Up River To Las Marias

Day three and we are off in another small boat to go to Las Marias, a community on the Rio Platano. The boat was basic to say the least, another dugout type boat with a few holes stuffed with rags. We sat on wooden chairs – one behind the other – and the driver at the back. Luckily we had a motor for this trip as it would be long.

The first part we went through the lagoon, then a series of creeks before we hit the river. The whole area is so beautiful and feels very untouched, save the odd family living here or there.

It was going to be a much longer trip going this way as we’re going upstream the whole way and the river gets quite strong in parts – and it is surprisingly shallow in many parts.

Before too long we were seeing all sorts of birds and the odd turtle, sunbaking on a bit of wood, stuck in the middle of the river. There was an incredible amount of debris in the water too, the river banks are eroding and as they do the trees collapse into the river, making it very tricky to navigate as you’re always winding around the trees in the water. Sometimes we would hit a branch or something that we couldn’t see below the water.

At lunch we stopped to eat at a family’s house with the food Mario had prepared for us in Belen. The people were friendly although they set up a table for us then left us to it. Our company was the dog who was definitely the skinniest I’ve ever seen, and that is really saying something after spending a decent amount of time in Central America. Luckily we were served about four times as much rice as we needed so the dog did well. She had a litter of small puppies to take care of too and they didn’t look the strongest creatures I’ve seen. Then one of them fell down a 3-4 metre drop and into the river – poor thing. It was saved though and a little shaken and upset but okay.

A few more hours to go before we hit Las Marias and I was starting to get quite sunburnt but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I was covering my head with my jacket but no matter what I did the sun would find its way straight onto my face.

It was about 4.30pm when we eventually arrived at Doña Rutilia’s place on the river. An idyllic spot with chickens, pigs and dogs all wandering around the place, some orange trees and coconut trees and a happy family.

We thought it would be nice to relax and have a beer while the sun was setting after seven hours on the boat but the only beer they had was warm – that would do we said and it really wasn’t as bad as you’d imagine – warm beer in a can.