Exploring and Stuff on the River

There are so many things to do and see on the Rio Dulce.  Usually when we are at dock we have projects to do on the boat and this is the time to do it, however, we are having such a good time that we are slacking terribly on our duties.  Oh well, it will get done eventually.  One of our favorite restaurants is Hotel Kangaroo.  It is a place off the river run by an Australian ex-pat and his German wife.  It is a hostel and restaurant and the food is excellant.  There are 3 dogs to greet you, a huge black one, an old female who is a sweetheart and a tiny little thing that is scared of his shadow. 

There is always a great breeze through here, in fact twice we have had to catch the table umbrella as it flew away Mary Poppins style, fold it up and put it on the deck.

When we saw the sign below we asked the staff if it were true and they said yes!  She said there was a grande and pequeno crocodile, huge and small.  She said that they had fed a live chicken to them at the end of the dock.  So we are believing.  The next time we came we met a young backpacker who was about to go swimming and we said, did you see the sign?  We said it might not be true, check with the staff and the owner said is was safe for her to go out....  Okay! we said we would watch her back, holy cow.   She went out with a weary eye and was perfectly safe.....LOL

Some beautiful Guatemala foilage, that you can buy at Home Depot and plant in your own yard!  Ha ha ha 

This is the end of a small inlet that takes you to Hotel Kangaroo.

We took a little tour of the marinas located here on the Rio and we are so glad we are at El Tortugal Marina we think it is the best. Below is Tijax, it was nice but not as much breeze as we get here at Tortugal.  They have a rubber tree plantation and a nature reserve with trails for hiking, learning about trees, medicinal plants and bird watching that we want to go on.

This is the suspended bridge at Tijax that takes you to the road and the nature reserve.

This is Mario's Marina, we were going to stay here until a spot became available at El Tortugal.  We understand that Mario's will be closing by Janurary 1, 2015.  The owner of the land is taking it back to build a private residence.

Mango Marina is in the next bay over from Mario's.  The owner of this property is also reclaiming the land, not sure what is going to happen here. There is one boat here our friends on s/v Sea Sister. 

Below is Vista Rio a restaurant, Marina, apartments and rooms.  Lunches are good and the beer is cheap and cold what more can you ask for.  It is for sale, by the way, you can have all of it for US $150,000.   They say you can get it cheaper though...hmmm.  I think any place on the Rio is for sale for the right price.

We took the dinghy down a inlet we saw, after we left Mario's.

It was very still and quiet, there were a few homes back in the jungle and over the water.

We found this hotel and restaurant at the end of the inlet.  It is Hotel Casa Perico.  It was a very quiet place with just a few people, we had a couple of beers then went back to exploring.

The owner of Tortugal, Daphne told us that the biggest fruit in the world is grown in Guatemala.  It is called a Jack fruit. She took us to a roadside nursery/fruit stand so we could sample one.  We ended up buying one.  Below are pictures of the countryside on the ride to the fruit stand.

Getting the fruit out of the shell was a trick.  Once Mike cut open the fruit you could see the little fruit pods, however when you tried to extract them a very sticky substance was under the skin.  It was so sticky that we had to use acetone to get it off our skin and knives.  The fruit was very delicious, we also sampled it frozen at the fruit stand and that was very refreshing.

This is Thelma, one of the dock cats who seems to have adopted us. We do not feed her, but she comes to our boat everyday to get loving.  Sometimes we have to walk her back to her food bowl at dinner time (actually carry her) so we know she is eating.

Here are Thelma and Louis another dock cat.

Bat girl is below, she is very beautiful. There is another one Gandalf that we don't have a picture of.  They are very happy and have the run of the place.

That's all for now.  Below is a video of our walk on the suspended bridge at Tijax.

Cheers Kim and Mike