It pissed down with rain all morning, so we nipped out to the nearest restaurant for breakfast. We had good scrambled egg served with doughnut-like bread and the dreaded frijoles (refried beans). A Swiss guy told us that it was a good idea to learn Spanish in Antigua Guatemala and recommended a school which offered lessons and immersion with Spanish-speaking families.
We visited the Post Office and sent a letter to Punta Gorda Police Station explaining how we were ripped off yesterday. We never heard anything further about this issue.
Soon we had to seek refuge from the torrential rain and we went back to the Hotel Caribe where we were staying, where the clouds hung low over the river. Pelicans and other huge birds sat in the palm trees looking dejected while the local women did their laundry in stone basins under a corrugated iron roof.
We read our books for a while on the hotels covered balcony and took photographs of a green and yellow parrot in the tree just outside the window. We went out into the pissing rain and bought shelled peanuts (monkey nuts) and some orange bananas.
We drank pure orange juice, freshly pressed in a small juice bar which was playing Belize Radio One. It was still raining when we went back to our room at 14:30 hrs. so we thought we would have a siesta and fell asleep until 17:00 hrs. We awoke to find a lull in the rain.
A girl appeared to be shouting “hola” over and over again, as she did yesterday evening. Was she some strange prostitute touting for business? Further investigation revealed it to be the green parrot which was walking up and down on the back fence.
After a brief evening survey of the alternatives, we decided to return to the “Africa Place” for our evening meal. We walked past the wooden stores and bars, splashing through puddles in our flip flop sandals.
Once again, the meal was excellent. We had Arroz a la Cubana (Cuban-style rice) which turned out to be rice with two fried eggs and fried bananas. We washed it down with Gallo cerveza (beer) which is a 5% alcohol by volume pale lager. It is Guatemala's oldest continually produced beer, dating back to 1896. It is also the most famous beer in the country and has become part of Guatemalan popular culture. On the way back Declan struck up an acquaintance with a passing Rastafarian.
We went to bed early as the boat to Puerto Barrios was due to set sail at 05:00 hrs. in the morning. Our next destination, Puerto Barrios, is located within the Gulf of Honduras. The bay in which the harbour is located is called Bahia de Amatique.
It is Guatemala's main Caribbean Sea port, together with its more modern twin port town just to the southwest, Santo Tomás de Castilla. Puerto Barrios is the departmental seat of Izabal department and is the administrative seat of Puerto Barrios municipality.
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