Boat Trip to Livingston

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Today we piled into a boat for our trip down Rio Dulce to Livingston. Livingston is in Guatemala, but it's a garifun community founded somewhat by african slaves from shipwrecks or 'planted´along the coast by the British to work the sugar cane plantations. We started just east of the only bridge across Laka Izabal near the mouth of the Rio Dulce river which is fed by the lake. Rio Dulce is quite wide all the way to the Caribbean Ocean, so we saw alot of large boats docked along each side at times. Most of the banks were still quite wild and jungle-like. Along the way we stopped and coasted along the banks to observe some plants and wildlife. We spotted many egrits, water turkeys (anajingas I think) and a couple of vultures, plus a few small turtles. Many of the trees had wild orchids or bromelaids growing on them. The last part of the trip was thru the canyon, with steep cliffs along one or both sides of the river. We knew we were approaching Livingston when the water started getting choppy. Livingston is spread out along the northern side of Rio Dulce where it meets the ocean. Although we saw some interesting people, some different souvenirs, and ate their famous Tapado (Seafood chowder), Livingston was only worth the trip because of the boat ride and sights along the way. Maybe at night, or during other times of the year things are more lively and interesting. We ate lunch at Bugamama's. Manoli had the tapado and I had hand-made pasta with mushrooms, bacon, and peas in a cream sauce. Both were quite good and not expensive. Having left the hotel at 9am, we spent about an hour and a half in Livingston and returned to the hotel about 3pm. We had a couple of liquados (smoothies), took a short nap, then ate dinner around 6pm. After a stroll around, we returned to the cabin to read. Tomorrow we leave for Flores, Guatemala as a staging point for our early morning trip to Tikal on Friday.

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Photos

Entering Livingston
A view of Livingston as we head in to dock our tour boat.

Rio Dulce Brige
The bridge over Rio Dulce from Hotel Catamaran.

Fort
An old fort to keep pirates out of Lake Izabal.

Hotel Catamaran
Hotel Catamaran where we stayed on Rio Dulce. Our cabin is the one just right of center.

Birds along Rio Dulce
A shot of just some of the birds and trees along Rio Dulce.

Canyon Cliffs
One of the cliffs along the canyon of Rio Dulce.

Livingston Street
One of the streets in Livingston.

Bugamama's
The restaurant, Bugamama's where we ate lunch in Livingston.

Coco Loco
Manoli drinking her Coco Loco at Bugamama's

Tapado
Manoli's tapado soup at Bugamama's