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A fleet of cousins
At the ruins of Santa Clara in AntiguaRecently, various cousins from both Steve and my families came down to give us a visit. We had invited as many kids as were able to make it, and 5 came in all; four from my family's side (Courtny, Grahm, Heather and Hannah) and one from Steve's side (Heather, whom we called HeatherL which sounds like "HeatherEarl").
Lucas and Grace were SO EXCITED to have their cousins come to visit them all the way down here! They arrived late Saturday night, which also happened to be Sabado Gloria of Holy Week, so they were able to catch a late-night procession as they were driving into town from the airport. Great luck, really.
On Sunday we took them to the Easter Sunday mass and then over to see the ruins of Santa Clara, followed by lunch at our favorite post-mass spot, Sky Cafe. We managed to time our exit perfectly, because as we walked towards town square, we managed to come upon the last big procession of Semana Santa, the resurrected Christ float! We had thought that the cousins were going to completely miss Semana Santa, but they were able to catch 2 processions and see some alfombras to boot.
The hot waterfall of Aqua Caliente
Evidently the worlds only hot waterfall. But the big event of the week was our excursion to Rio Dulce, at the north-east corner of Guatemala, on the Caribbean coast. We had wanted to visit there for the longest time, but decided to hold on until we had visitors to share the event with.
Rio Dulce is a river that goes from Lake Izabal, Guatemala's largest lake, eastward to the Caribbean Sea. There is a little town also called Rio Dulce, but the real action here is on the water. With Hugo Suarez (ExpeditionsGuatemala.com) as our guide, we drove 6 hours from Antigua to the small town of Rio Dulce, heading immediately to Aqua Caliente, or hot waterfall, which is situated down a long dirt road along Lake Izabal.
As we were driving into the waterfall area, Huge looks out the window, notices a little breeze, and says, with utter confidence, "It's going to rain in 5 minutes." I've learned that Hugo never lies, and sure enough, just as we had parked our cars and were getting into our swimsuits, it just DUMPS. It had been exactly 5 minutes. It was one of those jungle rains, warm and humid, and hey how convenient; we
were going to be changing into swimsuits anyway!
We proceeded down a path and soon were swimming towards these wonderful falls of - you guessed it - hot water. The falls are formed from hotsprings above which cascade down into a cool pool, providing warm water to swim in and hot water cascading over your head, like a shower. It was a totally unique experience - anyone going to Rio Dulce should include this on your itinerary.
Pretty much directly after the rain stopped, we headed back to town and checked in to our very cool hotel, Tortugal. It was made up of a lodge/restaurant plus small thatched-roof cabins that sat up high on stilts. The lodge included free kayaks, so the cousins, some of whom had never kayaked before, got a quick lesson from Steve and zipped around the hotel for a bit before dinner.
One thing I love about these kids is their ability to have fun anywhere, any time. As we were waiting for our dinners to arrive, someone came up with the idea of playing Zip-Bong, where you have to say "Zip" or "Bong" while keeping your lips completely covering your teeth and
Our lodge Tortugal
"Where the jungle meets the river" not closing them together. The object is to force your tablemates to smile and show their teeth, and general hilarity ensues. We also had another game of interlocking arms and hand-slapping on the table. I'm sure we really endeared ourselves to our fellow guests, but hey, it WAS funny, and if you can't slap a table in the Guatemalan jungle, where can you?
The next morning we loaded into a small launch boat called a lancha and headed up the river towards the Caribbean town of Livingston, which is accessible only by boat. Along the way we stopped at a little spot where hot water springs fill a little riverside pool. We jumped in, sat down (hot tub style) and watched as Hugo picked up a bunch of mud, declared the spot "Hugo's Beauty Salon" and proceeded to smear mud on all of our faces. The same kind of mud people pay oodles of money for in cities all over the world! What a deal! We all looked years younger...
After lunch we picked up our kayaks, and proceeded to head upriver, along beautiful jungle canyon walls of a huge mangrove. It was one of the most beautiful
A quick kayaking lesson
In front of our hotel at Rio Dulce, the day before our kayak trip river places I have ever been. We saw all sorts of butterflies and egrets and other great wildlife. The sun was shining, but it wasn't as hot and humid as it normally is this time of year, so we were super lucky. We took a break at a still part of the river and Grace jumped into the river for a quick swim. While Lucas was kayaking near the edge, an entire school of fish jumped out of the water right next to his boat, about 5-6 feet across into the air! He nearly peed his pants in surprise!
After an hour or so of paddling, we started noticing the river was getting a little rougher and realized we were getting closer to the sea. Lucas wanted to keep paddling, but the rest of us thought that last portion of the river might get a little rough, so we boarded back on the lancha and headed for our hotel on the water's edge in Livingston. Steve stayed behind to be with Lucas, and as we motored down the river the wind picked up and the waves started to get a little rough. Me being the mom, I became a
little worried about Lucas and asked if we might hustle quickly to our hotel so that Hugo could return back with the lancha to get Lucas and Steve. It took us quite a bit longer than I hoped to get ourselves docked at the hotel and out of the boat, but eventually Hugo hurried on back to the boys and picked them out of the drink. Lucas says
in his blog that he was just about done for by the time the boat reached them...and boy did his muscles ache the next day!
Before dinnertime we took a stroll into the little town of Livingston, a settlement of Garífuna people - dark-skinned decendents of Africans and mestizo Guatemalans who speak Spanish, their own Garífuna language, and English. This town is considered more typically Caribbean than Central American, and has its own laid-back culture. The food is also different; more coconut and fish. Grahm and I tried out the local dish called tapado, a thick stew of fish, shrimp, crab, and plantains in a rich coconut broth. Fantastic!
The next morning we awoke to blue skies and a 1.5 hour ride back to the town of Rio Dulce. Along the way
Hugo's Mud Mask Beauty Salon
Hot springs fill this little pool, and Hugo put mud on all of our faces. Gringos pay big bucks for this at home! we stopped again in the still part of the river everyone either jumped into the water or kayaked around a bit. The canyon walls of the mangrove went waaaay up, maybe 100 feet or so and it was most impressive.
Once back in "town" (Rio Dulce), we motored by the 16th-century castle of San Felipe, which was erected by the Spanish to protect their treasures (which they had stolen from the Maya) from other European robbers such as the British and the Dutch. The only fortress in Guatemala!
Finally back into land-based transportation (Hugo's trusty Land Cruisers), we headed home via the Mayan ruins of Quiriguá. If you ever happen to see a 10-centavo Guatemalan coin, the huge stela on the front of it depicts this Mayan site, and is the largest stela in all of Mesoamerica. We got to see the stones upon which the conquered leaders from other tribes were sacrified, and Hugo said that the stains on the stones were recently tested and found to contain human DNA.
Heading back out onto the highway home, we drove through a huge banana plantation, and watched as a little bridge-boom came down over our road and
carried forth a conveyor belt of hanging green bananas, heading from the fields to trucks awaiting dispatch. Lucas has been studying the history of bananas and could give you an entire presentation on not only the rather shady past of US involvement in the banana business, but also the future in peril of bananas themselves. A fungus knows as Panama disease is on its way to completely eradicate the current species of the bananas we know and love, and this will have grave consequences on the business side here in Guatemala.
The rest of the cousins' visit was based in Antigua, where they got to see Christine's coffee farm and water filter factory, in fact taking two filters back to the US to deliver to local fundraising efforts. We also tried to go zip-lining at a local farm but - well - it was a Guatemala thing and didn't quite work out.
When it was time for the cousins to return home we were all so happy to have had this time together! What a great bunch of kids, and what great fun we all had with each other. Love them kids.
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Sally
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I second that!
Hmmm...those sure do sound like great cousins ;) Couldn't have asked for a better week together. Thanks to the two host cousins; You Rock!! ~Sally :)