This past weekend we spent 2 nights and three days in Rio Dulce. We traveled in a shuttle from El Remate and then a 4 hour bus ride, with an engine belt change on the way. After our arrival, we relaxed for a few minutes and enjoyed a mineral water with lime, my main drink here, and then took a boat over to the Tijax hotel where we ended up staying. We got to swim in a pool which was nice but definitely isn´t the lake in El Remate.
In the morning we took a long boat ride, about an hour and a half, which ended up being a tour in itself. Since it´s so hot and humid here right now, it was so nice to feel the wind from the boat going fast on the lake. The lake there is about 300 miles, which in my opinion should be renamed a sea it was so vast. The boat tour which was really our transportation, took us to Livingston where we spent a very quick 2 hours walking around, shopped a little and ate a quick lunch that was made for us by a woman named Maria. I had vegetable curry since she lived in India for a while and started a trend of some of the best food I´ve had since I´ve been in Guatemala. The food overall has been pretty darn great!
We then took a boat back and after relaxing and going in the pool decided to pay a boat driver to deliver us to Tortugal, a marina. Had we known about it first, we probably would have stayed there. We met the nice couple from Texas who has been managing the marina for about 2 years and got to know the marina dog, Jeffe. (pronounced with an “h”) he had the sweetest eyes and you could tell he was not only fed well by the managers but by the patrons as well. I had the yummiest fish dinner and finally one without the head and tail attached.
In the morning we decided to eat there again and have breakfast before we left. We then headed off on a very hot, very crowded bus on our return. When we got to Flores it was a bit stressful trying to figure out where to find a shuttle to get back to El Remate. After following our instincts and sitting in a van with about 12 others, we were both happy to back in our comfortable bungalows, to our familiar little town and the lake we both love to cool off in.
Last night it was about to rain so we conveniently decided to walk next door and again eat at Angelo´s. We had our usual Caprese salad con lechuga (with lettuce) and shared an eggplant parmesan. I seriously think it was the best one I´ve ever had. When I finally make it to Italy one day, I think I´m going to be in trouble. On the way, I noticed some blinking lights by the dock. The light to the dock had gone out and it was a good thing. There were fire flies! It was the first time I´ve ever seen them and I was so amazed I just sat and watched them for a while. I felt like a kid.
After sleeping in this morning, I went around town and bought a few gifts for family, and then a swim in the lake a few docks down. Each dock has its own personality and draws it´s own crowd. Today we met some girls here from South Dakota who are in a Spanish program at their University and are here traveling. We relaxed for a while and then went back to the bungalows to do some translating.
I worked on an exercise I am putting together for the teens to do tomorrow morning. I bought them each a pen, something cherished here, and printed them each a worksheet. I met a little girl today named Doria that heard about our meeting tomorrow and is going to be there. I have a feeling that I won´t need to be worried about no one showing up tomorrow, in fact there might be more than the 16 kids who came to the Biotopo with me the other day.
This afternoon for lunch I quenched my thirst with mineral water, lime and ate a salad with tuna, tomato, potatoes and eggs. For desert we had a nutella crepe with sliced bananas! As a vegetarian, there are lots of options and even in this small town, a lot of variety. Only a few more days here but lots of fun things planned. Not sure when I´ll be doing everything but on the agenda: working with the teens, lunch with a woman originally from Canada named Anne who helps with organizing the volunteer work here, planting a vegetable garden, more lake swims, one more Angelo meal for sure, reading more of the great book I´m reading called “The Wonder of Girls”, and some goodbye celebrations that hopefully won´t be the last.