools full of turquoise water on top of a natural 300m long limestone bridge. The water is in fact the same that runs past our accommodation however the majority flows underneath the bridge and only a little is running in the pools. Hard to describe but very beautiful in real life.
As our accommodation was a grueling 20 minute drive or one hour hike back we decided to take the easy way and hop on a set of inner tubes to ride the river back. The water was cold and our backsides even cooler but some rapids got the heart pumping and it certainly beat the other modes of transportation. During our trip we also discovered that Dillon is very much a daredevil as he enjoys these things too much for his age.
Given his excitement for adventure we took him on a cave tour the next day. The cave

Getting ready to explore the cave

Modern equipment like candles were provided

is narrow, mostly filled with water that you swam through and had a couple of climbs in it and some water jumping/sliding for the daring (not Kellie or Dillon). The lighting is provided by candles (yes the things that burn and don't like water) that you hold in one hand as you swim. Not much light in a dark cave full of cold water... Needless to say here we had fun.
The way out of Semuc was again on the back of a 4WD. This time I had to stand in the tray with other backpackers while Kellie and Dillon were in the front cab. Luckily we changed into more comfortable mini buses once we reached good roads.

Flores

We arrived in Flores in pouring rain and quickly took the first accommodation we could find... it happened to be the "go to" place for most backpackers and was an impressive set up. It had a cool lounge area, good restaurant, a nightclub, tour agency and a mini cinema complete with the latest pirated moves. Given the weather, we spend the first days meandering about town, chilling out, watching way to many movies in the cinema and eating way to

Grand placa in Tikal

much food at the local food stores. We briefly interrupted this schedule to do a boat ride on the majestic lake and to visit Tikal. We also did a spot of souvenir shopping and Dillon met a 4.5 year old Boy watching Peppa pig in the rear of his parents souvenir Shop. He joined him at the tv and we soon discovered his name was also Dylan.

Tikal

Tikal is the major Mayan tourist site in all of Guatemala. We had a 4:30am start to beat at least some of the crowds that descend on this site.
In total we spend 9 hours exploring this place with tall centuries old temples rising up out of the jungle. It must have been an astonishing place to visit in 900AD as even today with only 15%!e(MISSING)xcavated/restored it's an impressive sight. Tikal is famous for its 6 tall pyramids which stand up to 60 metre tall. Some of them are even movie stars as they were used in one of the original star wars movies.
Most of them can be found on which we did but not always in the original way up the steep and often very high steps (the

A well deserved beer after exploring Tikal

Mayan's who were a very small used to ascend/descend the steps in zig zag pattern). Some of them now have wooden staircases next to them to make it easier to climb and less likely that dumb tourists fall down.
As the jungle is still very much overgrowing the ruins, we saw plenty of wildlife including Tucans, a family of spider monkeys high up in the trees and tasted termites which bizarrely taste a bit like carrot. Kellie even held a tarantula (very pretty velvety things).
After our tour we spend more time walking around and on top of the ruins. It was a long day but worth it.

See ya Guatemala

That was it for Guatemala. It was time to move onto out second last country Belize.
As mentioned in the first blog Guatemala was one of the main reasons to come to Central America and it hasn't disappointed us. It's a beautiful country with loads of things to do, friendly people and volcanoes!