Wednesday and Thursday, May 11 and 12—Livingston to Rio Dulce to Flores , Guatemala Fortunately the rains we had been having in Livingston were gone on Wednesday morning. Even the humidity was much lower. It made me wish I had a bit more time there to explore. But I had a ticket for the 2 1/2 hour boat ride to Rio Dulce at 9:30. Therefore, I packed and left. The boat trip between Livingston and Rio Dulce is fantastic. I had read it was nice. It reminded me a bit of the backwater areas of Kerala in India . But it had the added benefit of the river winding through mountainous areas rather than just through flat jungle. Also, the jungle is made up of a wide range of exotic trees whereas the backwaters in Kerala have mostly coconut palms. Anyway, along the way are many private homes and an occasional resort for tourists. There is no way to get here by roadway, so it is really a remote and an idyllic area. Many of the homes and buildings have thatched palm frond roofs. Imagine a remote paradise. The town of Rio Dulce itself is not so nice. But many of the nearby resorts that are on the water will pick up tourists in boats and take them there. So someone visiting Rio Dulce would normally be at an exotic resort with cabins or bungalows on the waterfront or over the water. Since I was just there for a night before catching a bus for the long ride to Flores , I checked into Bruno's, a resort right in town that caters mostly to the international yachting crowd who make this a stop in their travels. Bruno's has a restaurant, a dock, a swimming pool, a bar, a laundry, a beauty shop, a convenience store, and a few hotel rooms. The best part is that the rooms have air conditioning now that I am in the HOT area of Guatemala and no longer high in the mountains. For a change of diet, I went to Sundog Cafe, a place known for its sandwiches made from homemade bread. I had a pineapple smoothie along with a sandwich made with whole wheat bread, avocado, mozzarella, tomato, onion, and lettuce. It was nice, but a bit expensive for this part of the world. Thursday morning, I rushed from my hotel hoping to catch the 7:00 o'clock bus for Flores . Unfortunately, it no longer exists. I was told that the first bus would be at 9:30. I returned to Bruno's to use the wifi to read newspapers and to check on the status of Wes' flights from Corpus Christi to Houston and from Houston to Belize City . Fortunately, all looked well in terms of the latter; this time of the year there can be delays due to fog in Corpus and/or Houston, but today the only problem was thunderstorms which were coming in the afternoon. The bus eventually arrived at 9:45 and was already full with people standing. I pushed myself onto it worrying that maybe everyone wouldn't fit. Most people like to stand in the front, so I had to push and squeeze myself through the crowd to a spot about 2/3 of the way back where I could stand. They really need that 7:00 bus which they used to have, because I had to stand the entire 4-hour trip to Flores . Fortunately, the movement of the bus caused air to circulate well so that it wasn't hot except when we had a few stops. I walked from the bus station to the hotel where I had a reservation. It was super hot, since it was around 14:00. Therefore, about half-way, I stopped at a Pollo Campero and had one of their specials to combat the current economic turndown—two pieces of fried chicken (a leg and a breast), fries, a roll, and a drink for $3.90. That cooled me down and gave me my first food of the day. Also, by breaking the walk to the hotel into two parts, it wasn't so bad. The hotel is the Casa Amelia. Flores is on an island, and the room faces the water. I turned on CNN and the air conditioner, and I took a shower to cool down. The idea was just to relax and pass the time until Wes' arrival by bus at 19:30.
Just as I was getting ready around 18:00 to explore town some and head to the bus station, the man from downstairs come up and told me that my friend was here. I went downstairs and there was Wes! He had gotten a bus 1 1/2 hours earlier than the one we had found on the Internet, so he arrived that much earlier. I had intended to meet him at the station and take a photo of his arrival, but he made his way here with the information he had. I'm just lucky I had not already left before he got here. Five minutes later and I would have been gone!
He had to cool down and change clothes. Then we went out exploring. We stopped for happy hour which was a waste, since the drinks were weak. We walked through town. We went across the causeway to Santa Elena and had dinner at a restaurant the guidebook had recommended. It was not so special, but it was okay. Now we are back in the room and headed to bed so we can be up early to go to Tikal tomorrow. While in Livingston , I finished another book. It was Probation by Tom Mendocino. I always have a bit of a problem with main characters who cannot take control of their lives. But this is a well-written book and the character eventually ends his self-destructive ways. I gave it 3 stars out of 4. | 
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