The rain had stopped during our walk around town but started again pretty much as soon as we boarded the boat.
From Livingston we sailed/motored through fairly narrow channels for a while. The hideous mess on some of these images isn't digital noise but rain!
I always like photographing water lilies.
Unfortunately as beautiful as this exquisite little flower is, the plant's habit makes it a real problem, worldwide. Water Hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes) blocks waterways and limits boat traffic, recreation, flood control and wildlife use. It produces a dense canopy at the water surface which shades out native submersed plant species and can uproot native emergent species that are important to wildlife.
Little Blue Heron
Sharp-eyed Ian spotted this massive iguana up in the trees, I assume they are eaten here as they are considered a delicacy in many central American countries.
You can see just how large he/she was.
Our next stop was the Castillo de San Felipe de Lara. A mid 17th century fort built by the Spanish at a strategic pinch point in the river between two lakes (obviously not my photo with that lovely blue water) and used for several centuries to defend the area from English pirates who lurked around in the Caribbean.
This is what it looked like when we visited.
The fort was originally roofed with palm leaves which were set on fire in 1686 and the building was completely destroyed. It has been rebuilt on numerous occasions, the last being following earthquake damage in 1999. Emilio said a lot of the construction/materials we saw today would simply not have existed in the original building and so once I found out it wasn't particular authentic I gave myself permission to switch off to any further information and simply wander around.
I have no idea what plant this is.
I met another beautiful Quinceñera and her family who once again were more than happy for me to photograph her.
I thought at first that the marks on her dress were where the water had soaked up, but of course it's part of the pattern.
I'm so pleased she could still laugh and enjoy her special day, despite the dreadful weather.
A rather wet cormorant.
No introduction necessary.
This little female vulture was minding its own business and having a drink, when along came a huge male who clearly was only after one thing and wouldn't take "No" for an answer.
Hummingbird sp. TBA
Although I'm not good at spotting the difference, I think this is a Dragonfly rather than a Damselfly (broader wings which stay open at rest being the main difference)
Back on the boat we had about another 1/2 hour of boredom until we reached the small town of Rio Dulce where we stopped for lunch at a very nice café/restaurant run by a friend of Emilio. The food was very good but what really impressed me was the service; the waiters were all young local lads, couldn't have been more than 20 yo, but their attention to detail was superb. Unfortunately at the end of the meal quite a few of us wanted to pay by card and they had a systems failure which got a couple of the chaps rather hot under the collar - it wasn't anyone's fault, just one of those things.
The bus was waiting for us in Rio Dulce but we then had another 4+ hour drive to our next hotel in Flores (another long journey time omitted from the itinerary). Originally we should have been staying in a town called El Remate which is on the other side of Lake Petén Itzá and a further 1/2 hour drive, but presumably they were overbooked. Although it's nice that we finished travelling sooner tonight, it means an earlier start and a longer drive tomorrow so we can be at Tikal National Park when it opens.
A couple of snaps from the bus, firstly a very colourful cemetery.
There are often random military posts along the road but rarely do tourist vehicles get stopped.
I'm not sure if this was a police car but I don't think it'd have much luck catching criminals if it was.
I have no idea what these stripy bottles are used for but I want one!
This saddlery was literally road side so I'm not sure where the horses went for their fittings.
Having said that tourist vehicles generally sail through check posts, as we were nearing the border between two provinces, Izabal and Petén, Emilio warned us that we would be stopped and that someone would board the bus in search of fruit and should we be asked if we had any, just to say "no" - and no joking with the official! I can't remember exactly what the problem was carrying fruit but I'm guessing one or the other is keen to prevent disease or bugs being carried/spread.
Part of Flores town sits on an island in the middle of Lake Petén Itzá which is linked by a causeway and Emilio warned us that should we want to visit that area at night we should go by taxi/tuk tuk as the area around our hotel wasn't particularly salubrious (he'd noticed a lot of migrants hanging around). It was already almost dark when we arrived so we decided to just eat in the hotel and very nice it was too although the menu failed to mention that the club sandwiches came with chips, so our side order of chips wasn't needed - we gave them to the gang of 4 (not Lib Dems Shirley, David, Bill and Roy but Scottish John, John John, Dave and Trish!) who were sitting near us in the open bar who fell upon them like they'd not eaten for days.
The view across the lake.
