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Published: October 20th 2007
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Our ferry arrives
Run by an outboard motor Being Westcoasters all, we are not accustomed to being too far from the Pacific Ocean, so this weekend we decided to take a little day trip down to the coastal down of Monterrico.
This is considered one of the more touristy spots in the country; lots of Guatemalans (from the City) have vacation houses here, but you'll also see a ton of young kids living the beach life down here, which evidently means hanging around in a beach hammock.
On Saturday morning we rented a car from the wonderful Hugo Suarez, a little Toyota RAV4 which we crammed our tall selves into, and eagerly (Steve) and nervously (me) started our very first independent road trip in Guatemala. I was worried we might get lost and find ourselves stranded or some other such worry (robbers! highjackers! jaguars!) , but of course the highways were clearly marked and darned clean and modern all the way down to the coast.
Then we hit Puerto Quetzal, and things got a little more...shall we say..."rustic". We knew we needed to find the ferry to take us across a canal (Canal de Chiquimulilla) but there were no obvious road signs. We did see one
Best Road Sign Ever
Steamin' Hot Turkey (or maybe it's Chicken) Ahead! sign "Monterrico" clearly pointing west, even though we knew Moneterrico was eastward. Aha, our first trap! We of course drove right into it, heading west just because we though "when in Rome, maybe the Romans drive west to go east." Nope! So we turn around, and by now we've caught the attention of the locals, who can see that we are clearly foreigners with a loaned car. We then drove across "town" (a generous term, since the whole place is about 2 blocks long) eastward. After driving down a very narrow dirt road for about 500 meters, we can clearly see that there ain't no ferry here, either. We turn our RAV4 around (back, forth, back, forth about 5 times, all the while trying to "blend in"), and head back into the main town intersection. By this time a group of men in a big pickup are clearly laughing at us, and very helpfully point us back east, but this time they tell is the ferry is only 50 meters ahead. We had driven right past it! We were looking for our US version of "ferry" but you'll see by the picture that what we really looking for is "flotation
device for a car," which was essentially a platform powered by an outboard motor. No WAY the USDOT would have approved this! Five minutes later we're across the canal and back in road trip mode, at one point passing what I think is the best road sign ever: steaming hot fowl ahead! (See photo)
Things seem pretty different down here, aesthetically speaking; the architecture is more thatched roof and the furniture of choice the hammock, and the weather much warmer and beachier.
After a regrettable refreshment stop at Hotel Pantanal (where the owner greeted us in his THONG bathing suit, and Grace - clearly shaken by the experience - coined a new term for us: ButtMan), we hit the town of Monterrico, which is very much as described in the guidebooks: tropical beach setting, lots of waves and sunshine, and of course, hammocks.
We ended up at Hotel Dos Mundos, which allows you to use their pool (for a fee) without staying at the hotel. They have a great pool and restaurant which looks right out onto the ocean (which is too wild and dangerous to swim in - although the waves seemed perfect for surfing) and
Our bungalow
This is where Lucas saw his very first cockroach! we swam and lazed in the sun for a few hours. Our waiter was a German guy who arrived here 9 months ago for a visit and hasn't left yet. He told us that there would be a turtle release just down the beach at 5pm, and with that tidbit we decided to spend the night.
Luckily, there was room for us and after a while we found ourselves in a charming thatched-roof bungalow with the requisite hammock. Perfect! We hung around in the hammock until Turtle Time, and I've got to tell you, this was a highlight!
Every Saturday evening at 5pm (from September to January) a non-profit Tortugario Monterrico gathers at the beach, and for Q10 (about $1.50) you can get your own baby turtle (2-3 days old) to release to the ocean. It's quite a gathering of locals and tourists, and at the count of 3 you release your turtle towards the ocean, and the first turtle to cross a line in the sand wins a t-shirt for its "owner," this time a young German girl.
We were all cheering as our little turtles made haste for the ocean (one guy fell in a
Be brave, little turtles!
We each got our "own" turtle to release to their destinies. rut and was turned around away from the water, but the little guy was smart enough to about face and head towards the water). All in all the group released about 100 turtles that night; a small fraction of whom will return to these same sands (as they run for the ocean they are imprinted with the scent of the sand and water) next year to lay eggs. (see videos)
That night as we lay in bed we heard an AMAZING rainfall, and by morning there was a spectacular lightning- and thunderstorm. There was one BOOM in particular that practically sent me flying out of my bed about 8am; it woke up Grace, too, and she decided she wanted breakfast NOW, which meant she had to go out in the deluge to get to the restaurant (where Steve had been hanging out since 7am). I decided to wait a bit to see if it might taper off (we hadn't brought any jackets or extra shirts or anything) so I wouldn't get my only clothing soaked. Sure enough, about 30 minutes later the whole stormy show stopped, and Lucas and I walked out into bright sunshine and joined Steve and
Grace (who got completely soaked) for breakfast. Thirty minutes later we were again in the pool, really enjoying the sunny beach life.
Also in the morning Lucas had his very first encounter with a real (almost) live cockroach! We don't do cockroaches in Seattle, so this was really exotic, so exotic in fact that he thought he had discovered a great new Guatemalan bug. He took about a bazillion pictures of the poor bug as it lay struggling to right itself. (Unlike turtles - see long video - cockroaches are retarded about going upright). We eventually turned him upright but he was too far gone...
When we later departed back to Antigua, the puddles from the morning's rain hadn't yet dried out and as I drove our RAV4 down the dirt/mud road towards the main road, some water entered the car! I felt like one of those little turtles, swimming like mad to make it to the other side, and our car (being a Toyota) sailed through and easily enough we landed back in Antigua. A great day trip turned overnight!
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Marissa
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Turtles and fowl signs
What a great experience to help turtles make it to the ocean! From the looks of that road sign, I'd say someone couldn't quite wait the 200mTs for the fowl and took a bite out of the sign instead!