Guatemala Part 1: Tikal and Rio Dulce

Our first stop in Guatemala was Tikal, the famous Mayan ruins.  Since it had been raining, it was a long, muddy road to get there.  We really enjoyed Tikal because of the rainforest setting.  The ruins were very extensive, and they were not as excavated as most of the other ruins we have visited, so to get from site to site, you had to walk through the forest.  It was beautiful there.  Here are some pictures:

Ceiba tree

walking through the jungle

Stela

Ricardo absorbing Mayan power from the ruins

View from the top of Temple IV, you can see tops of the other temples in the distance

fun at the ruins

Friendly coati waiting for someone to feed him

Don't remember which temple this was; there were many!

Tikal ruins

From Tikal, we went to Rio Dulce in Guatemala.  Rio Dulce is situated on a river (Rio Dulce) that flows into the Amatique Bay and Caribbean Sea.  There was a perfect spot to park in a little neighborhood just next to the Rio Dulce bridge, by the river. 

View of the River from where we parked Cubby

dog waiting for his human in the boat

We went to the little shop next door for a beer, thinking that we would probably leave in the morning because there didn't seem to be a whole lot going on in Rio Dulce.  To get to most places around Rio Dulce, you need a boat.  But it was there, sitting on the dock outside of the shop, that we met a 9-year old boy named Denny, who lives right next to where we parked Cubby.   Denny began talking with us, and little did we know he would become our best friend for our time in Rio Dulce! 

Denny's aunt had a lancha, a small motor boat, to take people around.  We decided to head across the river to the fish market to buy some fresh fish to make ceviche, and Denny negotiated a good price for us on his aunt's lancha.  Denny personally escorted us through the fish market and supervised the buying of the fish.  On the way back, we invited him to come over to have some ceviche with us that evening. 

Well Denny never really left - he wanted to come in and see the camper.  We gave him the tour, and a little later, more of the neighborhood kids started showing up, so Denny gave each one a tour of the camper.  Pretty soon we had a large group of children hanging around the camper, waiting for some ceviche.   



some of the Rio Dulce kids we met, gathered for a ceviche dinner

Ricardo in the camper, preparing ceviche, with some litte helpers

That night we had a big ceviche dinner with at least 8 kids to help us eat!  The kids were so curious about us and the camper that they didn't want to leave.  We ended up talking to them for quite a while - they were such a sweet group of kids!  We had a fun evening, and decided that the next day we would take a trip to the nearby Castillo San Felipe. 



Castillo San Felipe

Castillo San Felipe de Lara is an old fort built by the Spanish to protect the area from pirate attacks.  The fort was actually attacked several times, but has been rebuilt and redesigned since.  It now resembles an old castle, with lots of different rooms, narrow passageways, and lookouts. 

 

Castillo San Felipe

We brought 3 of the kids from Rio Dulce along with us to explore the fort - they had never been there before despite living so close!  They had a great time running through the passageways like a maze.  We also visited the pirate museum next door, very cheesy but entertaining for the kids.

posing with the cannon

Back in Rio Dulce, we stayed a couple days more getting to know the kids and the area.  We had a barbeque and had another dinner party outside Cubby. The adults in the area also began to open up to us - we got to know the mothers and the grandmother of some of the kids.  They were very kind to us - they brought us into the house when it started raining and fed us.  We heard a lot of stories about their lives - from happy stories to very tragic - that they shared very openly.  We learned so much about the lives and the culture there from their stories, things we will never forget.

Rio Dulce was one of my favorite stops in Guatemala for the cute kids and friendly people.  We had a great time, but as always, the time to move on came quickly.  The kids asking ´¨Why can´t you just stay here?¨and ¨Won´t you stay just one more day?¨ did not make it easy to leave, but we said our goodbyes, and headed on towards our next destination, Antigua, Guatemala...