It's been a week of rain, rivers, waterfalls and lakes, sickness and goodbyes. Rather busy really!
The best laid plans never usually work out smoothly and our first stop was not where we had planned due to the late buses, missed connections and late arrival into the dodgy port town of Puerto Barrios. Originally hoping to make it to Livingston, we sadly missed the boat, arriving 2 hours later than expected in Puerto Barrios, in the dark and the rain (yes, leaving it behind didn't work out!). We found a bed for the night, got taken to a nice restaurant by the owner of the hotel (to keep us safe as the area is unsafe for tourists) and bedded down for the night in the grim little town, planning an early rise and boat ride in the morning across to Livingston.
The next days travel was luckily more reliable and we caught a lancha (small motor boat) to Livingston at 7.30am. On arrival there we headed straight to Exotic Travel tour office, dumped our bags, ate breakfast and strolled off for our tour of the local area.
We had a very jolly, well rounded local tour guide for the day who took us on a very pleasant walk to La Siete Altares (the Seven Altars). Walking through the jungle initially proved quite an adventure and we had to navigate a path across the stones of various streams and rivers as well as test our balancing skills on a make-shift log-come-bridge that assisted us over a deep part. Fuelled up on a mid morning snack of mini bananas, we took a 25 minute gentle canoe ride down stream to the mouth of the river at the Caribbean Sea. There our walk continued along the beach to the entrance to La Siete Altares.
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| Carefully making the crossing on the 'bridge'! |
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| Amy and I both made it safely across. |
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| Enjoying the wilds of the Guatemalan jungle. |
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| Our mode of transport down the river. |
The waterfalls themselves were a series of stepped falls, cascading majestically as the river curved through the jungle. We tentatively made our way further up the river to the top and most magnificent of all the seven falls. The pool at the base was incredibly inviting by this point as we were both feeling hot and sticky. The cool water refreshed us immediately and a swim around, as well as a massage from the force of the water was a treat that was well worth the effort of the walk there.
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| The beautiful 'La Siete Altares'. |
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| Taking a dip in the refreshing pool. |
The next day we took a boat ride up the Rio Dulce to the town of the same name. It was a pretty journey, although didn't quite live up to the hype that we had heard and read about it. Stopping at a naturally hot swimming pool and the Castillo de San Felipe along the way broke the journey up. We found a lovely jungle lodge with a gorgeous swimming pool on the banks of the river and spent the early afternoon relaxing before taking a walk to a viewing tower in the late afternoon. More rain meant that we were once again wet but this now seems to be the pattern of the weather - clear mornings, rainy afternoons.
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| Looking out of the window in the tower. |
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| Waterlilies across the river. |
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| Castillo de San Felipe. |
Today was our second day in Rio Dulce and it was fantastic! We took a little bus to El Boqueron, a steep sided canyon with striking rock formations, howler monkeys and trees growing out the sides of the cliffs. I felt like I was in the scene of an Indian Jones movie!! We jumped off the bus at the sign for El Boqueron and walked down to the edge of the river. Deserted is the only word to describe where we stood. There was no sign of other human life. After 5 minutes and wondering what our options were, we spotted a guy wandering down to the river on the other side. He got in his little boat, rowed over and said it was 15 quetzales per person to be rowed into the gorge. A bargain of a price (about £1.10) we hopped on board and set off!! It was only a short journey, but it was peaceful, spectacular and extremely enjoyable (other than when I screamed as he pointed out an extremely hairy, long-legged spider on a rock right next to me!).
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| Perched on the rock in the middle of the river, in the canyon. |
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| Views down the river. |
Back on the side of the road, we waited only moments for a bus to pick us up and deposit us at our next stop of the morning, further back down the road at La Finca Paraiso (the farm of paradise). This is yet another beautiful waterfall, but this one is naturally hot, yes, a hot water waterfall!
We paid the fee, followed the little man in the wellies and cowboy hat and after about 5 minutes, were greeted by the spectacle of the water gushing over high rocks, steam floating above the water and a second, lower level waterfall sending cold water to mix in with the hot from the big fall. It was just magical!
Wasting no time, we de-clothed and dived in the water. Being submerged in cold water, while hot water pounded your head was certainly a unique experience. We scrambled up the side of the falls, clinging onto tree routes and making good use of the foot holes, to reach to top where the hot stream fed the falls and little thermal pools were perfect for soaking. A group of Mexican girls were covering themselves in mud, so, listening to their advice on the right kind of mud and good techniques, we duly joined in. Covering ourselves in mud from the edge of the pools was very funny but actually gave my skin an amazing natural exfoliation and it's never felt so smooth!
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| Soaking in the steaming hot pools |
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| Looking lovely and muddy! |
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| At the top of the spectacular falls. |
Having rinsed off, we carefully picked our way down the side of the falls for another dip in the cool river before heading back to the road, where once again another bus popped round the corner to take us back to town within minutes of our arrival on the side of the road.
Rio Dulce has been heaps of fun but tomorrow we head off for the next stop which just happens to be by more water again!
Love the mud photo. Must have been fun washing it all off afterwards.
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