After a great 6 hour ride on relatively straight and smooth roads, I arrived in Rio Dulce (RD), a small town on the Rio (River) Dulce about 10 km inland from the Caribean town of Livingston which is about 20 kms south of the Belizean border.

However, along the way I had to pass through Guatemala City, Guatemala's capital, where I promptly went around in circles for an hour before escaping to Rio Dulce.

Guatema City (pop. 2,000,000),contains the largest urban agglomeration in all of Central America. It's rickety buses chug along in huge clouds of black diesel smoke, compeating with each other while trolling the streets for passengers. At times 2 or 3 buses arrive at a stop at the same time, and then It's a race to see who gets to the next stop first.

When they all take off, their combined cloud of diesel smoke literally creats a fog so dense you cannot see past the buses.

When I finally found my way out, I was choaking on the fumes and polution and it was there I pulled into the first resto I could find...MacDonalds....for a much deserved breather.

In Rio Dulce are a number of marinas, one of which where I stayed is owned by a Montrealer, named Bruno. Most of these marinas were full of boats because this is one of the best safe places to park during the current hurricane season in the Carribean.

Bruno is quite a character, and lives life to the fullest, notwithstanding the fact he has 3 motorcycles, and HIS marina is the one where everyone hangs out.

The town of RD itself consists of 2 cross streets, each about 100 meters long. The streets are lined with stalls selling everything from saddles, pizza, guns, fried chicken, live chickens, and every type of fruit and veggi you can imagine.

The first night Oliver, Brono's German mechanic, and I, took a small boat 5 kms down the river, and then down a small creek to a small "hotel and resto" built entirely on stilts over the water....as is almost everything there, since the river banks are mostly mangrove swamp.....for supper. As we approached the resto's docks which were lined with candles, it began to rain lightly. If there every was a scene from the movie, "Apocolypse Now", this was it.

The next day it was a 2 hour boat ride down the river to the Caribean town of Livingston just south of Belize. It was a small town, but it afforded me my first chance on this trip to swim in the Caribean.

It was back to Bruno's where I hung out for happy hour with a bunch of the "regulars" downing Cuba Libres, after which we all took a dingy to another resto for some of the best chinese food in a long time.

The following day Bruno lent me one of his dirt bikes to go out to a river around 60 kms away, on real back country dirt roads. The attraction there was a steaming hot waterfall about 100 meters high, falling into a cool river in the middle of the jungle. You can swim under the waterfall into a small cave where you look back out through the falling water. The cave creates a sort of sauna/steam bath.

However, around 45 kms out, in the middle of no where, the bike stops and won't start. I see what looks to be a banana plantation, and I push the bike off the road 100 meters to the gate where I was met by 2 rough looking characters, both packing hand guns and waiving their shot guns at me.....seemed a bit too much security for a few "bananas". But it also seemed as safe a place as ever to leave the bike while I hitched a ride to Bruno's Marina in the back of a pick-up. Bruno and I then went back in his 4x4 and jump started the bike. He then joined me in the river, where we hung out for a few hours. What a neat place!

Early the next morning I took off for a 4 hour ride due North to the fabulous Mayan ruins of Tikal, one of many national parks in Guatemala.

Here the pyramids rise like skyscrapers above the jungle canopy. The "in" thing to do here, is to hire a guide and hike in the dark and climb the highest pyramid and watch the 0550h sun rise over the jungle top. Despite the fact it was partly cloudy, it was still quite a site...and feeling...overlooking the jungle while sitting on top of a 1,600 year old pyramid, and watching the sun come up over the tree tops, all the while listening to the jungle wake up to the sounds of the "howler monkeys" (more like a gutteral lion's roar), and seeing parrots and toucans fly by.

Late that afternoon it was back to Bruno's and early to bed.

The next morning it was an early departure for the Honduras border, armed with Bruno's contacts in El Salvador, and Nicaragua.