Our jaunt through Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador was really the result of trying to score the Mayan ruins of Tikal and Copan. We identified Rio Dulce, Guatemala as a place to break up the trip between the two ruins. The problem was Rio Dulce seemed a little too touristy. We decided to forgo the obligatory boat ride between Rio Dulce and Livingston, and make a detour to the small town of El Estor, located on Lake Izabal.
I did not think El Estor was worthwhile. I had thought that it may turn out to be the only non touristy town for our Guatemala tour. The downside of non touristy towns is limited hotel selection. Of the three hotels on the lake, one was closed due to the dueƱa's illness; another had cells for rooms and Mr. Surly for a manager; we stayed one night at the third one but due to the ill-plumbed bathroom, we had to move to a land-view hotel but with very nice owners. Also, two boys came up to me and asked for a quarter and another for sweets -- my #1 pet peeve: lack of dignity and lack of manners. In addition, we had the most rain so far too. It seemed to shower continuously in the afternoons.
El Estor is not without attractions. 7 kms east is Bogueron Canyon where the Rio Sauce flows out of a jungle canyon and into the lake. Although we found the boat ride into canyon to be quite dramatic with hanging vines, overhead rocky walls, and howler monkeys, it was barely worth the time, effort and money for the excursion from town.
Lago Izabel.
We enjoyed eating a couple of meals at Arabella's
Boqueron Canyon.
The "V" is Boqueron Canyon.
Municipal Buildings - El Estor, Guatemala
Sun-Ling and John have been traveling the earth since 2008 while blogging, eating vegetarian and vegan, and riding public transportation. We love uphill day hikes, 20th-century architecture, Roman ruins, all bodies of water, local markets, shopping for groceries, aqueducts, miradors, trip planning, blablacar, and more.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Most Recent Post
Sri Lanka: Jaffna
Jaffna, the biggest city in the north of Sri Lanka; and being the historical base of Tamils in Sri Lanka, had suffered much from the 1983-20...
Most Popular Posts of Last 30 Days
-
After a "Melaka City Tour" route on local bus #17 we arrived at Melaka Sentral Bus Terminal and in a few minutes - no time for a t...
-
Instead of the usual single loop, our whole Sri Lanka tour is in the shape of an 8 all because of Navam Maha Perahera at the Gangaramaya Tem...
-
In order to guarantee a hassle-free speedy trip from from St Ignacio, Belize to Tikal in Guatemala we eschewed public transport and paid for...
-
Everything happened smoothly with our Galapagos trip. We had really good weather, two full days of sun and a couple of partly cloudy day in...
-
Polonnaruwa is an archeological site in north central Sri Lanka. Between the 11th and 13th century Polonnaruwa was the capital of the island...
-
On the 2nd day of the Lunar New Year, we flew from HCMC to Colombo via Kuala Lumpur. From the airport we took a transfer directly to Galle, ...
-
According to the Tooth Relic Temple website , on Wednesdays there is a ritual of tooth washing, in addition to daily rituals. What we had no...
6 comments:
As usual I am loving the narrative and the photos!
When I see you again, please tell me how you get the fabulous panoramic shots.
Were y'all canoeing? One of the shots looks like it was taken from a canoe.
Nice Freudian slip: howler moneys :-)
Eric, Good one eh? ;-) Thanks for the catch. Btw you and Ed, we're covered!
Susan, Thanks for the kind words! We were in a large canoe with a required boatman. ;-(
The texture of the lake surface looks unusual, lots of small color variations, like a painting. --Weiqing
Q: What are we eating at Arabella's?
A: We are eating a veggie "plato de dia"; kinda like a "meal" in India. The plato has eggs, beans, a small piece of cheese, plantains, and comes with a drink (purified water or coffee) and with all the tortillas you can eat. That's a rolled/scrunched up tortilla in SL's hand. ;-)
WQ, Yes the lake has a "texture"" - I was hoping to capture that in the photo and I guess I did!
Post a Comment