Traveling from Antigua to Rio Dulce today took us about 8 hours, which included a two hour stop at some Mayan ruins. Luckily, we were able to get a private van (actually, I don't even think there are chicken busses that run in this part of the country) with air conditioning, which really cut out on the heat. On the ride, I was able to read a good chunk of Isabel Allende's Zorro and watch a couple episodes of "The Office" on Haley's ipod ("The Fight," "The Fire," and "The Client"). With all that entertainment, I actually found the travel day to be quite enjoyable.
The Mayan ruins (Quirigua) we stopped at were pretty cool, though they were a little bit smaller than Copan and what will be Tikal. It was nice to not be overwhelmed by courtyard after courtyard of unbelievably large ruins. These were modest in size, but the attraction these offered was the preservation of the carvings. Apparently the limestone in this region (or is it sandstone?) was much harder than that at many other Mayan sites. As a result, there is very little wear and tear on the large statues that remain. The largest statue in the Mayan world is located here, and is a towering 35 meters (or was it feet?) and was quite impressive.
After hearing all the stories about Rio Dulce, we were all expecting the worse: Scorpions, being located miles from anywhere, horrible mozzies, and all the other expectations one would have when thinking of the jungle. This was definitely not the case. As we crossed a large bridge into Rio Dulce, Gemma (our tour leader) pointed to a place just off the shore, showing us where we would be staying. We thought we were going to be way out in the middle of nowhere, but it ended up being less than a 100 meter boat trip from a major Guatemalan town. It would end up that the bugs were quite normal and the place was quite enjoyable. Our hotel/lodge was called Tijax and because of the horrible flooding they had been experiencing over the past week was almost completely under water. All the huts are one stilts, and some did not make it. Luckily ours was spared, but we had to cross a narrow plank with all our bags (I had to carry two as a result of our shopping spree in Antigua). It was all quite exciting now that I didn't drop anything.
The best thing about our new lodgings in the swimming pool. It is a nice, clean pool, complete with two jetted tubs and plenty of room for our entire group. As soon as we dropped our bags and went over the next day's activities, we all jumped in. Shannon, Erin, Andrew, Nikki, Haley, and I all tried to form the letters G.A.P. in the water (the name of our tour group) in hopes they will feature the picture in the next GAP newsletter and give us a discount on our next trip. I was pretty impressed with how clearly we were able to make those water-words, but we'll have to stand by on whether or not the picture will ever be published.
One last cool thing about today. At dinner, Amy told us about this cool trick she picked up to find spiders. You take a flashlight, point it straight out from your forehead to correspond to your line of sight. Make sure the flashlight is on spotlight mode and shine the light on the ground (or in the trees, or anywhere you think you may find spiders). As you scan the area, you will undoubtedly see little sparkly lights shining back at you. As you follow these lights, you will find more spiders than you ever knew existed in your backyard, or the jungle for that matter. I thought Amy was fully of it at first, but when I gave it a go, she was right. It is really cool, I encourage you to try it out.
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