Trip to Livingston continued -
The best part for us was the incredible scenery on the trip down. At first we were crossing a large lake with islands and bayous.
We went into some of the bayous and along one of the waterways some boys came up in dug out canoes and gave us flowers, of course they knew they would get a tip. Still, the flowers were gorgeous and smelled wonderful and they were cute.
None of the houses had road access, only water. It was almost like being in the swamps of Louisiana except that the jungle was higher and included tropical trees and birds.
We saw a lot of birds and once I told the boatman we were interested in birds, he took us to several small islands that were teeming with comorants and egrets. We also stopped at one house that sold cold sodas where I took this picture of a heron on the dock. They had incredibly cute kids, dressed to the nines, and a couple of semi-tame raccoons that came up into the open house for tortillas.
Unfortunately, the weather was not good the whole time we were in Rio Dulce, raining hard at night and most afternoons. The morning of our boat trip it was misting which became hard rain for awhile, it was also pretty cold. The boatman gave us pieces of plastic and we covered up to stay dry and it kept me pretty warm. Mimi had hurt her ribs the night before and didn't come on this trip, it was a good thing as she would have been freezing and shivering which isn't good with sore ribs.
About half way down, it dried up but stayed overcast and cool. We stopped at a spot where a hot spring comes up along the edge of the river but none of us were interested in getting wetter so we went on. At spots along the way there were some incredible mansions with covered docks holding boats worth more than the house. This is a spot where the really rich live near the very poor and where the number of rich boaters causes the prices to be very high.
We got back to Rio Dulce around 3pm and went to town for a bit. We were looking to use the ATM there but one didn't work and the other one ate the card of some backpackers ahead of us. Patti and Bobby were there and said that a guy immediately told them they could use his cell phone to call the number listed. Patti and Bobby had heard the story from some friends of ours that had a similar scam run on them in Guatemala, when they used the helpful person's cell phone, he dialed it and it sounded like the bank and asked for the pin number. I saw a warning about this on the screen at a couple of ATM's here as well. Anyway, they told this young couple about it and when we saw them later they said they had not used the cell phone but had to wait until Monday to try and get their card back from the bank.
The best part for us was the incredible scenery on the trip down. At first we were crossing a large lake with islands and bayous. We went into some of the bayous and along one of the waterways some boys came up in dug out canoes and gave us flowers, of course they knew they would get a tip. Still, the flowers were gorgeous and smelled wonderful and they were cute.
None of the houses had road access, only water. It was almost like being in the swamps of Louisiana except that the jungle was higher and included tropical trees and birds.
We saw a lot of birds and once I told the boatman we were interested in birds, he took us to several small islands that were teeming with comorants and egrets. We also stopped at one house that sold cold sodas where I took this picture of a heron on the dock. They had incredibly cute kids, dressed to the nines, and a couple of semi-tame raccoons that came up into the open house for tortillas.
Unfortunately, the weather was not good the whole time we were in Rio Dulce, raining hard at night and most afternoons. The morning of our boat trip it was misting which became hard rain for awhile, it was also pretty cold. The boatman gave us pieces of plastic and we covered up to stay dry and it kept me pretty warm. Mimi had hurt her ribs the night before and didn't come on this trip, it was a good thing as she would have been freezing and shivering which isn't good with sore ribs.
About half way down, it dried up but stayed overcast and cool. We stopped at a spot where a hot spring comes up along the edge of the river but none of us were interested in getting wetter so we went on. At spots along the way there were some incredible mansions with covered docks holding boats worth more than the house. This is a spot where the really rich live near the very poor and where the number of rich boaters causes the prices to be very high.
We got back to Rio Dulce around 3pm and went to town for a bit. We were looking to use the ATM there but one didn't work and the other one ate the card of some backpackers ahead of us. Patti and Bobby were there and said that a guy immediately told them they could use his cell phone to call the number listed. Patti and Bobby had heard the story from some friends of ours that had a similar scam run on them in Guatemala, when they used the helpful person's cell phone, he dialed it and it sounded like the bank and asked for the pin number. I saw a warning about this on the screen at a couple of ATM's here as well. Anyway, they told this young couple about it and when we saw them later they said they had not used the cell phone but had to wait until Monday to try and get their card back from the bank.
posted by Jonna at 11:30 PM
1 Comments:
Even though the people did not fall for the cell phone part of the scam, they still lost their card to the scammer...he is the one who put a piece of plastic in the machine to cause it to jam....and he certainly retrieved their card and was able to use it as a debit card before they were able to contact their bank. If this happens to you...your ATM card gets stuck in an ATM machine...do not leave the machine until you retrieve the card...if you don't, the scammer will....
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