It was the best beginning to the season – an uneventful flight to Guatemala city, smooth connections and a friendly and informative Guatemalan seatmate; a purse that was not lost, merely dropped (and found intact) and easy passage through immigration and customs; a loaned phone to call Mario and kind delivery to Hostal Villa Toscana.

Our room there was charming and the bed, not only beautiful, but comfy too. Breakfast of scrambled eggs with tomato and onion, refried beans, plantains and a basket of breads was delicious, and even the slight shaking of the floor afterward did not diminish our pleasure. (We learned later that it was a 7.5 earthquake about 100 miles away). We walked a block up the street to buy a new sim chip for our phone and, with smiles at our fractured Spanish, the gentlemen there understood what we wanted and even reminded us that we needed to buy time for it too. A sim chip cost 50 Q ($6.35 US) and we paid 10 Q for about 35 minutes of time. We’ll get more later when we find double time days.

Mario picked us up and threaded through the heavy traffic to the Litegua bus station, but unfortunately we missed the 11:30 bus. No problema! We visited the outdoor relief map of Guatemala and took a little tour of the old city. In the picture, the little patch of blue between the big patch on the left and the medium one on the right, is roughly where we are. (More pics in gallery)

Although last year we were warned not to sit in the front of the bus, we took a chance and did it this year. No problems with shots being fired but we did have close up opportunities to watch as the driver chatted on his cellphone while passing 2 and 3 trucks at a time, swerving back into his lane at just the last minute. We also saw several handguns handed to the driver for safekeeping and given back to passengers as they stepped off the bus. Most men were frisked as they got on – well, all men except the gringo!

It’s a looong trip to Rio Dulce – over 6 hours and although one advantage of this bus was the air conditioning, it was turned up so high that we thought we would never be warm again. Fortunately I had a pashmina around my neck but next time, I’ll be sure to take a fleecy out of my luggage too.

We arrived in Rio Dulce (the usual name for the town of Fronteras) after dark, said “No Gracias” to the fellows who wanted to drive us places or take our bags. Jim called El Tortugal Marina and (English speaking) Rhom said he’d be right over to pick us up. Sure enough, by the time we walked across the street and down the little hill to Rio Bravo Pizza, we spotted a lancha roaring around the corner. Rhom cheerfully loaded our bags on board and we roared back out and upriver to the Marina where we saw the familiar faces of Alex (behind the desk) and Kathy (a PE Islander we met last year), ordered some of Tortugal’s delicious pizza and dos Gallos (2 of the local beer) just before the kitchen closed. Ahhh – pizza and beer under a thatched roof with lapping of water on the dock, and Beatles music in the background - it must be the Rio Dulce!