We’d been wanting a look at the Pacific Ocean before we left Guatemala, so we hopped the shuttle to Monterrico, a tiny little village on the coast. We fancied a few days of hammocks and sea, and this seemed to fit the bill. This being a volcanic area, the beaches are black, so when the sun gets on them, the sand can physically burn your feet. Other than that, as you can see, it’s lovely. And very hot.
We spent the first afternoon and evening lounging about, reading, in the hammocks at our hotel, the Delfin, which is right on the beach.
We broke off at sunset to take photographs, of course. We’re in the tropics here so it pops down quickly.
The next morning, we continue with our program of lounging about and reading, and mighty pleasant it is too. It’s really too hot to do much from about midday to 4-ish, just sit in the shade, in the breeze. A number of humpback whales swam past, though, jumping out of the water and sending up spouts, although they were too far away for us to photograph them. Instead, here’s a picture of the mural from the local school, which has just about every animal found around here apart from the whale.
Diane, though, decided to take a trip to the local sea turtle conservation project, the Tortugario. Here they release newly hatched turtles into the wild to give them a better chance of survival: they are, of course, endangered. You can help with this, which happens at sunset on days they have hatchlings. These are tiny leatherback turtles.
They are kept for a few hours after hatching to allow them to build a little strength before they take on the mighty Pacific. Here they go towards the sea. The beach is very steep here, so they have to brave six-foot dumping surf.
Big sea, little turtles.
Here’s Diane pointing at her releases, two turtles which she named Felice and Fuerte. No, really.
Monterrico is on a mangrove swamp, and the next morning we quit the slacking and get up at 5am for a dawn tour. The mangroves are marvellous in the dawn light: so much life everywhere. Birds of many types, fish (including the slightly weird four-eyed fish), and people fishing. Plus the odd car on a ferry.
Volcanos in the distance.
The guides tells us about the lilies which we’re floating in. He poled us the whole way round, like a gondolier in Venice, using a pole made from mangrove.
And yes, there’s a car ferry over the mangroves to a nearby town.
A house by the water !
Anyway, we were tired out after that so we spent the day lounging about, and the next day returned to Antigua. Here’s a final view of the beach. The stars at night were fantastic.
Off to Honduras !
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