Rio Dulce tours with kids?

[onecrazymomof2]

I have read numerous threads regarding this tour- some more worrisome than others. Having traveled to a few third-world countries before, I am not that concerned with safety. However, that was on my own, not with my 2 young boys!

 

As a mother, I am more concerned, so I am looking for others who have taken these tours with children. Is there any reason NOT to take these tours?

 

We sail in 3 weeks to Guatamala, Honduras and Costa Maya. If anyone has some info, please let me know. THanks!!

[World Gallery]

We took our 5 children on the Go with Gus Humanitarian tour in Feb. 2008. Gus is well known and respected and we felt very comfortable. This was in 2008 so I am not sure what is different now. Maybe someone can give more details about the situation now. We are going back next month and we are booked with Turix Activo this time for a custom tour stopping at specific places that we didn't go to last time along the Rio Dulce. We are bringing our 5 children again. They remember this excursion well and it is one of the best overall excursion we have taken on a Carribean cruise.

[Shocker4]

I will have my two children, 6 and 10, on the Rio Dulce with Javier at Hotel de Casa Rosada next week. He has a max. of 10 passengers (if a smaller tour is what you're looking for) I'll let you know how it works out...if we make it back. No, no I'm just kidding. I too have traveled abroad and I just don't fret about safety issues. I hope I can pass a calm confidence on to my children while they are in unfamiliar surroundings.

 

Have a great trip.

[Shocker4]

We're baaaack...We got a Rio Dulce tour with Hotel Casa Rosada. My dd got sick on the pier just before we entered the boat. DH stayed back with her for the day and DS (6) and I forged ahead.

 

Our guide never mentioned anything about personal safety issues and we didn't see anything that made us uneasy. The only thing was that we all wore bright orange lifejackets while on the open waters, once on the river we could take them off. As if our skin and hair didn't make us stick out enough, now we've got bright jackets to announce our arrival. The locals don't wear life jackets and I talked to the guide about how they can see us coming from a mile away.

 

We were only greeted with smiles and waves and never confrontation. But, I do know your concerns. I was so concerned with what I'd read about a Jamaica stop we had on another cruise that I promptly booked us for an all-inclusive resort day so we could stay in a protected area, that is not the area I encountered while in Guatemala. Hope this helps.

[ftelah]

Shocker4, we have considered this trip with Javier, what did you think we too would be taking children even younger than your 6yr old. Was the day to long do you think? How did you like it overall? Any addition info would be great I know that if we are going to do this we would need to in the next 2 days. Do you have to pay in advance, what if weather isn't suitable etc?

[pisces1]

We just got back from a cruise which included a tour of Rio Dulce and Livingston. I am not sure how comfortable your children would be on this excursion. Let me just share some observations. First the boats are small and only have a wimpy canopy to shade you. We were happy that ours seemed larger and deeper than most of the boats we saw(we sat four adults across on a hard surface, others only sat three.) As a previous poster mentioned, you must wear PFD's (personal flotation devices) and I am not sure if tour operators would have children's sizes available. (But this is very important, as a child cannot wear an adult size). In addition, most of these tours are rain or shine, so keep that in mind as that would make a HUGE difference if you do this in inclement weather.

 

The boats pick you up right at the ship so it is convenient but this is NOT a short little jaunt to the Rio Dulce River. You travel near the shoreline but you are still in the open waters of the Bay. In the morning the water was calm and the trip delightful. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the river, but we did slow down a couple of times for the tour guide to make some comments/observations.

 

The trip up river was probably another 35-40 minutes or more, and by this time all the adults were fidgeting. We turned around and stopped off at a little riverfront hut that served beverages and had restrooms. After 15 minutes or so we boarded the boat again, (not always an easy task) and left downriver to visit the school. This whole adventure took another hour or so. We docked off of a tributary where there were huts with native goods that you could purchase. If folks were not interested in walking any further, they could stay there while the others trekked uphill to the school. This is not an easy climb in the heat and humidity, but you are in a jungle afterall. It was very interesting and educational but by then, many of our group were "melting".

 

We then boarded the boat again and took off to the village of Livingston which is located right at the mouth of the Rio Dulce. By this time we had used up most of our estimated 4 hour tour time and the consensus was that we did not want to eat a lunch here or stay too long as by now we were anxious to get back to the ship. The seas had kicked up and the winds were blowing so we figured we would have a rough ride back.

 

Most of the folks did not wander far, in fact we just found the nearest shady area and stayed there until the rest of the group was back and ready to reboard our vessel. The trip back could have been scary for some folks as the waves were quite big (in relation to the boat size) and we were traveling at warp speed so lots of bouncing and banging. We are avid boaters and so were our friends, so we noticed immediately that the "captain" was excellent and was operating the boat extremely well under those conditions. However, others may not have felt so comfortable.

 

Once back at the tiny floating dock, it was very tricky getting off the boat as everything was rocking wildly. All in all we really enjoyed the trip and we were very glad we went, but it was tiring and restrictive (movement wise). It ended up being 5 hours, which is long when you are out in the elements and not in some air conditioned bus. I cannot even imagine doing this if the weather is bad. I suppose they could shorten the trip but no matter what you have a ways to go to reach Livingston and the Rio Dulce.