Travel to the USA, Post 26-26

Jimmy Lee
Jun 28
5 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

We ended up traveling over 3,000 miles this week via boats, buses, cars, planes, subway, and a train from Utopia in Rio Dulce, Guatemala to Quest II Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Sunday, June 21 – Thursday, June 25, 2026

Boat to town of Rio Dulce

We woke up early on Sunday and started the last-minute buttoning up of Utopia. By 7 a.m. we locked up the boat and head to the Tijax Restaurant to have breakfast and say goodbye to the staff and our fellow dock mates for the next two months. A little after 8 a.m. we took the launcha from Tijax to the dock nearest to the bus station and onto the next leg of the trip.

Luggage off of Utopia and heading to bus station in a lancha

Bus travel to Guatemala City

We had learned from several sources to expect a long bus ride from Rio Dulce to Guatemala City. The bus line, Litegua is sort of like the Guatemalan version of Greyhound. The bus is roomy, the chairs are comfortable and the cabin was air conditioned. So far this has been the coldest place in Guatemala.

The total bus time was about 8 hours and approximatly five stops. Most were short stops and one was a 20-minute stop to stretch your legs and get some food. Once leaving the Rio the climate changed from jungle to more arid climate quickly passing through big mountain valley where it almost got to a desert climate. It was very interesting seeing the habitat change over a few hours.

As we neared the end of the trip we climbed up into the mountains and stayed up high for the rest of the trip. We arrived at the bus station in downtown Guatemala City, and it was immediatly apparent we were in a cooler climate. The city is around 3,500-4,000 feet above sea level, so it rarely gets into the 80s and the low reached into the 60s at night in the summer. A nice change from the 95 degrees in the Rio.

Bus ride across Guatamala

The bus station is not in the best part of town, so we got an Uber from the confines of the station and took a 10-minute drive to our hotel (Hotel La Inmaculada). It is right in the middle of Zone 10 which is considered one of the tourist districts (and most safe districts) and is close to the zirport. Once we were checked in, we walked to dinner.

Visiting Guatemala City

We decided to stay two nights in the city before our flight to tour around the city. Since we knew there was rain coming in the afternoon, we decided to do our walking tour in the morning. It was downright cool in the morning (65 when we left the hotel), and we went on a general walk around town and ultimately made it to Museo Ixchel del Traje Indígena which is a museum focusing on Mayan textiles. It was very interesting.

Museo Ixchel del Traje Indigena in Guatemala City

The museum is on the campus of the Universidad Galileo which is a relatively new private campus in Guatemala City. After leaving the museum, we decided to try to find our way back by cutting through the campus. It was a beautiful campus with lots of landscaping and we meandered through the part of campus with a bunch of science laboratories.

Normally we are not mall people, but we had to check out the Oakland Place Mall which was somewhat on the way back to the hotel. It was a massive shopping center that is a central entertainment hub for families. Unlike the malls in the U.S., this one is thriving and a bit overwhelming in size.

With rain approaching, we hightailed it back to the hotel for a few hours while we waited for it to let up. It never did so we ended up strolling in the rain a short distance to dinner.

Walking tour around Guatemala City

Our flight out of Guatemala was at 6 p.m. on Tuesday so we had a good bit of the morning for more walking around before we went back into travel mode. We ended up walking along one of the main boulevards (Avenue De Reforma) and looked at some of the local sites close to our hotel that we did not see the day before.

Flight from Guatemala to Boston

(Wednesday and Thursday, June 23-24)

After we checked out of our room we decided to go ahead and make the trip to the airport even though we were not leaving for several hours. The idea was to go ahead and check in for the flight, go through security so we could just hang out for a bit before we got on the plane.

We are flying Araject, a Dominican Republic (DR) airline that only fly once out of Guatemala City a day. Also, since we were going to the U.S., we could not self-check. It turns out that staff did not start the check in process until two hours before our flight (even though they insisted we get there at least 3 hours before the flight).

Our flight took off at 6:15 PM and we had a connecting flight in Santo Domingo, DR (with a 6-hour layover) before we went onto Boston. We spent the first two hours in the middle of the night on the outside of security after passing through immigration, then once security reopened at 2 AM, we were able to spend the remaining four hours wandering the airport in and trying to catch a little bit of sleep which was difficult due to the overall noise of the airport.

Hurry up and wait

The 6:30 a.m. flight out of the Dominican Republic was on time and landed in Boston around 11 am. The flight was neat because we flew over parts of the areas we cruised last year such as Chesapeake Bay and Long Island. We even got a good view of Manhattan near the end of the flight.

Once clear of immigration, we took a bus to check into the hotel and did some shopping for Sondra’s upcoming hiking trip since it was near our hotel in the Back Bay area of Boston. We also took in some of the sights during our shopping walk, but we were somewhat in a daze due to lack of sleep. After an early dinner we went back to the room and were asleep quite quickly.

Train travel to Gloucester

(Thursday June 25)

We went for a long walk around Boston in the morning with more strolling through the Back Bay area (seeing the awesome Boston Public Library), crossing over the Charles River, walking the Cambridge side of the river, and then back across returning to the hotel to check out so we could make the 1:30 pm train to Gloucester.

Walking tour around Boston before the train

While waiting for the train near the station we stumbled upon a Boston Celtics promotion and got some free ice cream!

The train trip was uneventful, taking about an hour to reach the City of Gloucester where our cruising friends Cam and Denise have Quest II presently moored.

As you remember we buddy boated with these guys for about four months last year and as fortune would have it, they are in Gloucester for the next several weeks. Since Sondra does not start her backpacking trip for a week, we are going to stay several days with them on Quest II! We had a nice dinner and enjoyed catching up with them.