Rio Dolce

And now....back to Guatemala, along that wicked road again. This time, one of our group quickly christened it "The False Teeth Road", as it would be sure to let us know who didn't still have their real teeth. Amazingly, we only suffered one flat tyre during this entire journey (the record is apparently 5), and that when we'd reached the smooth roads of Guatemala again. I thought the previous night's starry sky was great, how would I describe tonight's display? Well, the Orion constellation was shining brightly, joined by a dazzling confusion of just so many bright stars that a torchlight wasn't needed to change the tyre. All this less than half an hour following an equally spectacular thunder and lightning storm that also lit up the sky.

We arrived at our first 4 star accommodation of the journey, the beautiful Sally's Laguna at Rio Dolce. A resort situated on a gorgeous inland river lake, Rio Dolce is frequently populated by semi-retired yachties from USA, Canada and Europe. The rooms here are built on the river, nestled amongst the rain forest in a delightfully romantic setting. Getting here on the boats is half the fun, they're deceptively fast and on the count of 2 1/2 the race was on.  It is definitely worth the effort to awake before sunrise, the scenery is superb. Sally is a Frenchwoman who, when I said I was a New Zealander, quickly and humbly apologized for her government's nuclear testing and then gave me a free drink from the Bar.

As most of the photos of Rio Dolce show, its a special place at nightime. Just check your room before bedding down for a sleep however, the cockroaches here are truly massive and very hard to catch.