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Published: June 12th 2006
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Mmm cave dirt!
This is in the hot spring caves near Livingston on Rio Dulce, it was really really hot and smelly!! Hey everyone, I know it´s been a while but I just really can´t be bothered to use the internet most of the time. Hmmm, where have I been lately? We left Hopkins, Belize a week or so ago. Our last night there in Punta Gorda was interesting. Punta Gorda is a cute, quiet little town in the south of Belize. We were playing hackey sack at this little church and a bunch of Belizean kids came and hung out with us, they were so cute. They were all showing off to us and wanted to play with us. That was fun, after a while a Rasta dude called King came along. He invited us to dinner at his ´studio´and we decided to go along with it. His studio was really just an old 115 year old shack, no more. He was a pretty interesting guy and he ranted on and on to us about the dangers of Babylon. We had some good dinner at his little wooden and metal shack, he cooked it over a little fire in the dirt behind the shack, after some trouble getting it going. It involved fresh grated coconut and plantains, potatoes, garlic, onion, and some
Into the storm..
Going from Punta Gorda to Livingston straight into a big rainstorm...we had lots o' plastic though... bananas, it was just a big coconut stew. I helped cut up the potatoes, garlic, and onion on the dirty table with a rusty old knife. I can´t say it was the cleanest meal ever, but it was yummy. He took off for half the time and we ended up eating by ourselves. He sanded me a coconut anklet and it was cool to watch him sit there and make it from raw coconut shell. He also rolled a few smokes for us with coco leaves, and we had to smoke them because we were in Belize hanging out with a Rasta.
The next morning we caught a boat over to Livingston in Guatemala. On our first day in Livingston we met this old Garifuna man called Pelo. We got to talking about music and he said he would make us a CD and that we should come with him the next day for some traditional Gariifuna food out in the forest. We weren´t really too sure about it but we gave him some money for groceries and agreed to meet him the next day. Livingston has it´s tourist side on the main road, but beyond that is a
My new friend...
This was when we stopped at the 'restaurant´ with Pelo in Livingston and I made friends with this little boy, we had some good times with the hackey sack... huge traditional Garifuna and Mayan peoples village. I really enjoyed the Garifuna culture, both in Belize and Guatemala, the people are beautiful and really friendly. That night we headed out to Ubafu bar in Livingston, there weren´t many people there but the band played from great Garifuna drumming music. It all had a very African feel to it. The next morning we went and found Pelo. We really had no idea where we were going or where we was taking us. We just followed him around at his nice slow Livingston pace, stopping every now and then so he could tell us a story. We stoped for coffee at a little so-called restaurant, actually I don´t even know if it was a restaurant or not. It was off the beach and kind of in someones house. But we had coffee and played with the little boy running around in his diaper. The villages surrounding Livingston were beautiful and poor and amazing to see. The kids were usually excited to see us, the people were just going about their daily lives, doing laundry, cooking food, and cleaning. It was all set back amongst the jungle, and many of the houses were
Garifuna village in Livingston..
This is a picture from the Garifuna villages in Livingston, it was a really beautiful place, full of friendly people... traditional coconut thatched shacks. It was amazing. We eventually came to the river and got into this dugout canoe, another Guatemalan man paddled us up the rainforest river. It was beautiful as well, very peaceful and quiet, calm water and surrounded by jungle. After the dugout we walked through the rainforest back to the beach, it was pretty and good and hot and sweaty. we never did get any food but he said the money was for the school so I´m not too worried about it. I still can´t figure out what Pelo´s story was, the people in town said he was just a crazy, sketchy old man but I liked him and his stories were great.
I am leaving out so much so I´ll have to tell you about it when I get home, but from Livingston we went up Rio Dulce to a hotel in the jungle called Finca Tatin. The ride up was amazing, the river was closed in on both sides by huge walls covered with dense rainforest. There were people in their dugout canoes fishing, and travelling around. The hotel was great, we got a little room with two beds with mosquito nets. It
Me and the Canoe
This was after the dugout dropped us off in the rainforest, it was so hot in there, so I´m just trying to cool off a bit... really was in the rainforest, and as the name says, it rained...a lot. But it was still amazing, we saw lots of big toads and a crazy snake, and some big ass spiders, and the jungle made so much noise. It rained so hard sometimes you thought it might break through the roof, we only had power lights from 6pm-10om and when it was dark, it was really dark. The food their was delicious, probably the best food I´ve had yet. We had communal dinners, but really there were only a few of us there, so it was like dinner with the family. The meals were just yummy home-cooked filling vegetarian feasts, with soups, and roasted potatoes, and lots of veggies. It was great. We walked through the rainforest one day and found a beautiful river for swimming, the water was so clean and refreshing. While we were swimming a family paddled by in thier dugout with a load of bananas and fish. We kayaked to some underground hot springs one day, and when we got there, there were all these men working on building a path. We pulled up in our kayaks and they helped us out and a
Me and Pelo...
Here is a shot of me and Pelo walking back to town in Livingston after our little jungle adventure... few guys offered to take us into some caves. The caves were great, we had to crawl through a few little spaces in the dark and get all dirty, I loved it! The kayak there was awesome too. I love Guatemala!!
Today we travelled from Finca Tatin to Rio Dulce and caught a bus up to Flores. Flores seems great, I think we are just going to check it out tomorrow and go up to Tikal the next day. I am having a hard time adjusting to travelling with someone and I do miss travelling on my own but it´s been great. I only have just over 3 weeks until my flight and I am sooo not ready to leave so I don´t think I´ll be back until August, if that. Guatemala has been amazing so far, another place for me to get stuck. I just love everything here, even the smelly, hot bus rides, as painful as they are at the time. It´s just so much fun, and my Spanish is doing really good now, I feel like I can actually express myself instead of just using the same old phrases. Mmmm, I love it!! Anyways, better get
Jungle Rio Dulce...
This is from the boat from Livingston to Finca Tatin in the rainforest, it was such a beautiful ride... going, miss you all as usual, talk to you soon!!
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matt
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pics are worth a 1000 words
,,finally some pics to add to the commentary>>>and to see you too! all looks so inviting,,except the bugs, rain,crabs, and dirt floors. just kidding,,it all looks great, especially your big smiles..