with a ride (thank you Pam) to Morales for Paul and I to get our teeth cleaned! Of course everything being Guatemalan time...only I got mine done ($250 Q's...$30.00 U.S. dollars)...but Paul has an appointment in another week!
The small airport behind one of the main streets...
Thanksgiving is not celebrated/known as a holiday down here.
So it was business as usual for everyone in town...
Then on to Thanksgiving dinner...This is the view from the Vista Rio restaurant...
This one's for you mom!!! Even in Guatemala!!!!
Some of the American/British/German/French community of ex-pats living in and around the Rio.
Yes, that's me (white shawl)...getting ham from the potluck table!! The turkey and the ham were delicious...(so was the cake!!). The BEST dressing was of course the one that Paul made and brought! It was gone first! 
This restaurant is where the "locals" go to eat...I mentioned to some (not while there of course) that I felt like I was around a lot of old people there!! Don't get me wrong...there were children there...and I certainly do not want to offend anyone! So for now I guess I won't expound on my feelings...but I do have what I believe to be the reasons for those feelings...those who would like to know more...just ask!!! 
Returning to the boat...very full!!! One of Paul's favorite islands on the river...only because he has renamed it.... 
Birdshit Island....
So that was our Rio (Dulce) Thanksgiving...not to be confused with a REAL Thanksgiving...although perhaps that is just what this Thanksgiving did. When we got back to the boat we had internet (not like right now where I am struggling to get this blog posted) so I quickly emailed all my children and my mom and told them how much I missed them...and how much I love them!!! My thanks were given and my blessings were remembered!
This gelding looked amost identical to the one I got to ride again!!
We mounted up and down the trail next to the lake.
FOUR kids on this horse?? And only a rope off one side for control!! 
Carol, Pam and the lady staying at Kangroo (I forgot her name)...she was riding a TWO year old mare...
Again, Pam took a lot of pictures (I know you like this mom)...this one of "my" white gelding (who Pam has guesstimated to be around 6 years old - by teeth) going up one of the rocky slopes!
It was a working day...
This picture Pam took is so cute..."my" little gelding looking back and wondering why the heck I stopped him when everyone else was going down the slope...these are not sour horses...they can lead OR follow...and sometimes they do pick their OWN trail!
THIS was the picture I was taking...normal ho-hum views for him (my gelding - don't even know what his name is) but absolutely beautiful every time I see it!!
All of us going through the gate...
The bat caves...
Pam and "her" little mare...also around 6 years old. Pam at home in her own saddle! I have been watching this mare and I would love to take her HOME!
Beautiful cattle...
Riding along the crest of one of the hills...
Look at the way this mare watches her trail!!!
And, here...these trails are difficult! This day they were A LOT slicker...mud deeper (to their bellies in one spot)...and yet these horses quietly do their job!
Look how sweet she is!!! Pam too...as she decided to walk the mare down some of this rocky path!
A village home...
Four hours of riding...in beautiful Guatemalan back countryside!!! Back to the lake...where the owners of "my" gelding were waiting at Denny's Beach to pick him up and take him home. These horses make trail riding so very enjoyable...that, yes...riding could become a habit...again!
once...at this spot in the road where over the jungle canopy you can see "Red Hand"...also know as temple #216. And once...to order lunch...they needed to either kill the chickens or the pig! Then the good road ended, and Lopez was manuevering the van all over the road to try to miss the huge potholes...perhaps (according to Paul) not even a worthwhile endeavor!!
We decided to have Lopez walk around with us...he was such a nice young man...very well spoken in English (and helping me with my Spanish) and going to school. He explained the East/West thing and the groupings of three's, five's, seven's and nine's. 
Some cruisers at Marios had recommended that we go to Yaxha, which is not as well know a ruins as Tikal, but while there is SOME walking Paul would be able to see some ruins with MINIMAL walking. This was very cool to me as Paul only saw Tikal by my pictures!
The Howler Monkeys were in the trees as we walked up wooden steps to the plaza area of #216...
Good thing I saw him when I did...although I don't know if he was dangerous...this is HIS jungle and I was not about to disturb him!!
Yes, Paul made it up the wooden steps to the top!! There was one other van of 7 or eight people and one other small bus tour group of around 14 people going around at the same time as we did.
The view DOWN from #216...
And, the view OUT from the top...to the Yaxha (which means by the way "green water" in one of the Mayan dilects) Lagoon. There are many lagoons that Lopez pointed out to us on our van ride here. Some are man-made...and all of the lagoons (which had been interconnected - way back in Mayan time) were the means of travel for the group that lived here so when discovered they determined with fair accuracy where the main entrance to this grouping of temples and living areas where...the Lagoon! He mentioned that they really don't know where the main entrance to Tikal was because there they did not have the lagoons for travel there.
Of course those that know Paul...know that he HATES heights...so I was on the "downhill" side for this picture. He actually walked around the entire upper part...yes, holding on to the top of the temple the entire time...
but what a view!
View from the top of Red Hand of what they call the Acropolis Norte...
So Paul made his way down (what we have heard from a fellow cruiser as 250 some steps) to the bottom and waited for us as then Lopez and I continued the tour...
We walked further through the jungle and to the North Acroplis...On it was a cut out to see just how these things were built...
One large palace area and behind it three temples...one of which we were able to climb...no wooden steps...just up the center!
We did have to zig-zag a little as the weather had deteriorated some of the steps to just stone...
But once again...at the top...a WONDERFUL view!!!
A close up of Red Hand peeking out from the jungle canopy...
The North Acropolis was my favorite site of Yaxha...
And once again some of you may notice...I'm wearing my 60 u.s. cent shirt...
And, a trail up to the top of what is most probably an unescavated ruin (this according to Lopez)...the trail patiently watched while Paul was waiting for us to return...it was made by leaf-cutter ants...this was THEIR trail!!!
behind their dad...