a bigger lake

I have finally said my goodbyes to my Guetemalteca family (I have a family now forever apparently if I want to return!) and left the steamy selvas (jungles) of El Peten for the equally steamy but more lush and tropical department of Izabel, on the Caribbean Coast of Guatemala. At the moment im staying in a river town called Rio Dulce (Sweet river in spanish). This area was largly covered with fruit trees during the 20th century, courtesy of that lovely bunch, The United Fruit Company . The UFC built railroads to transport the fruit to Guatemala's small strip of Caribbean Coast, and they also constructed the port town of Los Barrios from where they would ship the fruit to New York and New Orleans. Rio Dulce is on the edge of Lago Izabel, (which is the largest lake in Guatemala), where the lake flows in the river and all the way down to the Caribbean Ocean. It will be a sweet sail downstream to the Seaside town of Livingston, a breezy Carribbean style settlement which is largely populated by las Garifunas, A really interesting group that are a mixture of African, Caribe Indiginas (indigenous people) and possibly some other genes here and there from the odd shipwrecked european sailor who washed up on the Caribbean shoress and decided to stick around for those notoriosly beautiful women. Slaves were brought from Africa by euro scum to work in the Caribbean Islands, but over the course of time and various rebellions, some of the Africans ended up in other parts of the Caribe, where they interbred with the indigenous people of the Islands, and eventually fanned out all along the Caribbean coast of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and apparently right down to Nicaragua . Its strange to discover the racist attitudes that a lot of Guatamaltecos have towards the Garifunas (or "negritos"). Guess people are racist everywhere.

I think that the Caribbean coast of Guatemala is very different from the rest of the country though, it is like a little pocket tucked away with a different life style, food and music due to the influence of the Garifuna culture. The accommodations in Rio Dulce are fantastic - i'm staying in a 4 bed dorm (with only myself and a nice French guy I met on the way to Rio) for only 40 Quetzales a night which I think is roughly about $5 AU. The dorm is a giant bungalow on high stilts over the water - with beautiful, soft comfortable beds and completely open bed "nooks" which open out onto the water, with mosquito nets of course (and for once they don't have friggin' holes!). There is a fat, sleek beautiful tiger print cat which lazes about on the beds meowing at everyone and attracting endless pats and hugs like an affection magnet. The whole structure is built out of the water and is connected to the main building by a walkway over the water, and when boats cruise past the whole structure rocks back and forth gently. Yesterday I went with the Italian in the complementary Kayaks to explore the lake a little bit (its bloody huge though), about 30 minutes of paddling will take you to an old fortress on the side of the lake which was constructed by the Spanish as a lame attempt to deter pirates that sailed up Rio Dulce from the Caribbean to loot and plunder, but I believe the fort was sacked in the late 17th century. Also having similar problems with not being able to locate money here (A problem in many parts due to the currency shortage) so I have a lovely tab going at the restaurant which is quickly spiralling out of control, especially with the Chilean red wine (Vino tinto) being as nice as it is (soon it will match my uni library fine, at which point I will have to stay in Guatemala forever working as a peon on a hacienda to pay back my overlords) . Got rancidly sick again after eating some banana cake, i remember there was a crazy bug on it when I bought it but I ate it anyway cause It was juicy and delishous oozing sweet banana juice oh yeah....

Marion (my French friend from before) and her crazy Slovenian friends departed for a jungle tour in the north of El Peten, but we went and swam in the lake yesterday before I left. There was a brilliant sun set with celestial rain clouds sweeping in over the lake and a rainbow in the mist. We went to la selecta supermercado for the slovenians to stock up on important survival foods for the jungle hike, including rum, vodka and sweetened condensed milk - all the nutrients you need for a tough hike through the forest. Meanwhile I have developed a bizzare addiction to baby food, you can by jars of it for 5 Q and just lick it out of the jar with your tongue, its just fruit moosh and it tastes so so good when you need a tastly snack, why not?

The weather is lovely here though, sunny many days and beautiful and warm for winter. No natural disasters yet, though two friends in Jakarta in Indo were having less luck recently with the flooding there. Hope your alive Aubrey!