Free day and marooned, Sunday, Monday, 27^th 28^th September

This was the view from our hotel down the hill and across to a small island and the larger island of Flores with the cathedral on top and the main land behind.

We had a free day and so Clare, Zoe and I went for a swim along the shore of the lake for about a mile to a place where there is a café and a couple of ropes to swing on out across the lake, a diving board and generally sit, relax swim and relax again.

After a couple of hours of fun and jumping into the water, swinging on the ropes out across the lake and getting wedges if you didn’t get the entry into the water quite right it was time to return. We felt quite relaxed and so we opted to swim back which was another 45 – 50 minutes but at least the water was a pleasant temperature. Unfortunately no one had a camera so no photos!

That evening we were due to go for a sunset boat ride so went down to the dock. Some locals still use traditional dug outs to fish.

 Our sun set pleasure craft.

 It was Steve's birthday so we had a celebration on the boat as we chugged around the lake.

 We passed another party boat that had given us a lift home on the previous night.

We stopped over looking the western end of the lake and watched the sun go down. Some of us went for a swim off the boat and larked around. Then it was time to go home and the engine wouldn’t start and there was no one about. We were marooned on a quiet part of the lake in the dark with no power.

So having already swam over two miles plus larking around on the rope swings we needed help so Zoe dived in and started to swim to shore to get help. She found a passing water taxi who came over and towed us to shore.

After a leisurely breakfast the next morning we made a dash past the guard goose to the bus and set off for our next stop at Rio Dulce, a four hour drive.

It was a long drive and it rained for part of the day, at times very heavily.  

We continued and the weather improved for us to arrive in the afternoon at Hacienda Tijax which is next to the river and marina…a great place to relax.

It was still Steve’s birthday (due to time differences around the world) so we had more celebrations and rum punch.

No we are not dead drunk but acting out the final scene of famous films as a party game...this is Titanic where Rose / me is saying her final farewell to Jack / Steve. It was such fun that I just couldn't keep a straight face throughout the whole scene.