Monday we picked up my mom from the airport (she was so brave to fly in alone!). I even got to go behind security to pick her up from customs - we spoke with security and they let me go back to get her - that was cool! We left San Pedro Sula on Tuesday morning and headed for the Guatemalan border on the eastern side. We were a bit worried about the border crossings because we didn't know how hard it would be to get Sigel out of the country with us. But everything was very smooth until the Guatemalan side said we had to go up the road to the next town - 15 miles up - to get a sticker for the truck, and then return to the border to show them that we got the sticker. (Crazy that they didn't just give us a sticker at the border!). So we go...wait around for 2 hours for them to give us the sticker (Sigel, Mom and I were sitting by the truck waiting while Tristan was stuck in the office waiting). But thankfully we only had to go to Guatemala and not to Belize like we were thinking we would have to do. After returning to the border to show the sticker, we headed to Lago Izabal - only 1 1/2 away from the border.
IT WAS SO HOT!!! We all decided to go cheap (maybe a mistake) and stayed in a $5 per person per night hotel. After finding dinner and making plans for the next day we went to our room to sweat for the night. Mom tried to open the door and sleep with it open but we insisted it wasn't safe so we made her close it :). Although it was clean, that was about all we could say for the room.
Wednesday we woke up to rain, put on our suits and met our guide and boat for a trip up the river/lake to the town of Livingston, only assessable by boat, in search of 'siete alteras' 7 heights waterfalls. The lake was beautiful and our guide was great. We swam in natural hotsprings, walked through a cave (which Sigel didn't like at all!), and ate our PB & J's on the boat. We got to Livingston and took a taxi for part of the way to the waterfalls, then took off on foot - walking on the beach of the Atlantic. It was beautiful and fun to be on the beach (But once again SO HOT!). The waterfalls were well worth the sweat and long walk. It was like Jungle book - we had a beautiful waterfall all to our selves. We swam behind it which was really cool. Unfortunately we were rushed for time because our guide insisted we leave by 4 and we had an hour walk. So after a quick half hour dip to refresh ourselves, we took off on our walk back to our boat. Mom jumped over a little creek on the walk and something popped in her knee. She is still in a lot of pain 5 days later :(. Sad day! The walk and boat ride back were both very long and we arrived back at our lake town in the rain with lightening brightening the sky! We were all a bit nervous about the amazing lightening - not really where you want to see lightening from - on a boat in the middle of a huge lake! we were so tired from the day that we decided to stay in the same hotel (nope we didn't learn from the first night).
Thursday we toured a Spanish fort that kept pirates out of the lake - it was very cool. We then moved to a different hotel - a little bungalow on the lake that was only accessible by boat! It was so cute! Up on stilts, the water from the shower went right into the lake, walked to it on docks, and had a huge spider that made Sigel and Mom not sleep well. The hotel owner lent Sigel a lifejacket and he swam for hours! He even got to jumping off the dock into the water with Tristan catching him. He had a blast! We ate at a little Mexican restaurant on the same dock - food not that great - but the people were really nice, a man played the mandolin and sang before dinner and we had a Salsa lesson after dinner. It was very fun. Unfortunately there was an attack of the ants in one of the bungalow rooms so we all squished in the front room to hide from ant bits.
Friday we drove home - had no problems but it was a long day - left at 6am and got home at 9:30pm. It took almost 4 hours to get the truck approved to come in under another 90 day visa. We were all glad to be home. Sigel enjoyed the time but all the newness was tough on him and he overcame so many fears (being on a boat, swimming, etc) that he was really glad to see home.
2 comments:
Sounds like quite the adventure! How's your mom's knee feeling? Hopefully it's healing quickly! And Sigel is learning all sorts of things with u guys; what a great blog post! (I bet you took some great photos too, like from a movie!!)
I hope Paula has her knee brace with. Otherwise I have my kinesiotape that is like a quick heal. I'm so glad to hear that you are back home. Sounds like a nice break though. Aunt Judy
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