murphysmum

Hello...

We had a long shore stop in Santo Thomas while on Azamara Quest Panama Canal cruise. Not being fond of cruise tours, I booked an independent tour with www.tropicaldiscovery.com and loved the entire day.

We started with an hour+ drive past beautiful scenery to the town of Rio Dulce where we met our lancha/small covered boat driver. He had been born in the area and was intimately familiar with all of the small tributaries of the Rio Dulce and we had an opportunity to see a huge number of bird species, butterflies, huge lily pads in bloom and jungle huts. Further down the river we stopped at the hot springs and then at AK Tenamit for a bit of shopping at the Queeche (sp?) Mayan settlement. Our lancha driver knew and introduced us to one of their chiefs who lived in Livingston and happened to need a ride home. The four of us proceeded to Livingston where we had a tour of the town and a lovely lunch with the interesting mix of one native Guatemalan, one Mayan chief, two American travelers in a Garifuna restaurant with native dancers to entertain. A GREAT afternoon!

After some shopping and introductions to many locals we found out how fast the lancha could actually go when we flew across the ocean back to the ship at the speed of the pelicans flying next to us. It was an amazing experience.

We have been to Guatemala before; it's one of my favorite countries, but I've never been to the Rio Dulce area. I find the Guatemalan people to be some of the friendliest I've ever met. As the ship was pulling away from the dock at dusk, we saw that all of the taxi/tour drivers and their vehicles were lined up with their lights flashing at the ship, waving goodbye...along with all of the dock workers and souvenier sellers on the dock. We'll be back to Rio Dulce and, of course, to the highlands area as well.

Enjoy this wonderful country!

murphysmum;)

Hi!

We'll be in Huatulco next Feb. with only 5 hours in port (new Celebrity ship/Quest or Journey...don't remember).

I'd like to see the Sea Turtle preserve in Mazunte...not offered as a ship's tour. From what I can see on-line, it's about a 1 hour drive each way, which seems like it would make it possible with a private guide/driver.

Has anybody been to Mazunte from Huatulco...OR....driven down from Acapulco? We're embarking there, so we could go a couple of days early and go south before the cruise.

Thanks for any help anyone can give me on this!

murphysmum;)