Has anyone done the Quiriga + Rio Dulce tour

[jcjky]

I'm thinking about doing this tour any info would be appreciated.

[Toyz711]

i didn't do the river part, did do quiriqua...have photos linked in my signature...also did a review:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=676985

quiriqua was great, not what i expected. they do have some ruins, but a lot of the stellae(s). most are in excellent shape. much better tour then i thought. take your bug spray!!

[happyone082]

We are booked for this in a couple weeks and would appreciate any feedback...including information on the river part. It's a 9 hour excursion...I hope we enjoy it.

[cwatts15]

We just got back and we did the river tour and Maya ruins. Although the trip was interesting, we did not like the ships tour. 9 hours and 3/12 of them were riding up river on a slow boat, packed with people, with only a select few seats with windows. I finally requested to sit on the bow so I could see and that was better. However, it was still long and our bottoms hurt so bad because the deck was so hard. I saw many other tours stopping along the river banks and exploring, but did not get that. It was long, long, long. We finally reached the end and had lunch at a resort, it was OK. Then we were off for a long bus ride to the ruins. The ruins were nice and interesting. There was very limited shopping at the ruins, and not enough time at the port. This tour was very expensive and not worth it. I always book excursions privately, but didn't have anything for this port, so we booked this one on the ship. Big mistake. The port tours show from the ship showed a smaller boat for the tour, not the tug boat we were on. I would definately think twice about booking this ship tour from NCL. Good Luck

[jcjky]

Thanks! Might take a private tour up the river.

[rubythroatbird]

This tour is a long day, and we returned minutes before they rolled up the gangway. :) Any bad traffic, and we would have been late. So in my humble opinion, if you want to do this tour, going through the cruise line is the way to go, so that they are responsible for holding the boat for you.

 

Our boat was not crowded, and we could usually see very well, except that everyone sort of crowded to one side of the boat when we passed the scenic Spanish Fort. The captain turned the boat around some and eventually I was able to see it and get good photographs though. The river was deeper and wider than I expected, and the boat faster moving. You need to bring a decent pair of binoculars and to focus on larger birds because the small stuff is going to get away from you. There were lots of Brown Pelicans but the "best" birds from the boat for us were 1) Common Black-Hawk, and 2) a large flock of low-flying Wood Storks that made a slow circle where we could see them well. There was a fish that knew how to skip across the water but I don't know what it's called.

 

The lunch was a pretty bad buffet. The food had already gotten cold. If I had it to do over, I would have brought along a box of cereal or something. But that's my only real complaint.

 

We sprayed our pants at the ankle level twice -- before the tour and immediately after arriving at Quiriqua. We explored quite a bit in the grass and neither of us had a chigger bite. The ruins were well-preserved and it looks like I have some nice photographs of some of the carvings, although I haven't had time to do much with them yet. We checked the forested area surrounding the stelae and were pleased to find a cooperative Turquoise-Browed Motmot who gave us a terrific view. My traveling companion had never seen a motmot before, and this one was spectacular!

 

During the bus ride to and from the site, the guide took on the unenviable task of discussing the history of Guatemala, which has certainly had its share of challenges, while trying to be upbeat. I did not envy him this job. But he bent over backward to be helpful and even made a point of giving us a Guatemalan bill with a quetzal, the national bird, on it, since we did not have time to visit the area where the quetzals occur in the wild.

 

If I were to do a private tour instead, since the area involved is large, I would not do both the river boat and the stelae. I would pick one or the other, to remove any time pressures. Exploring the river banks would be a good option.

[jcjky]

Thats what I was thinking. To do just a river tour.