Rio Dulce, Guatemala

May 29-31

Rio Dulce is down the river from Livingston. The town itself isn't huge, but most of the hotels and hostels are spread out across both sides of the river, most of them only accessible by boat.

I made it to Rio Dulce late in the afternoon, with just enough time for a kayak. I paddled down the river until I found the castle.

When I came back I had a little swim, including a few jumps from the rope. I later found out that a crocodile lives in this water! Eek.

I met a bunch of people at the hostel and we played cards for a few hours before settling in to watch a movie for the evening!

Next day, I headed off with Seth (Aussie) and Mackenzie (American) who I'd met at the hostel. We took a bus to Agua Caliento - which translates to 'hot water'. Here we found an amazing waterfall with a huge pool to swim in at the bottom. The water in the pool was really warm. The water coming from the waterfall was HOT! So hot that you wouldn't want to be under it for very long.

There were sections where you could go under the waterfalls and into little caves, just shallow enough to stand. In the caves it felt like a sauna, because of the hot water coming down from the waterfalls. Upon exploring further we found more caves, where some of the water gushing down was hot and some of the water was cold. I'm not entirely sure why this is, as it all seemed to be coming from the same place! Strange! 

We climbed up the side of the waterfall and found hot springs up the top. The water was scorching hot. I couldn't dip my fingers in for more than a split second. The water goes from the springs down into the falls, so I guess it's marginally cooler once it gets down the bottom. We were also told that the mud up there was great for exfoliating...so we covered ourselves! 

Once we'd explored every inch of Agua Caliento, we went back out to the road and waited at the bus stop to make our way to Boqueron, a canyon. Before long a truckie pulled over and offered us a ride! It was much more spacious than it looked. Seth took the front seat and Mackenzie and I sat in the back..in what seemed to be his bed! The whole time he drove with one hand on the phone, one hand on the gear stick and one elbow on the wheel. Always safe driving in Guatemala...

The canyon was really cool - absolutely huge! Pictures don't do this place justice at all because you'd never be able to capture how high the cliff edges go up. We hopped in a canoe and paddled down the canyon until it reached a couple of boulders blocking the way, then explored a little further by foot. 

After all this, we were pretty exhausted. We spent the evening chilling out at the hostel with a few drinks and some more card games.

Time to go learn some Spanish! 

MUUUUUUDDDD!!!!