Blogs from Caribbean Coast, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 17

Read more at On the Road with William Walker On our way to Tikal, Lika and I took a detour to visit the Guatemalan coastal village of Livingston, which is only accessible by boat as it is situated on a delta island at the mouth of the Rio Dulce. Livingston is a long haul from Guatemala City. By the time we arrived at the transit point for Livingston, Puerto Barrios, it was too late to find a launch so we had no choice to stay the night. Puerto Barrios is a rough town, nearly a half a century past its hey-day as the principal port for Guatemala. It has long since slid back into a tropical torpor. The most prominent features of the town are the towers of Dole shipping containers stacked four high behind fences ... read more

Setting off at 4am on a Friday morning is no easy task and this morning was no easier. But it was for a good cause so I didn´t mind one bit. We were off to the Northeastern part of Guatemala to Rio Dulce and Livingston. We got a shuttle from Antigua to Guatemala City where we then got a coach for 6 hours up to Rio Dulce. As it was such an early start I managed to sleep most of the way and when we did stop to get out the difference in climate was amazing. Rio Dulce is really hot as it is on the caribbean side of Guatemala. After checking in to our hotel which was only reachable by boat we spent the rest of day relaxing and generally doing nothing!! But it was ... read more

I have spent the last two nights in the beautiful rainforest near livingston on Rio Dulce Guatamala. We stayed in a beautiful little cabin at Finca Tatin. The Hostel is owned by a lovely family of a father and three kids. The youngest boy taught me how to play Yo-Gu-Oh. We arrived by boat from Rio Dulce on the 20th and took the tour guide (the family dog) on a tour through the rainforest. There is an American volunteer mission very near the hostel that helps the poor people in the forest. We walked to the river and saw 20-30 men washinging there clothes and bathing in the river. Then we walked about the mission, which was closed and head back to do some swimming. We swam around the dock and jumped from the rope ... read more

We left Copan Ruinas, Honduras about 8am, stopped once to stretch after about 2 hours, then arrived at Quirigua Ruins about 11:30am. The ruins are off the main road a ways on a dirt road, thru banana plantation(s), Dole I think. Although very small, Quirigua was still interesting with some cool stellae and zoomorphs (human-animal sculptures). The guide in Copan had told us his opinion was that the Mayans that made some of the designs in stone were probably on drugs... some peyote, mescal concoction popular at the time. Some of them were weird enough that he might be right! After a brief walk-thru, we had a picnic lunch from the Copan hotel, then headed down the road towards the lake and our stay at Rio Dulce. When we arrived at the lake, we pulled ... read more

It has been a long time since my last posting (sorry mom) but i will try my best to backtrack through my memory as best i can. When we left the islands in Belize we began a 10 hour bus ride back to Guatemala. The only thing that got me through that ride was the Don Williams cd that they were playing. No, in all seriousness it wasn't that bad. The scenery made up for the motion sickness. We were in a rickety chicken bus driving down a thin dirt road with jungle on either sides. I really think that the pictures don't quite do the jungle justice. For miles and miles there are only green trees and a few palm huts inbetween. We crossed the border back into Guatemala in the sketchiest customs station ... read more