Fronteres, Rio Dulce, Guatemala

Here are some pictures of our walk to the town of Fronteres from Tortugal Marina.  We usually take this walk early on Saturday morning when the fresh produce comes.  It is the only day to get mushrooms from one of the tiendas, and you have to get there early.

You can see how early it is coming into town, the streets are vacant and the stores are closed.

This is a view of Tienda Reed's from the bridge.  We do a lot of business at this store.

A view of Tortugal Marina from the bridge.  Ka'imi is the 3rd boat from the right.

Coming back over the bridge.

A view of Shell Bay, atop the bridge.

Hotel Backpackers, run by Casa Guatemala, the orphanage on the river.  

Returning to Fronteres, over the bridge.  It is a little later and the traffic is already picking up!

Mike passing one of the many vegetable vendors on the main street.

One of my favorite things to get in town are the fresh made corn tortillas.  There are many vendors selling them as they are a staple for every meal in Guatemala.  They are delicious!

There is a row of street food vendors selling everything from fish to boiled eggs.  We like the chuchitos, which are actually what we call tamales.

Chuchito's and egg for breakfast, yumm!  Mike's is chicken and mine is chipilin.

Cheers Kim and Mike

San Felipe

Well the eating, drinking and lounging by the sea in Roatan and Guanaja took it's toll on our waistlines.  Mike and I decided it was time to take a few pounds off by changing our eating habits and also walking 5 miles a day, 6 days a week!  We have two walks, one to San Felipe and one to the town of Fronteres.  These pictures are our walk to San Felipe.  

We start our walk out of the marina and through the jungle on the bridge that takes us to the street.  The path is beautiful!

 

The next part of the walk is on the dirt road that leads out to the main street.

Here we are on the road to San Felipe, where the Castillo San Felipe is located.

This is a view of the bridge that crosses over the Rio Dulce from the town of San Felipe.

There is a road that circles around the town and a few roads that cross over.

There are also roads that go down to the lake.

We call this house the castle, it's for sale if you're interested.  A dog lives here that barks like crazy every time we pass and scares me!  He is on a leash, but he comes running down to the fence.  A few times he has been off his leash but can't get over the fence, thank goodness.

These are pictures of some of the houses in the town of San Felipe.

Not so sure about the foundation of this house??

Just two of the many tiendas (stores) in San Felipe.

We go up this road, circle the town and come out here to return to Tortugal.  These kids live in the house on this corner.  The little girl was not happy because her sister would not let her come along with her.

Here is their house.

The local playground.

Some pictures of the main road in San Felipe.

The road back home to Tortugal.  In the picture below is Ruby. She works in San Felipe for a gringo.  She walks the dog every morning when she gets to work.

The next two pictures are of a house along the road.  The people here are very nice, we think they sell firewood.  We wish our Spanish was better so we could communicate more.

Interesting contrast of houses, the house below is right next to the house above.

Next to the house above is the Auto Hotel.  There are numerous Auto Hotels throughout Guatemala, and I am sure central america. It is a place which you can bring your date, drive into the garage so as not to be seen and have access to your hotel room.

This house belongs to a family with 5 children, who happily wave to us every morning as we walk by their house.  We occasionally bring them a bag of candy and they get so excited!

Finally, a picture of a dead tarantula on the streets of San Felipe. I have not seen a live one, and hope I never will!

Cheers Kim and Mike

River Life, Rio Dulce, Guatemala

We were supposed to get off the dock this morning and do some sailing and exploring for a month in Lago Izabal and the Rio Dulce, but the weather is gray and rainy so we will depart manana when the weather should be better.  This will give me time to update the web, I have gotten very far behind!   

When we returned to the Rio Dulce in May of 2015 we began our journey up the River with a stay at Cayo Quemado, also known as Texan Bay or Burnt Cay.  We took some time to explore in our dinghy the different river tributaries and caught a glimpse of local life.  

Some of rivers go back a few miles.  You will see jungle, howler monkeys, livestock and houses.

The houses you see along the river are very diverse.  The can be cement or wood, huge or small.

All the houses seem to have a guard dog of some kind, this one really wanted to come see us!

Everyone down river travels by boat of some kind.  There are no roads leading to a lot of the villages along the river.

The video below is in Burnt Cay, the little girls were selling bananas but did not want their picture taken, so Mike stopped filming.

Cheers Mike and Kim