Catamaran Island Hotel Livingston

... in the middle of a mangrove swamp-forest and the thatched dorms are spread out and reached by walking along wooden board walks )a little tricky at night!). This hostel is near the town of Rio Dulce and Esther and i took this kayack out for a spin on the lake, which was great fun. While here we also took a bus to Finca Paraiso, which is a piping hot waterfall flowing over a limestone cliff! We perched on the cliff and let the agua ...

... to a place called Finca Tatin about 10 km's short of Livingston. This is set on the river that flows in to the Caribbean sea and is not far off paradise. The river and accommodation is surrounded by dense jungle and a lot of wildlife. After 3 days I've managed to tear myself away but its the kind of place you could be happy doing nothing but chilling for a long time.<br> Yesterday we hired kayaks and set off for what we thought would be a leasurely 2 hour row to a restaurant ...

... green river.<br>The Finca is a collection of large open wooden structures strwen about a swamp, hammocks everywhere and a few little varandah type jettys facing out on to the river, including a rope swing :)<br>Im hoping you can see the videos i have attached - ****ing great fun, two days spent kyaking, swimming and swinging about like a small child, what with seieng a pretty big tarantula looking spider and a snake in a tree above the toilet block (who ...

... large brown hairy spider (about 4 ½ inches) just hanging out on one of our bungalow&#8217;s walls. After we spent a little bit of time freaking out, Rachel walked over to the front desk and told them about the problem. The front desk sent to our room a shirtless man with a broom who with a laugh swatted and then chased the spider with his sandal until he swatted it to death.<br><br>No more than two minutes after the guy left Rachel found ...

... up with the words in Spanish to get the bus driver to stop. I'd forgotten all my Spanish!<br><br>Somehow, I survived for the next hour until, thankfully, we stopped at a little town. The bus driver shouted that we had either 5, 15, or 25 minutes until leaving (no comprendo). Told Mom 'I'm outta here, please don't let the bus leave without me!' Ran into the nearest comedora and asked for the bathroom. Whew! Disaster averted. Wait, the 5 year old girl is asking for ...

... job and that we cvan go screw ourselves. ok, no problem. I was going to tell him how I was going to call the DA on his ass and report him to the BBB, but then I realized that i had no energy to argue and that more impòrtantly, I was in Guate and notne of that existed. We are now down to our last $20 because banks are scarece around here.<br>At 10:15, we pull into Rio and see the first hotel we recognised from the book. It was right next to the bus station which was a score ...

... again until you are on the ground in Guatemala. While this might be recommended for some travelers (possibly those with a few of flying) I would not necessarily recommend it for those of you who have absolutely no idea what you are going to be doing upon arriving at your final destination. However, after a quick browse through some photocopied pages of Lonely Planet, I was confident that I would be able to get myself to a bus station that would take me as far way from ...

... went into to Jens shower armed with cameras and a little dutch courage provided by a spot of the local beer (Gallo) and were able to retrieve her belongings which were still being guarded by the hairy beast!! He posed for a few photos too....<br> <br><br>Wednesday 17th: I got up at 5.15am and went kayaking down the river with Matt - we went that early to see the Howler monkeys - they are apparently early risers!! It was good fun ...