By Mom - SC - Rio Dulce - Livingston

Hi - I am taking up the slack for Marcus the next few days while he recouperates from an overload of sensory experiences... I will start with the present and then move backward... Marcus is working on the SEMUC CHAMPEY post.

Semuc Champey has been my favorite place so far... I have never experienced anything like it. Bat caves with thousands of bats exiting at dusk.  A standing pick-up truck ride for 6 km on a bumpy, up & down hill, dirt road (and bruises to show for it!))  A Semuc Champey river cave hike with a lit candle in hand - (swimming with the other hand), jumping into pitch black pools, pulling myself with ropes when the water was moving too fast against me. (I never would have gone on that little hike if Darren would have been here  to go with Marcus - so Im really glad that I went!)

But the Semuc Champey pools are more amazing than they are in photos... plus they are full of minerals that FINALLY made my hair and skin soft (at least for a day :-) It was definitely hard to leave... tubing down the river... and watching naked 20-something guys tube down the river with cole cervezas in hand - an experience not to be beat.

ANYWAY... we left yesterday morning at 8 AM in a packed shuttle van. I was sitting next to the sliding door (with dust flying through the cracks), on a pull-down.. broken-down-slanted chair with virtually no back........ for a 7 hour ride in 90+ degree weather & no AC... The first 4 hours we were on a washboard-dirt road that turned and twisted through corn-filled mountains and "aldeas" without electricity. 

Hour 5 was hit and miss - pavement.  We arrived in the town of Rio Dulce..... Waited for the "lancha" (boat) to take us to Livingston. We LOVED the 1.5 hours of the "drenched in river water" ride to Livingston, at which point the water began to taste saltier and saltier. We took a taxi to the other side of town and walked over a suspension bridge and followed the beach trail for 10 minutes to our oasis at the Salvador Gaviota, as the last remaining light of sun disappeared over the horizon. It was completely dark by the time we arrived at the restaurant for "cenar" and Marcus was DONE... I mean, more "done" than he has been this entire trip... so I told him Id write up the blog summary today. 

Last night was fun, although Marcus was quite out-of-it... I talked with the only other hotel occupants - an ecclectic group of 30-something friends, who are all living in Peten, but here for a birthday. They made up a Guatemalan woman with long dreadlocks & her handsome, German fiance along with 2 dogs (a chihuahua & weimeraner who is bathed regularly in "organic shampoo" - clearly the most clean dog we have touched since we have been here)....an Australian guy, a Colombian woman & her Spanish husband along with their little baby, and a Polish woman who will be moving back to Europe soon. They stayed until the Colombian woman said to her hubby, "Come on - lets go to bed," at which he responded to the group, "Im tired and going to bed now... but ONLY because I want to, and NEVER because she tells me too... I NEVER do that, because Im the man of the house and I would NEVER go only because she wanted me to.... Ok, honey - its time to go to bed... let's go.  By the way, do you see how well she behaves?" 

At 10PM, we went to our room wrapped in bug netting, lit our (hotel provided) mosquito coil and fell asleep to the sound of our oscillating fan, the caribbean waves, and the thousands of chirpping insects outside our palapa.... ahhhh...

This morning Marcus and I are the ONLY ones here - we have the ENTIRE beach to ourselves, minus the 3 fisherman who brought in a platter of fresh fish to be cooked up for today's "almuerzo" -  All for 80 Quetzales... (that's LESS than $10/night - you gotta love GUATEMALA...

Later today.... Exploring Livingston after 17 years have passed and Marcus learning about the GARIFUNA culture in town - maybe we'll here some drumming :-)

I'm just now realizing how much I like to punctuate with "..."  oh well...  

xoxoxo T

On the "other side of town"  - this is the beach trail we walked down to arrive at Hotel Salvador Gaviota... no crowds... just us and a retired guy!

Our awesome bungalow... and yes, I gave Marcus the big bed (since he is now bigger than me.)

This is the beach in front of the hotel... for 2 days now, we have had it almost completely to ourselves. (One retired guy from Tenessee is here too.)  Today we are taking out the kayaks. Also, do you see where that boat is? That far out is only up to our wastes!

Swingins in the hammock... respite from the adventures...

Marcus talking with John, from Tenessee about his military experience, juicing and organic gardening.  Yes... this is another eco-hotel (we are noticing that this is becoming really big - some places are more into it than others - but at the least, the ones we have stayed at all have a fairly high, minimum level of eco-responsibility... some even contribute to local programs aimed at educating communities, distributing garbage cans, implementing recycling programs and working with WOOF! Reality - Most towns have a LONG way to go - often it is VERY difficult to find a garbage can... baby steps...