Hotelito Perdido, Rio Dulce

To celebrate Thanksgiving, I and a group of friends traveled last week to the eastern, Caribbean coast of Guatemala to the Rio Dulce and the town of Livingston.  We arrived in Puerto Barrios Wednesday afternoon and caught a boat to Hotelito Perdido, a beautiful, rustic little hotel right on the water and accessible only by water.  Right after our arrival, Linnea and I shared a tandem kayak and paddled to some nearby hot springs.  There, a guide led us on a tour of some beautiful, steamy caves and afterwards we took a dip in naturally extremely hot water.  We made it back to the hotel just before nightfall and ate a large, delicious family-style meal of vegetarian lasagna, lentils, and fresh homemade bread which was served in the central little outdoor lodge complete with tables, hammocks, sofas, and small bar and library.

Thursday, Thanksgiving day, we took a boat ride further inland on the river where we hiked for about half an hour barefoot through thick, slippery mud to a lovely, secluded waterfall.  We swam and climbed up along the rocks for about an hour before heading back to the boat.  Back at Hotelito Perdido, we passed the afternoon sunbathing on the dock, enjoying drinks, the occasional swim, and each other’s company.  In the evening, we enjoyed a very special, most untraditional Thanksgiving feast.  The women who work at the hotel spent all day preparing an incredible meal: tapado, a coconut-based soup with a whole fish caught fresh in the river in each platter, served with fluffy white rice, a cucumber-tomato-onion salad with balsamic vinaigrette, fried slices of eggplant, and incredibly home baked coconut bread. 

 

Thanksgiving Dinner

After two nights in cozy little bungalows – we were a group of twelve spread out amongst three cottages complete with mosquito nets, porches, and hammocks – we headed by boat to Casa Rosada in Livingston.  We had reservations for eight of us; they had informed me when I made the reservation that they had 4 rooms (2 people per room) available for Saturday, but that Friday night two of us would have to share a room with one of the staff in the owner’s house.  Linnea and I decided to take one for the team and share the room in the house.  We ended up having the best beds in the entire hotel.  Two twin beds were on the front of a huge wrap-around porch overlooking the water.  We were able to watch a perfect sunrise, uninterrupted by even a windowpane, without lifting our heads from our pillows.  This also made it impossible to sleep in because by 7 AM the heat and brightness were too much, but was so lovely that we requested to stay there the second night as well.

Anyways, on Friday after arriving in Livingston we took a taxi to the local beach.  They dropped us off before a swinging bridge that we crossed and then hiked along a pristine, palm tree covered coast until we arrived at beach besieged by Peace Corps volunteers.  There must have been thirty of us in all, but was really quite tranquil in spite of the numbers.  The ocean was like bath water and I was able to walk out about a hundred yards before the water came chest high.  The entire day was spent lounging in the water and on the sand, sipping beers and frozen margaritas.  In the nighttime we hit a couple dance clubs on the beach in the center of town which were in full force in celebration of National Garifuna Day.  Garifunas are the Guatemalan ethnic group that makes up most of Livingston and much of the department of Izabal.  Saturday, our final day of vacation, was our most laziest.  We returned to the beach, mostly reading and sleeping.  We enjoyed a delicious last vacation dinner at our hotel – jumbo Thai pepper shrimp and tapado, complete with fish, crab, and shrimp.

Front seat view from Puerto Barrios to Guate

Sunday morning we caught a 6 AM boat to the Litegua bus station where we caught a comfortable, luxurious double-decker bus back to Guatemala City.  The vacation was perfect.  After arriving in Guate in excellent time we took a taxi to the outskirts of the capital (avoiding dangerous city buses) to catch a bus back to the western part of the country.  I and five other girls who live in the western highlands called ahead to take a Pullman (typically much more comfortable and safer than regular camionetas or “chicken buses”) which picked us up from a Taco Bell on the edge of the city.  What happened next was terrifying and completely unexpected.  Three men who had boarded as passengers just after we did, stood up with guns in hand announcing that the bus was under assault.  They moved up and down the aisle waving guns around and demanding people give up their belongings.  I took out my wallet and turned it in.  I had my overstuffed backpack on my lap and at the floor at my feet was my costal (big plastic shopping bag which held my purse which held my camera and ipod).  I started moving things around, threw my camera under the seat in front of me, I was unclear what to do, knowing nothing was worth my life, but also hoping to not relinquish everything.  I attempted to lift my backpack and give it to one of the robbers, but he didn’t want it.  Too big.  I kept moving around nervously and the Guatemalan man who had the aisle seat to my right calmly told me to stop moving, so I did.  I just sat there with my hands up in front of me.  The guy next to me had removed money from his pocket, separated out the hundreds which he concealed between our two seats, and had handed the robbers just Q 20.  I was scared that if the men came back and searched my things they’d kill me for not turning everything in the first time.  One of the men with guns came back around demanding cell phones.  The passenger next to me took out his phone and turned it in.  The ladron (robber) waved the gun at him and yelled, I asked for this already!  I took my phone out of my pocket and turned it in right away.  They kept stomping up and down the aisle checking for more goods.  This entire episode was probably over within three minutes, but it seemed like a lifetime.  At one point the bus driver slowed as if to stop and the hijackers yelled at him to keep driving.  The ayudante (person on a bus who collects money from the passengers) was yelling at the men to get off.  Finally they did.  We had to wait another five to ten minutes (again another lifetime) before we hit San Lucas, a big transportation hub where one would disembark to head to Antigua or to Santa Lucia (home of the Peace Corps office).  All my friends were seated behind me and one who still had a phone called PC.  We waited in San Lucas until someone with a van came to pick us up and deliver us to the Mirador hotel, the official Peace Corps hotel in Santa Lucia.  The PC office was closed (it was a Sunday), but Craig, who has been our training director for the past nearly 20 years came to visit and check on us.  Right away, PC canceled our credit cards and put a block on all our phones, but none of us had any cash.  Craig took money out of his own wallet to leave with us since there was no way to get more until the next morning.

Monday morning we walked over to the Peace Corps office in Santa Lucia.  We each met individually with David, head of security and safety, and each met with one of the nurses.  At 11 AM we had a meeting with Craig, David, Martha Keays (Country Director), and two other staff members.  They were all incredibly supportive.  They were worried about us, and concerned about safe transportation for all PCVs, telling us that we did everything right in terms of transportation choices, and still this happened.  Right away we were able to get cash advances on our paychecks, temporary replacement phones, and new IDs.  They organized for us to stay another night, or however long we wanted, and to have a car take us each individually back to our sites so we wouldn’t have to ride a bus.  In the afternoon they had us meet with a counselor as a group and bought us pizza for lunch.

This morning we were all transported home.  I’ve been a little nervous and on edge the past few days, although feel much calmer being back home and in my own house and back into my old routine.  This Thanksgiving vacation made me contemplate much more how much I truly have to be thankful for.