taco's & toucan's travels ~ 2019

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DAY 50

Week 8

ANTIGUA GUATEMALA (Sacatepéquez, GTM) to RÍO DULCE (Izabal, GTM)

Friday May 3^rd, 2019

TODAYS MILEAGE – 198 miles / 319 kilometres

TRIP MILEAGE – 20,080 miles / 32,316 kilometres

Today was one of those days in which any fair dinkum fella looks forward to like a swift kick in the pterodactyls – a 7-hour bus ride through switchback mountain roads, with oncoming drivers’ hell bent on meeting their respective Gods ..… but only at your personal safety or demise.

Our first “yippee” for the day was when somehow our CEO "Wander Woman" Sonia managed to score yesterday’s 24 seat mini-bus and driver to transport all 6 of us "G Crew" members the 320 kilometre (200 mile) drive to Hacienda Tijax Hotel y Marina on the Río Dulce.

I tell you what, I not the marrying kind … just yet, but if Sonia keeps this up, I’ll let her buy me a cerveza or 10.

A couple of hours in to the trip, we pulled up for a quick 15 minute “leak & peak” at a Puma servo in Sanarate, before continuing on to the town of Teculután.

While the rest of the crew dined at the Hotel El Atlantico, I on the other hand had the second “yippee” moment when nothing on the hotel menu struck my fancy, I headed out on to the streets and found Cafetería Y Pupusería El Buen Gusto.

Cafetería Y Pupusería is a local family owned enterprise that served me up Carne Asada with some of the most wicked beans & rice I’ve ever had, plus a fresh cucumber, carrot, lettuce & radish salad, 3 tortillas and bottle of water - all for $4.77 AUD ..... Ab-Fab, loved it, full stop, end of story - muy feliz Fitzy!!!.

From Teculután it was a further 152 kilometres (94 miles) into the docks of Río Dulce where we transferred to a water taxi for the 15 minute ride to Hacienda Tijax.

I’m so not a big fan of being stuck in a gilded cage, but I have to say I’m loving the accommodations and environs that this place provides – it literally is a cubby house in a rain forest and a welcome change to the hard cityscapes I've experienced of late.