Rio Dulce

Friday 21 December 2007

We decided to head south east to Rio Dulce, and then push on into Copan Ruinas in Honduras for Christmas.

We had enquired at the Info office in Tikal about buses to Santa Elena the previous evening, and the times did not work for us, so he suggested we book a special colectivo (minibus) which would pick us up from the hotel and take us there.

As promised the bus did pick us up at 0800 and we set off. The driver then headed to one of the other hotels where he picked up 6 workers, so the bus started to fill up fast. No sooner had we left the gates of the National Park than he stopped again to pick up more people who were waiting by the roadside. Now the bus was full, with all 15 seats occupied.

Another mile down the road he stopped again, this time for two women and their 3 kids. We couldn't see how they would fit in but somehow they just melted into the seats behind us! Off we went again.

By the roadside there was a old man waiting with a large tyre. He too got picked up and the tyre got slung onto the roof of the minibus. The old man stood bent double in the minibus. Just when we thought that no one else could possible fit in the bus the driver stopped again...and picked up another old man. The driver intervened and asked the women to move the children about and eventually the old man managed to get one "cheek" on the edge of a seat.

All in all our driver managed to get 25 passengers into his 15 seater minibus - we still have no idea how he did it - a real lesson in maximising profits, even if service levels suffered slightly!!!

The bus journey from Santa Elena to Rio Dulce passed through a lush landscape, where pigs sat by the roadside feeding their piglets, dogs ambled across the road and people wash their clothes in the river and then dry them on the barbed wire fences at the roadside. Much of the housing was small wooden shacks roofed with banana leaves, and children ran around baefoot.

Our bus driver fancied himself as a rally driver and pushed to overtake lorries on blind bends and blind hills.

Arriving safely in Rio Dulce we checked out the Hotel Las Brisas, which the guide said is "good enough for a night". However, unless you are happy with a windowless cell where you walk through the shower to get to the toilet bowl then it's just not good enough for even one night. We headed to Bruno's the best place in town, splashed out on a room with air-con, TV, and a balcony with a hammock overlooking the lake... and all for 17 UK pounds a night (250 Q's).

Saturday 22 December 2007

We had a lazy day today and decided to take a local bus out to one of the outlying villages along the lakeside. The bus trip started well with a decent road and we made good progress. Fifteen minutes into the journey we crossed the first bridge over the river and this also marked the end of the paved road. We were now on a potholed dirt track, and the going was very slow and rough. Dave had to check that his fillings hadn't fallen out! This lasted for the remainder of the 2 hour journey.

We had intended to go to the bird sanctuary at El Estor, but as it turned out we arrived too late to make it worthwhile going. So turning a bad trip into a very good trip we had ice-cream instead! We took a nice gentle walk by the lakeside and watched as the locals piled onto small boats that plied the lake. Once again, we witnessed a real lesson in maximising profits, as the boat sat low in the water, heavily laden.

With dread in our hearts we boarded the bus for the return journey. Same amount of time, just 10 Q's less (we discovered that the driver earlier had fleeced us of 5 Q's each (about 60 pence in total). We felt that we had the last laugh though, as we took comfort from the knowledge that we would never do that journey again and he would be doing it every day for the foreseeable future. Every cloud has a silver lining!

Back in Rio Dulce, we got our washing returned, smelling much cleaner and we set about packing our backpacks once again, in readiness for tomorrow's journey to Honduras.