Livingston-Rio Dulce... Oh how I hate you Fuente Del Norte

To continue on with the story, I´ll take you back to Livingston, the little Garifuna fishingtown I was in a few days back. Since there are no roads in or out of livingston, you have to leave by boat, and I decided to take the most beautiful route- a boat ride up the Rio Dulce to the town of Fronteras (also known as Rio Dulce). The ride was amazing. We headed up the river in a lancha (small motorcraft) with about 10 of us and a few bags. Since the river is calm we didn´t get wet at all, which was nice. When you leave livingston, you see these enormous (500ft) sheer cliffs shooting up on either side of the river, and there are tons of birds there too. I met a few Israelis and we asked the driver to stop at the hot springs which are along the way. There is a natural rock formation there into which hot air and water bubbles from the cliffside, and the lancha driver let us out for a 10 minute swim, which was unreal. The water is lukewarm, and then warm, and then suddenly it is boiling- like unbelievably hot. Reminds me of hot springs I have swam in in Yosemite park before.

We continued up the river and I was dropped off in Fronteras. A simple 10 minute walk into town and I find the bus station, and book the 5pm bus to Flores. 50 Quetsales ($7), should be an easy trip. I kill time by attending 2 for 1 happy hour at the only expatriots bar in town, where I meet none of the locals, and all of the (older) expats. I get back at 5- bus no va... come back at 6.30... oooookkkkayy this is Guatemala, this is how things go here. So I come back at 6.30... no bus. Come back at 7.30... no bus, but its okay because the operator tells me it will be here in a half an hour. 8- no bus,"cinco minutos." If I was paid a Quetsale for every time I heard that, my busride would have been free. Finally at 9.30, after spending nearly half the day in a town which was not too pleasant (think major trucking hub) I get to board the bus. I learn immediately that there are no open seats, and I will be standing, packed into a very large (think greyhound) bus with dozens of other people all standing like me. It´s cool though, because when they pack us in that tight it eliminates the need for seatbelts!

Guate busdrivers are MADMEN. We´re doing 60-70mph on the bus... in the pitch black... passing 18 wheel trucks around blind turns and up hills and places where you really can´t see anything. Then after an hour, the bus no funciona... it broke down. We deboard, wait an hour, it works so we get back on and go. 30 minutes later, same problem, same effect. Long story short, I got to Fronteras at 4pm and got to Santa Elena, the town adjacent to Flores, at 2.30am. Luckily the hostel in Flores was still lit and the keeper was still awake. I pay 20Q for a hammock for the night... and by the night I mean 3 hours- because I was getting up at 5am to get to Tikal nice and early. So that´s my fun Rio Dulce story.

On an interesting note, when I arrived at 2am I randomly bumped into a Dutch girl who happened to be coming out of the bathroom who I had hung out with in Utila... random event I guess.

3 Hours of sleep, a cold shower, and it´s on to TIKAL!!!!
ps- the title makes more sense if you know that Fuente Del Norte is the bus company which took me to Flores.