Por launcha: Day 1

Trips on a "launcha" (boat) played a big role in the last phase of the visit.  Early Friday morning Ben and Alfredo went down to the docks in Puerto Barrios and were approached by Martin, whose boat and assistance the team ended chartering for about 26 hours.  The boat was medium-sized, with a tarp roof, Martin in the back with the back with the motor and the steering wheel, and - on Friday - young Benjamin as the sailor.  An hour later the whole group returned, loaded luggage into the front of the boat, and boarded, sat down, and donned life jackets. When speeding along, the front of the boat went up in the air, and so passengers couldn't really see ahead (Benjamin stood in the front and peered around the stern).  On the first bot ride, the boat left the Puerto Barrios harbor rounded a point and traveled along the mouth of the Rio Dulce river into the Gulf of Honduras (on the edge of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico and ultimately to the Atlantic Ocean), past Livingston and and landed at a dock near the Italian hotel where the group would spend Friday night.  An early sign of some excitement came when a big wave soaked some of several team members while they were docking.  After checking in, the team (plus Martin, Raul, and Ramiro) boarded the boat again, paralleled the coastline about 20 minutes and then docked at the Seven Altars.  There team members et al. briefly toured a tiny museum about the Garifuna culture (Afro-Caribbean group - drawn primarily from a Caribbean maroon colony of escaped slaves drawn to the eastern coasts of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, whose languages mixed various European, African, and indigenous languages that is Guatemala's 26th cultural group.)  Then team member began "creeking" up past seven waterfalls, initially on rocks and eventually in the water.  Ultimately, most of team members et al. made it to or close to some of the waterfalls.  Nearly half of these made it at least close to the big waterfall at the top, where they either swam and/or stood under the big waterfall.  This visit took a little longer than anticipated, and the tide ans waves were picking up when the team et al. re-loaded on the boat and traveled about 15 minutes further to the "White Beach," close to the border with Belize.  There was no dock at the beach, and so everyone got a little more wet disembarking from the boat.  Some people swam, and others just relaxed.  An extra little trip further up the coast to where Ramiro's brother lives didn't materialize because of the choppy waves and dwindling gas supply.  The trip back - ostensibly to the hotel - turned it to be difficult.  The waves were very choppy, and the ride took long also because Martin deemed it too unsafe to land at the hotel.  The ride in general resembled a roller-coaster ride, with the boat going up and down, pounding, going airborne, etc. - in a way that scared and possibly injured many on the boat.  It was also a blast.  Instead of landinga t the hotel, the boat docked at the main docks in Livingston, and landing there pout the team et al. in the middle of the town, with its mix of Q'eqchi', Ladino, and Garifuna cultures.  Overland roads - on trucks and buses - gave team members et al. a chance to see more of the city (as the traveled back of forth between the docks and eating and shopping, on the one hand, and the hotel, on the other hand).

-Perry