There are no roads along the Rio Dulce for over 30 miles or so. As a result, everyone moves around the river in cayucas or launchas. Cayucas are canoes hollowed out of a tree by hand and paddled around the river by local Mayans. Launchas are solid fiberglass runabouts about 18 feet long powered by a 70 hp outboard. They are used to transport folks up and down the river. They run day and night, usually at high speeds and often without running lights at night. Most cruisers are off the river by dark, but the other night we were out in our dinghy unexpectedly. Travis was driving as we rounded a bend in the river and spotted an unlit launcha coming towards us. We flashed our spotlight at him. He turned in the same direction we turned and before we knew it we rammed the bow of our dinghy into the side of his boat. We all thought we were going to be thrown into the water, but fortunately we were not moving very quickly and just bounced off the side of his boat. Some other folks on the river were not so lucky a few days later. Last Saturday night, around 8:00 p.m., a launcha carrying French tourists was hit in the side by another launcha without lights carrying some locals in almost the same place we were hit. The launcha with French tourists sank immediately. The Guatemalan navy put out a call to the cruisers in the area to assist with finding a missing French tourist thrown into the water. The navy and the cruisers searched the river for over an hour, but he was not found. Also, a Guatemalan woman in the other launcha was rushed to the hospital but later died from her injuries. The driver of the unlit launcha made it to shore and fled on foot after the accident. From now on, we are going to do our best to stay off the river after dark.