From Flores to Rio Dulce

Pictures can be found at the end of this post.

Another early morning, we woke up before the alarm again, around 5:15am. My friend had set her alarm a little after and when I asked her last night what it sounded like, her answer was: aweful and so I think my body doesn't want to find out what it sounds like ;-)!

We grabbed our bags and checked out, but not without our free breakfast to go: avocado toast and a banana. It feels like it's crunchy through the paper bag it's in but I probably won't eat until we get there so might be soggy by then. The bus drive to Dolce Rio is 4hours, which probably means it's 5-6. As we wait for the bus to leave, the birds around us, hundreds of them, are communicating with eachother. The sounds are pitch high and loud, which make me wonder if my friends alarm clock, or any other noise for that matter, could be worse. The skies are turning red and orange preparing for the sun to come up. Byebye Flores, thank you for the cheap drinks and the warm welcome ;-)!

We are learning new words every day, mostly menu items haha. You can get around though with not speaking Spanish, people are very helpful and friendly so far and we manage. 

Speaking of the menu, what's on it? For breakfast toast or tortillas, black bean paste, eggs, avocado, fruit, yoghurt. But we were told that locals eat black bean paste and eggs. For lunch and dinner, chicken, fish, other meats, pizza (which is not cheap compared to some of the other items), burgers, sanwiches, rice, fries, soups. And of course also burritos, tacos, nachos, fajitas, quesidillas! Oh and cocktails and beers! Nom nom!

Back to the drive. The views from the bus are nice, lots of green and hills. During the ride, again, I had this moment where I just smiled. It's hard to explain, but it's as if time stands still and I am in the here and now, not thinking about anything and I feel happy, free. And I've always been able to feel that way and have those moments, just not so much last year. And to have had a few on this trip already, feels really good. Back to doing the things I love and feeling more and more like myself again. And with that all the memories of my past travels seem to make an appearance and I am reminded of everything I've seen and done. And it makes me smile even more! 

Anyways, the first half of the drive was fine, minor bumps. But after that, more and more bumps. Still, the driver seems to only know how to use the gas pedal haha. In Madagascar we would drive 10km an hour and almost come to a complete stop when there was a hole in the road, here it's more like 50. But they seem to be working on the road a lot here, so that's a good sign for future travelers. 

Either way, I was wrong about two things. The toast held it's crunch, but for some reason the avocado was swapped for ham, luckily we are not vegetarians :-). And the other thing is that it did not take us longer than 4hours, we had a 15min break and still got to our destination 10min earlier. Must have been due to Speedy Gonzales' driving!

The weather is still gorgeous by the way, 30°c +! And so we were again greeted by the sun when we got off the bus. We get more and more messages from back home about snow this past week and are happy to be here instead! A small boat picked us up from the bus stop and took us to our accomodation for the next 3 nights. It's on the river :-)! 

We got there pretty early and chilled for a bit. There's a huge bookcase and so that was my first stop, I picked up a few books but decided to read the one I brought from home first (which I did). We were able to check in not much after we arrived. Its a bamboo hut with two seperate rooms and a balcony. After choosing beds and getting settled in, we went for a walk. From the property you cross a boardwalk through mangroves, then through the hardwood and cacao plantation to get to the main road. From there it was another 20min walk or so to get into town. It was around noon and there wasn't a lot of shade so it was pretty hot! We made it into town and I finally found sunglasses, I forgot mine at home.

At night we just chilled, had dinner, drinks and were greeted by mosquitos. I think I was bit first and according to my friend I'll get Zika now haha, cheers. 

There's a huge and high bridge closeby and trucks struggle to go up the steep end, the noises that come from it sounds like we are in a warzone sometimes. Luckily there's hardly any traffic during the night, but there is early in the morning and late in the evening and we went to bed pretty early. Beds are very nice though.

We took a boat to Livingston, small place near by (about 45min), the next morning. It was just us and another couple and there was music! It was loud, mostly local (but also Bob Marley) and a lot of fun. We went by a few things on the way, castle, waterlilies, iguanas, birds, before going full speed ahead to Livingston. We also saw pelicans flying close to the water, and just like that I was in Jurassic park again.

There's not much to do in Livingston, it's one giant market and the place you get in by boat from Belize. The people are different looking, more carribean but still friendly. We walked around for a bit and had a few drinks (duh) and then had to wait for a bit and then some more, mañana mañana. The boat driver turned the music on while we waited and so I danced for about an hour on the docks, there was a lot of locals watching haha. We then returned, 45min of sun, speed (boat) and music!

We got up pretty early on our final full day here and watched the sunrise from the docks, went kayaking (my first time ever and it showed), and I swam to the floating dock in front of the property. Nobody ever seems to go there so it was my private little island! After a few hours I swam back for lunch and a cuba libre or two and we didn't do much the rest of the day. It's been a great stay but I am ready for a change of scenery. Coming up; Lanquín/Semuc Champey, a 5 hour (fingers crossed) drive.