Crossing Borders and Bridges

---

Río Dulce

After a wonderful week in San Andrés, we climbed back on the gringo trail and headed for the Honduran border.



Our last stop in Guatemala was Río Dulce (Sweet River).



It was a cramped and dirty town, centered around tourist buses and street stalls tightly packed on the only road in town - it was a very drastic change after our week in sleepy, non-touristy San Andrés.



We took a small motor boat across Lago de Izabel (which empties into the river) to our hostel - a bamboo and thatch complex with a bit of a tiki-bar vibe.



It was fun to feel like travelers again, sipping red wine and exchanging books and stories with other mochileros (backpackers) from around the world.



The main attraction of Río Dulce is the hot spring waterfall at Finca El Paraíso - a hot spring waterfall cascading down 30 feet of smooth rock and splashing into a cold, clear pool below (the first hot shower we´d had in over a week).



After two days of hanging around the lake, swimming, canoeing a little lancha, and eating good food, we moved on - sad to leave Guatemala but eager to explore Honduras.



----------

Tela

Our next port of call was the beach town of Tela, on the north Caribbean coast of Honduras.



We were surprised by the significance of the culture shock we felt crossing between two close nations.



The Americanized multi-nationals seemed to have crept into the old banana republic of Honduras more quickly than Guatemala - there were many KFCs, Pizza Huts, Burger Kings, etc., which we hadn´t seem much of before Tela.



There was much more ethnic diversity - Caribbean, Mestizo, Anglo, et al - and the style of dress made it seem as though we could have been in Florida.



After feeling increasingly competent with basic Spanish through Guatemala, our egos were quickly deflated by the heavy accents we began hearing and rarely understanding (what was once a simple ¨veintidos¨ (22) became an unintelligible ¨ventioh¨ and made bartering quite an adventure).



We had a nice splurge of a hotel atop a hill overlooking the sea - we swam, sunbathed and burned, watched the lunar eclipse and soaked up the Caribbean vibe.

---

Photos

Sweet Water
Can´t see the steam but it was hot.

Smokin´ Hot
On Lago de Izabel

Río Dulce
From the longest bridge in Central America

Tree hugger
Obligatory glamour shot

Still Looking Good
...if a bit shipwrecked