Semuc to Rio Dulce 114 miles. 8 hours with an hour for lunch. We left in the direction of Lenquin towards Cahabon. Steve thought it would be the worlds best motorcycle road, if it were one way traffic. We had to go pretty slow to be careful of oncoming traffic. The road was very curvey, nice views and vegetation for a couple hours. Interesting houses and bridges. It was a pretty smooth, good condition dirt road. Compared to what we went over to get there, anything would be good. Got out to Lenquin in 20 min, and about an hour to Cahabon. There are hotels there. Seems like a nice enough place to stay but we only stuck around long enough for two slices of watermelon, a couple mangoes for the road. People were more open to us being in this area than the previous day.
Got to Panzos intersection in 4 hours. From there we turn East to El Estor. To go the other direction on that road is not a good option as two colectivos that passed us both had police escorts for the westerly direction past Panzos. We hoped the road past Lake Isabel would be a nice drive but it was dusty and boring with no great views of the lake. There was a lot of construction so the road should be in better condition soon, for us it was slow. The chain was caked in dust and oil from the trip. Gas was 22 quetzal a gallon.
Rio Dulce is busy and should have some supplies. People looked at the bike with a different attention here than anywhere else so far. They sort of knew what they were looking at and we prefer that they don't. The timing works well to stop here but I can't see much more reason to stay unless you are looking for luxery. Many of the hotels are expensive, catering to the boating crowd. So we stayed at the Backpapers Hotel which is right on the river, which felt amazing. But it was the loudest night of the trip, located beneath a large bridge that trucks accelerate up and brake down with those increadably loud brakes, all night. for $20US.
