As with previous posts I am uploading this well after the events occurred. I arrived in Rio Dulce in the evening on November 24th, we left Livingston on the morning of the 25th.
I have left Antigua! After roughly a week and a half in expensive, clean, tourist friendly Antigua it was time to go see the rest of Guatemala. The plan was for me to head to Rio Dulce to meet my friends Katie and Eric. Rio Dulce is on the east side of the country on a river of the same name which runs to the Caribbean coast. There is a town called Livingston on the coastal mouth of the river. Livingston is unique in Guatemala as it is populated by the Garifuna people, originating from the Caribbean and Africa. Katie and Eric had been traveling in Central America for 4.5 months and I was looking forward to learning from some pros. We will be traveling together for a few weeks together until they had back to Canada.
I booked a (slightly overpriced) bus through a travel agency in Antigua. I would be taking a shuttle to Guatemala City then taking a Greyhound style bus to Rio Dulce. The whole trip would take around 6 hours.
On the shuttle to the City I met a Swiss German couple who were also heading to Rio Dulce. I was happy to have someone to chat with while waiting for the bus. After about an hour “layover” in the City the bus arrived on time. We were slightly stressed putting our bags on a separate vehicle before boarding the bus for Rio Dulce. I ended up with a seat in the back of the bus, unfortunately no where near my new Swiss friends. I watched the city as we drove, particularly noticing the wealth disparity between modern, clean shopping malls and sprawling slums lining river valleys. Once we left the city I got to see Guatemala’s fairly mountainous landscape. I spent most of the drive watching Spanish dubbed movies. I found that the action movies were fairly easy to follow without being able to properly hear or understand the words. As the trip wore on the heat of the engine started to overpower the air conditioning in the back of the bus and I was getting pretty uncomfortable by the end. All in it wasn’t a bad trip.
As we crossed the large bridge over the Rio Dulce and pulled into the bus terminal I started to wonder how exactly I would find Katie and Eric, we hadn’t actually come up with a plan. They had told me about a place where I could get WiFi called Cafe Paris but it wasn’t coming up in Google Maps. Luckily for me Katie was standing right there as I got off the bus! She had known around when my bus would arrive and had been waiting for me. The Swiss couple were meeting someone in a bar which Katie knew so we walked over. As we were saying goodbye a boat pulled up to shore next to us. Using Spanish much better than mine Katie quickly arranged transportation to our destination for the night. Once Eric arrived (he had been waiting for me at Cafe Paris) we hoped on the boat and were off.
Our destination was a catamaran anchored near the town. Earlier in their trip Katie and Eric had spent a month working for the owner and he let us spend a night aboard to save money on a hostel. The owner was away but there was a French couple and a man from New Zealand staying on the boat. The French couple, who weren’t too comfortable speaking in English, made dinner while the rest of us chatted. I was very happy to meet up with friends from home and to hear what Katie and Eric had been up to. After a delicious fried rice dinner we set up our beds. Since it was warm and unlikely to rain we set up cushions on the deck to sleep under the stars.
After a imperfect sleep we packed up and waved down a boat to get back to shore. Back in Rio Dulce we arranged our boat to Livingston then got breakfast. We got breakfast in a comedore, one of the inexpensive eateries serving simple Guatemalan food. Comedore means dining room in Spanish, some of them serve food made in the owner’s own kitchen.
The boat ride to Livingston was beautiful. The trip started with a quick detour to check out a small fortress installation and pick up some other passengers. Heading down a small lake I admired the jungle covered mountains all around me. Once we entered the river proper the mountains closed around us into a valley. The boat stopped partway to give us a look at a hotspring which mixes with the river. Eventually the valley turned to steep cliffs, with one notable patch being covered in graffiti. After an hour and a half ride we arrived in Livingston.
A man on the dock told us about Casa de la Iguana, the hostel we had been planning on staying in. It turns out the man was actually a local drug dealer who leads people to this hostel, taking the time to advertise his product to potential clients. We didn’t buy anything but thanked him for his guidance. Casa de la Iguana is a “party hostel” but not as over the top as these places sometimes are.
That afternoon we went out to Siete Altaras (Seven Altars), a series of natural pools with water running from one to the other. To get to the Altars we took a tuktuk (tiny three wheeled taxi) out to a beach. A 20 minute walk down litter strewn but otherwise beautiful Caribbean beach got us out to the entrance. We arrived at Siete Altaras about an hour before it closed and it was empty. I enjoyed the 10 minute walk up to the top pool. The top pool is fed from a small water fall. We took some time to jump from the top of the fall into the deep, fresh water. Walking back along the beach we stopped at an ocean-side bar for a drink. The bar had a little dock going into the water with a two story structure at the end. We relaxed on hammocks and looked out into ocean. That whole afternoon was fantastic.
Back at the hostel we took advantage of the offered dinner and unlimited beer hour for Q50 ($8.60). Taking the unlimited beer hour fairly seriously had it’s predictable effect and Eric and I had a bit of a late night. We got to know the constantly shirtless, tattooed hostel manager, who despite being on shift more or less matched us beer for beer.
We were woke up early the next day to the sound of roosters, dogs, and tropical birds all competing to be the most horrible animal. We got street food for breakfast then head to the docks to figure out how we would be leaving Livingston. While down at the docks a local man named Renaldo approached us, hoping to show us around town and bring us to a certain bar on the beach. He took us to a place right next to the one we had gone the day before, telling us about the town as we went. It seemed like he wanted to spend the whole day with us as a tour guide. We explained that we didn’t want a guide and couldn’t afford to give him much of a tip. He still stuck around for a little while chatting and we gave him some cash for his time. We enjoyed some drinks on the beach then walked back to the bar from the previous day for lunch. We sat out on the dock and made ourselves tortillas with refried beans and avacado, all purchased from the market in town.
That night I got the local delicacy, Topado, from the hostel. Topado is soup made from coconut milk with a whole fish, a whole crab, some plantain, and various vegetables. It was delicious and very filling. We had been lucky enough to come to Livingston on Garifuna National Day and there were celebrations happening in the city. We went out into town after dinner to see what was happening. Unfortunately it seemed like most of the celebration had happened during the day but we still managed to see some drumming, dancing, and Spanish language rapping.
That was our last night in Livingston. Knowing that our next destination was a permaculture farm in the jungle we deliberately took things slowly and spent time relaxing. Although the town itself wasn’t exciting we enjoyed the hostel and the beach.
Antigua was clean, easy living with a lot structure from meals and school. I generally enjoyed myself but it was not really one of the experiences I was looking for in Guatemala. These last few days have been much closer to what I was looking for. Doing my best to navigate in Spanish, sleeping under the stars on a catamaran, boating through the jungle, and enjoying a beer on a Caribbean beach were all interesting and a lot of fun! I’m looking forward to the future.
Declan Easton 