Day 44 – Along Rio Dulce to Livingston
It was four or so hours driving to the town of Rio Dulce, which is at the head of a large river by the same name. The town itself isn’t particularly interesting – it’s a chaotic mess along one main street of vendors and traffic. The town is manly known as being a gateway to Livingston, which is only accessible by boat.
We arrived and found a hotel named Brunos along the river where we could park for 25Q ($3) per night. Originally we were planning to go to Livingston tomorrow, but a man accosted us and offered us a ride on a boat for 90Q/person that would include a mini tour and would depart at 2:30pm. This gave us just enough time to have lunch and pack. For lunch we learned of a dish quite common around here simply called tortilla de harina “flour tortilla”. It’s served as a huge dinner plate sized bready tortilla with either refried beans or meat and salsa.
The boat ride was a bumpy affair. We first had a view of San Felipe Castle, then continued on to some natural hot springs that went straight into the river. It was an interesting experience feeling the very hot water mixing with the cooler river water all together. There were no separated pools and it was very rustic.
Finally to Livingston. Livingston is located right where the Rio Dulce empties into the Caribbean Sea. It is home to the Garifuna people, African in ancestry, and the only black community in Guatemala. Now the area is mainly a tourist destination with souvenir stores, restaurants, and hotels dotted around. It’s still far from being a wealthy place, but tourists abound. We did a quick search online for a hotel, as we obviously did not have our van, and found the cheapest to be Casa Iguana, the party hostel. Having arrived somewhat late, we had our free welcome beer, then had a delicious dinner. Walking along the seafront a local woman accosted us claiming to have fish for dinner for 15Q ($2). It was a bit sketchy as it was in a dark area, and she seemed a little crazy, so we kept on walking. After not finding anything else non-touristy nearby, we decided to go back to the crazy lady and were very pleasantly surprised. She was happy the we returned, brought a table in front of her pitch black store and served us each a massive plate of beans, rice, big plantain blob, and a whole fish each.
Day 45 – The Afro-Caribbean town of Livingston
After our standard desayuno tipico (although today there was sadly no plantain), we spent the day visiting Siete Altares, “seven alters”, a group of seven water pools linked along a small river. Along the way we saw many coconut trees and I became a little obsessed. I first broke open a hairy brown one that had washed up on the sea, tasted a little, and quickly spat it all out. It was revolting and tasted like fermented death. The smell stayed in my beard for the next hour. We then found two better looking coconuts, washed them, and spent ten minutes bashing them against the pavement to open them. They ended up being delicious and the larger had a significant portion of flesh.
Siete Altares itself was nice. There was a large group of rowdy French tourists, but they came and went. The pools were fun to swim in, and the highest up pool had a little waterfall that you could jump off.
We walked half way back and then took a tuktuk the last few kilometres, as it was only 10Q ($1.25) and we’d been wanting to ride in a tuktuk. The tuktuk brought us through the less touristy part of town, and we passed the cemetery where there were hoards of locals out for the Dia De Los Muertos celebrations. Finally, we ended with a dinner of Topado – a seafood soup with coconut, plantain, and various sea critters that were very difficult to eat. Back at the hostel there was some live music and dancing to watch before bed – local Garifuna style with drums and dress.
Day 46 – Departing Livingston
We set off early, wanting to take a different route back to Rio Dulce as it would be a new route and cheaper. Step one – a half hour boat ride along the sea to the town of Puerto Barrios. Step two – an hour long bus to Moraels. Step three – a half hour long bus to Rio Dulce. We read our books for a couple hours in the chairs outside Bruno’s, had some delicious banana liquados and tortilla and set off in late afternoon. We’re now parked at a 24-hour Texaco gas station where we’ll sleep until going to Flores tomorrow.
