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Published: August 17th 2010
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The Fort At Rio Dulce
Built to defend against English pirates Livingston
Wednesday 11th August
Today we make the journey from
Flores to
Livingston. The only way into
Livingston {
I think} is by boat so a minibus picks up from our hotel to take us to the town of
Rio Dulce on the river of the same name. Here we take a boat to take us down to
Livingston which is at the mouth of the
Rio Dulce on the
Caribbean Sea.
The river banks on either side are very green and uncultivated. Occasionally we see small settlements at the side of the river and small children are sent out to try and sell us starfish and trinkets. We stop at
Restaurant El Viajero for lunch {
The place isn’t as remote as I’m probably making it sound - they have satellite TV and we’ve phoned ahead our order by mobile phone} where everyone declares the fish to be the best they’ve ever tasted - I have a burger.
Livingston
We arrive at
Livingston in the mid-afternoon with enough time to explore the town.
Livingston seems very different from other
Guatemalan towns. It was originally settled by the
Garifuna. The
Garifuna are the descendents of two slave ships
Livingston
Has a definite Caribbean feel to it which sank on their way from
West Africa. The survivors managed to establish themselves on
St. Vincent where they mixed with the
Carib population. They never became slaves but were eventually removed by the British from
St. Vincent to
Roatán and seem to have established other settlements along the Central American mainland.
Livingston was named after an American lawyer, Eduardo Livingstone - I haven’t found out what the exact link is yet.
The town seems to have a distinct Caribbean feel to it, making it different from other Guatemalan towns. There’s even a few Rastafarians established there. There’s not too much to see there other to sit and have a beer and soak up the atmosphere.
We are staying at
Casa Rosada on the harbour. We have some wooden cabins which keep us dry through a rather heavy storm that night. The food we have when we eat there is excellent, the hammocks are a good way to spend an afternoon, and the staff are very friendly and helpful. Some more shower facilities would have helped, though - we are sharing one shower between the group of nine of us. They are on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/casarosada Waterfalls and Playa Blanca
The next day we take a boat out to a couple of attractions. The
Siete Altares are a series of waterfalls a short boat ride from
Livingston. From here we move on to
Playa Blanca {
literally “White Beach”}. This is a privately owned beach and we have to pay a small charge before spending a relaxing day lying on the beach and splashing in the Caribbean.
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