We didn’t really have any idea of what to expect from El Castillo, particularly as we hadn’t met anyone who had been there. To get there involves a 3 hour boat journey down the Rio San Juan. I love being on these local forms of transportation, where people who would not look out of place walking down Sydney streets get dropped off in the middle of nowhere where they are met by barefoot children, or machete wielding partners, or sometimes they are there alone with nothing but jungle around them.
On our way down we also came across a raccoon swimming from one side of the river to the other, much to the excitement of everyone on the boat. Eventually we turned a bend in the river and there it was, a fortress on top of a hill. It may not be the most well preserved, or elaborate ruin we’ve ever seen, but it is so incongruous to come across a pyramid shaped fortress in the middle of jungle where houses are mainly cobbled together from wood and corrugated iron.
We found ourselves a very basic double with gaps in the ceiling, walls and floor. But the location more than made up for any deficiencies, situated over the water with a terrace where we could laze in a hammock watching the fortress turn golden as the sunset, listening to the river bubble it’s way over the rapids. Despite the number of hotels (most of which were empty, or like our own had only one room occupied) it felt very much like a town going about its business. Even the main tourist attraction, the fortress, has the town library in the old headquarters and when school finished we watched as children entered the fortress on their way to the library.
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