Rio Dulce and the Carribean

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Another weekend with the Spaniards. We only started planning this trip on Wednesday and left on Thursday........ I convinced Gemma that bringing her guidebook would be a good idea, it is also a lonely planet but in Spanish, saves me some work explaining. She agreed but them continued to leave it on the bus when we arrived! The bus journey to Puerto Barrios (the eastiest place to head close to the carribean from Guate), took 6 hours. We had all fallen asleep within two or three hours (they were playing the Dr Dolittle DVD in Spanish!) but woke up to scorching heat. The bus did not have air conditioning, and most of the windows wouldn´t open.

Anyway, we finally arrived in the run down town of Puerto Barrios, were immediately persuaded to take a taxi with a big bullet hole in the front windscreen to the port so we could leave! We took a lancha (speed boat) to Livingstone, before the boat left, we were handed pathetic sponge lifejackets, and a piece of plastic sheet. When we turned round to ask what the sheet was for, we were told ´por la agua´ (´for the water´). The noat pulled away slowly, and then the engines were reved and we speeded over the choppy waters, smaking the sea with teeth shattering force.

When we arrived in Livingstone, we were immediately greeted by five or six big black men who uncanningly knew our names and where we were from (we later found out that when we signed the guest book when we brought our lancha tickets, the girl in the office had radioed over our details, all a bit bizarre, but I suppose made for a warm welcome!). Again we were persuaded to follow some young men as one of the owned a hotel. As we could see the room before we paid we took the chance. The room had mosquito nets which we were pretty happy about, (the mosquitos carry malaria in that area), but not much else. In true student fashion, we took the room because it was cheap.

We decided to go out for dinner and on our walk back to the main drag, we again acosted by a group of young black men who pointed out a ´good local´ resturant (i.e. not in the lonely planet)! We were used to this after spending the weekend in Atitlan where there is a real conflict between the foreign owned business who attract the tourists because they speak English and offer 'video nights' and the like, and the locals. Wanting to be minimal impact tourists, we took the recomendation and ate rice and beans with the locals (including the five or six street dogs who wandered in looking for scraps!)

After the meal, we were again accompanied to a live music bar, where we drank coco locos (a rum mixed with coconut milk, served in a coconut!) and listened to bongos and singing, mui autentica!

We were up early the next morning and sneaked from a room with our bags in hope of finding a slightly nicer hotel with hot water! No such luck, apparently there isn't any hot water in Livingstone! We decided to take a guided walking tour which took us through the town, to a graveyard with a really old (400 years plus) tree, through a swamp, a canoe ride down the river, along a private beach, to some waterfalls called siete altares (the seven altars) and back. We were pooped after 8 hours of walking and swimming, but managed to make it out for a dinner of chicken and fajitas and some dancing at the local night club, right on the beach.

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Photos

On the Lancha
I am really suprised this came out and we were really going some.

The carribean
The view from the lancha

In the canoe
Who is that moody looking girl!

Comments

[Glendo]

lucky/moody girl
Wow, this place looks incredible. That's gnarly that you're getting to hang out in such a beautiful country! Looks fantastic Megs, enjoy it! I look forward to hearing from you again. Those old ladies on the next post are slightly creepy, but treasures im sure...