Rio Dulce - The Continuing Saga

After waiting about 1/2 an hour our launch arrived.  Actually the owner of the hotel arrived from town where he had been grocery shopping and took us across the lake to our abode-a cute hut in the middle of the swamps.  The owner is Swiss so when I asked if he had schnitzel he proudly answer certainly and we had Schnitzel for dinner.  We had not had breakfast or lunch, although I can't say we starved with stuff we had in the car, and a nice shower to wash off the smoke.  Hot and muggy again!

Ours is the little blue one in front that you can barely see.

Entering the canal to our abode.

Hope our boat has better luck

Walkways between buildings

Trees growing in the swamp

Termite nest in the trees

Our cozy little home for a couple of nights

One of three of my mosquito eating friends in the cabin with us

Those 4 black things up there on the wall are our resident bats.  Also mosquito eaters.

We had an excellent breakfast the next morning and got ready for our trip to Livingston.  The launch came right to our hotel and picked us up at 9 am.  He went around to other various accommodations and soon the 20 passenger launch had 18 people and we were officially off.  It was a pleasant trip and the breeze the boat created was very welcome indeed.  We passed bird island and he slowed down and gave us a brief description of the place and we were off again.

Our new friends Esteban and Julian

Enjoying the breezes.  Hey look kids.  I took a selfie

Bird Island

Our next stop was the lagoon of flowers.  Tons of lily pads and all in bloom.  It was lovely.  And then to the hot springs for a bathroom stop.  A tour through some caves was available but our stop was only 20 minutes and it took 20 minutes to go through the cave tour.  We opted to not miss the boat.

Lagoon of Flowers

Hot Springs stop.

The shores on either side of the river were thick lush jungle and the narrowest part of the river, called a canyon sported shear cliff that should have been ruins of some kind.  In fact one of the cliffs looks like it has a door in it.  Eldon says no but I think it is.  Maybe the Mayans have a secret city up there some where.  The vines and trees growing on the wall make it so one could climb to the top.  Not this person though!

Lush jungle along the river

Shear cliffs.  This should be ruins of some sort don't you think?

And then came Livingston.  It is a unique place populated originally by  black Caribs with their own language and their own culture.  Mayans moved in during the civil war.  We were greeted at the wharf by a group of black young men who teasingly said "Welcome to Africa".

The Docks

Hurricane must have put the ship there awhile ago.  There is a tree growing up through the decking!

 As we started into town we met an old man (4 years younger than Eldon) who started talking to us about the history and the real Livingston.  He is a teacher and an elder of the black section of the town.  He gave us a tour of what we would call ghettos but is their home.  They are trying to hold their community together.  A hurricane wiped Livingston out a number of years ago and they are attempting to rebuild and prevent their culture from going extinct.

Philipe Flores giving us a tour

Philipe and Eldon

Eldon gathering a sample of sand for a friend back home.

   After his little tour Philip Flores took us to his favorite place to eat and we had Caribbean food.

Mmmm!  Yum.  This was Eldon's soup.  Actually tasted good.

And my little morsel with fried sweet green bananas.  They were yummy!

One of the older original houses of Livingston.  Still occupied.

The boat left at 2:30 with just a few of us aboard and we were bucking the waves going back up the river.  The front end of the launch would fly into the air and come down with a hard and solid crash.  I think the only part in the water was the motor.  A two hour "flight" on that and I did not even get queezy.  Ernie would be proud of me.  We made it home in one piece though, and back to the heat without the breeze of the water in our faces.  We ate dinner, played 5 Crowns with one deck of cards made up from several partial decks and no jokers (a bit challenging).  Went to bed early and all the European backpacker kids played music and drank beer until about 10 or so.  Torrential rains hit about 2 am.

The next morning we got up, had breakfast, said good bye to the four bats and three spiders, all descendants of Aragog I am sure (Harry Potter for those not in the know), got in the launch and headed for the car.

Heading for the mainland

Beautiful scenery and smooth sailing but watch out for the potholes.

The car did well and the only issues were the not infrequent potholes in the road in some areas.

We got home, threw a load of laundry in and headed out to a temple workers party.  They had a fabulous marimba band and hot fruit punch (can't remember the correct name of it) tamales and a roll.  Some dancing ensued to the lively music.  All in all a great time.  The only thing we brought home we could have done without was the sunburns we acquired at Monterrico.  Wish you all were here to enjoy it with us.

Marimba band.  Best one in Guatemala

Hobbitenango

Wednesday we headed for Antigua and Hobbitenango.  We passed some vines set up like grapes but they had huge long squash looking things growing.  It was what they make louffas with.

Louffa plants

It was only a 2 1/2 hour drive so we stopped in Antigua and the market and found an apron and a couple of nativity sets.  I looked for a nice wooden box to put my herb tea into but didn't find anything I liked.  We got to the parking lot of Hobbitenango and noted the sign that read call this phone number and for Q10 we will come and pick you up, put on our backpacks and started up the 1 km hike figuring we were seasoned hikers.  No problem.  Won't make that mistake again.

The parking lot.

Drive up at your own risk

Note the angle Eldon is leaning,  The hill should have had a stair case.

The views from the top were spectacular.  It took a lot of pauses and rests but we made it.

View looking down on villages

Welcome to Hobbitenango in several languages.

We are officially there.

Front door of the main restaurant area.

Huffing and puffing (I must be getting too old for this stuff) we arrived and were warmly greeted by the owners and our own personal little Hobbit Luis.  He got us drinks and had us sit on the porch enjoying the view while the finishing touches were done on our cabin. We drank pear juice and water and then it began raining so we retired in through the big blue door.

We were taken to our little cabin with the nice chiminea, heavy wool blankets on the floors and the bed and several fluffy down pillows on the bed.  Also two bean bag chairs with cool cushions in them.

Note the metal designing on the door.  It replicates the real Hobbit door.

Cozy bed and bean bag chairs with little cushions

Fireplace and antique cupboards with real ancient books in and on it.

Our little house from the outside

Our little Hobbit asked if we needed hot chocolate or the fire lit or anything at all.  We had him lite the fire and after he left we fixed the logs so they would stay burning.  He checked on us every hour.  As it turned out the big windows leaked in the downpour and we were entertained with wiping up the floor.  The maid came and picked up the wet wool blanket that had been there and replaced it and mopped the entire floor and got the workers to come and calk the window from the outside.  It helped but they are planning on redoing that part of the house with their new design as soon as the other house is finished,  It had taken 1 1/2 years to make this one (a learning experience) and the second one they almost have finished after 5 weeks.  They have improved the windows and the doors and have a good carpenter this time.  Our house wasn't quite finished as they were putting in a sauna in the shower.  We kept the fire going all night as it was rather chilly and this place is by no means insulated.

Windows looking out of our house.  The bottom of the sills leaked into the house.  

Our little Hobbit Gate to the garden area

Coming out of our little house

The new house is on the right below our red door house.

Entrance to our bathroom

Our shower.  Not quite finished.

Looking into our shower from the bedroom with bathroom and shower doors open

The office had board games you could take to your room and we played scrabble while it rained.  We then went out and took some pictures between rain showers and hiked up the hill a ways to see Agua, Fuego and Pacaya all at once.  We were told that at night you can see both Fuego and Pacaya volcanoes blowing at the same time and it is spectacular.  We had a lovely supper of the best taco soup I have had in a long time and some great hot chocolate that Luis made for us.  They are on solar electricity but have enough power to charge your phones and have lights on any time.  The shower had it's issues and only had cold water.  It is suppose to be warm they said but it wasn't.  The clouds and the rain precluded seeing any fireworks from the volcanoes.

Agua

Fuego in the left

We got up about 6 and wandered about.  Staff finally started arriving at 8 and we wanted to leave to get to Rio Dulce, the longest leg of our trip.  Luis made us some hot chocolate but the cook had not arrived by 8:45 so we put on our packs and hiked down the mountain.  We had been looking forward to their delicious breakfast but it was our own fault we missed it.  If we had mentioned it the night before they would have had it done.

Building next to the restaurant.  Also available for restaurant seating and painting classes

Staff housing.  Only holds three.  They are working on getting more housing.

Workers heading to the fields above

Frodo the cat

They provide archery as a pastime. 

Eldon looking out from restaurant door

Sign on the gate says PiPi room and is for the men only.

We left the parking lot about 9:15.  Waze was insisting on going some strange way but Eldon persisted and she finally relented.  It cut 1 1/2 hours off the trip Eldon's way.  We got to Rio Dulce and finally found, with considerable help, where to get the launch to take us to our hotel.

Rio Dulce on the next leg of the blog.