Travel Day - Honduras to Rio Dulce, Guatemala

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As I had mentioned previously, I had dropped my camera out of my lap on the bus on day 2, and while the LCD screen was shot, we thought the camera was still working. I couldn’t change any settings as there was no menu to look at, but I could take photos and when I downloaded them they were OK. Larry has the same body as me (Rebel XTI) just a year older, and he offered very generously to swap as he shoots in full auto, so doesn’t need the menu. Because I shoot in manual I do. So we swapped cameras for the day, kept our own lenses. My camera would take a photo for Larry then shut off. So we swapped batteries, and it seemed to fix itself then started doing it again. Long story short, went home to download all the photos and none of them exist. So not only did Larry not get a single photo he took, my camera is now a $600 paperweight and I still have 75% of my trip left. I’m beyond heart broken to be honest, but nothing I can do about it. For those of you that know me well, I love, love taking photos, don’t pretend to be good, but I love it. And now all I have is my iPhone. Larry has offered to give me his camera and he will just use my photos but I don’t feel right about that, as everyone sees things differently. So I’m totally gutted about this and not sure how to deal with it. Ironically enough I picked up a new macbook air specifically to be able to work with my photos while on the road instead of having to do it all after (which I never have time for) and now I get to blog with it but take no photos. sigh……. first world problems i know but i’m still gutted.

I was up early, again - before 6 am. Had a shower and needed some Ned time, so wandered off in search of coffee. There is omething about a small city/town in the early morning, post dawn, but still sleepy and waking up. The fruit vendors are not out yet, but workers are wondering their way to the jobs, kids are getting ready for the morning shift of school, people are out washing the streets, and main square to keep it clean. Just something unique about that time of the morning that is hard to put into words, but I do enjoy, beyond the coffee. There is something inherently peaceful about that time of the day.

I saw a ‘white girl’ walking with a take away coffee; and I approached her and asked if she spoke English (yes) and asked her where she got the coffee from. She giggled, said she understood exactly how I felt and directed me to only a block away. Went and had a coffee in their restaurant, amazingly I had exactly just enough Limpiera (local currency) down to the penny to have a coffee grande (!) and sat and blogged a bit and woke up, had Ned Time and watched the world go by. Was a peaceful, perfect start to the day for me.

Soon enough it was breakfast with the team, and then off we went towards Guatemala. The exiting of Honduras was non eventful, Justin handled our passports and exit, and away we went. Close to 3 hours later we made our only sightseeing stop of the day, at the Ruins of Quirigua, in Guatemala. Less known Mayan site, still needs a lot of it excavated, but as is a common problem, there simply is no money to do so.

So our local guide was fluent in English, but rarely gets to use it, so when he did talk he was incredibly fast and I got very confused trying to listen to him. Thankfully we had Justin to help us out explaining and/or summarizing for us. It is a much smaller site, but it was a hot and beautiful day, blue sky, green grass, several stelae which again was really cool. The Ball court is no excavated, the acropolis is, but the main couryard also is not, however the history is interesting. Quirigua was controlled by Tikal for the first 3 rulers, then the following 3 came from Copan. What was cool is the 6th ruler, who originally was from Copan, decapitated the most famous ruler of Copan, called Rabbit 18, and that created true independence for Quirigua for the first time so he became the most famous ruler of all, and has the biggest stelea after him. His son was the first king to rule the independent state of Quirigua, and they only had 2 more before the decline.



For those of you who are reading from start of my blog, our theme word appeared again, all on it's own. Janice excitedly called out my name as we continued on to look behind us, and low and behold there was a bus called Rutas Orientals BUS on route Rio Dulce. Continuing on with our Ornamental/Oriental theme - we were on a roll! We stopped at a local bus stop for lunch, to the horror of Becky from Texas who quickly asked if we could skip lunch and continue on (meaning we couldn’t eat until closer to 4pm). I think she saw the 4 buses of locals that had also stopped, and just got creeped out - looked like a tacky truck stop Central America style. Regardless I was hungry, as was Larry so we said let's stay and eat. Food was cheap and good; buffet style - pointing and smiling goes a long way without the proper language and then we continued on to the town where we hopped the boat. Arrived at our hotel after crossing the river to the Hacienda, Tijax, which reminded me of a jungle lodge setting. There were 3 G groups here, so kept it quite busy, but a lovely relaxing spot.

Went for a walk around the property, they have hiking trails, but have them closed off so you book a guide to go through, but we just wandered on the roads around the area, as it was so nice to stretch our legs. They had welcomed us with Jamaica flower (we call it Hibiscus) juice all foamy and fluffy and it was so refreshing! Happy hour on the beach, nice dinner and a relaxing evening. Traveling is tiring you know!!! SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE PHOTOS

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Photos

Half Frog half Jaguar
For the King who formed independence. And no I can't spell his name!

Diagnal hierglyphics
Only the second stelea ever found with writing like this vs horizontal or vertical

Air conditioned Hotel
So nice!