San Pedro to Rio Dulce

    Josh and I leave San Pedro by shuttle around 9am expecting an 8 hour journey to Rio Dulce which is near the Caribbean coast of Guatemala near Belize. The first shuttle to Guatemala City took 5 hours and then the bus from there to Rio Dulce took 7 hours so in total we were on the bus for 12 hours which was quite a trip. We did not even really know if we were on the right bus as the sign on the bus said Flores which is near Mexico and no one really gave us a strait answer.
     We finally arrive around 10pm and are dropped off in town near a discotek with a lot of stuff going on around us. A guy comes up to us with a flier from a hostel in the swamps that you have to take a boat to. He says its very nice and there are a lot of young people there. Ok sold. He leads us to the water and radio’s a boat to come pick us up. Hop on the boat and take off full speed into pitch darkness. The driver is using a flash light to see where he is going but it really isn’t doing anything. Josh and I are looking at each other like what the hell are we doing right now. This guy could easily be taking us into the middle of the lake to rob and kill us, isn’t this how a horror movie started?
     After about 5 minutes we are approaching the edge of the lake which is covered in thick jungle. The boat is still doing full speed and we are rapidly approaching the end. I honestly thought the driver did not see the shore and we were about to crash. Then out of nowhere a small channel appears in between the trees and brush and we are now racing through a small canal about 8 feet wide ducking under hanging vines and dodging logs in the water. I see a light in the distance and we pull up to a dock next to the hotel which is on stilts in the middle of the swamp. There are a bunch of people hanging out at the bar and we walk up and get a room from the bartender. Our room is a second story cabin on the water with a woven palm leaf roof, no walls and two beds with misquito nets, very cool.