Mutiny On Rio Dulce

Spent the morning straightening out our bills at the Finca. Then we were off into previously uncharted territory. We were going were no other group had gone before - south to Rio Dulce for a 2 day Catamaran trip.

The whole situation had me a little pissed off already. My boss is supposed to fully prepare me with all of the information I need to complete my trip successfully. When I left LA, I felt completely unprepared for this trip – my boss gave me limited info and then said that he would get back to me when he had the situation all straightened out with the Captain. My boss never got back to me and the phone number I had for the Captain didn’t work until I arrived in Guatemala. When I finally got through to the Captain he was completely surprised to hear from me. He said that he had not heard from anyone from our company for months and that he thought that the whole thing was called off. He said that he was on vacation visiting his daughter in Western Guatemala, but that he would return to do the trip for us… he didn’t sound happy.

We arrived in Rio Dulce around noon and did some last minute shopping. The main street, or should I say only street, is a zoo.

At the marina I met Captain Bob. He is an interesting fellow – a short, stocky pock-faced man with really glassy blue eyes and deeply furrowed wrinkles sprouting from his eyes and his cheeks. He skin looked as sun faded and worn as his oversize pink shirt and he had a weird look to him that made him look sinister. This is the “Captain"? He said that he had worked hard to throw together an itinery for the next 2 days – things to do, places to stay – and that it was difficult to do at the last minute. He had us grab our gear and head to the boat to start our trip. The catamaran was definitely not the luxury cruiser that I had imagined. It was small, rickety and looked like it had aged as well as its owner. There was a small trampoline up front that could hold only 4 people (I am assuming because any more than that would cause it to pull apart at the seams) and a deck in the back with a few lawn chairs for seating. The sail wasn’t even in place and instead of wind power we relied on two small motors on the back of the boat to troll us to our destination for the day.

The destination was a finca upriver and from there a hot springs waterfall. When we landed we jumped into a trailer hooked up to an ancient tractor and chugged our way along a river towards the hills. The waterfall was amazing. A thin, winding thermal (very hot) river rolled over the edge of a cliff and down large mineral formations where it mixed below with a colder river. I was really incredible. We jumped in the colder part of the river and as we swam towards the waterfall, the water got increasingly warmer. Standing under the gushing thermal water was the hottest shower that I had in weeks. We spent about an hour just relaxing on the large hot rocks under the falls just enjoying the natural spa.

The trip back to Rio Dulce was not so fun. We had left in such a hurry that I had no time to remind the group (nor myself) to bring something warm to wear on the return trip. With the sun down, the wind whipping and then later rain it was a cold, on comfortable trip home. So much so that when I got back the group told me that they didn’t want to take the boat trip the following day. Since the Captain had done so much last minute planning for the trip I really didn’t want to pull out of the commitment for the next day so I spent the next hour convincing them that it was worth it.
That night we ate at the restaurant in the campground. I sat with 4 pax and we waited for about 2 hours for our food. When it finally arrived, everyone received a meal except for me. I waited about 10 minutes longer and when I finally realized that it wasn’t coming I told the waitress. She told me that the cook would start cooking it right away. About another half hour later my meal finally arrived… not the steak that I ordered but a chicken breast. Total Mexi-style service baby!