Feb 9: Livingston, Guatemala
Trip Start
Jan 13, 2009
1
12
26
Trip End
Apr 09, 2009
Livingston,
Guatemala
Monday, February 9, 2009
The bus company, however, neglected to mention that it would drop us at the turnoff to Puerto Barrios rather than at the town itself. We would've just taken a colectivo for a few quetzales (Guatemalan currency) but we didn't have ANY quetzales since we thought we'd be dropped near an ATM. Sooo we were forced to take a taxi to the port.
From there we took the slower and cheaper ferry (20 quetzales, $2.50) to Livingston, a slow-paced town on a bay of the Caribbean and only accessible by boat.
The people there are called Garifuna, a mix of Caribbean islanders and Africans brought over for slave trade by the British. Apparently Hindus also have a presence there. Everyone was incredibly friendly and as you walked around the town or on the beach would smile and say hello.
We found a tucked-away hostel right by the bay, called Los Jardines and built on top of the library which it works to fund. It cost 40 quetzales ($5) per person and was nicer than anywhere else we'd seen in town. It's always best to find a place that hasn't yet made its way into Lonely Planet. That way it hasn't been spoiled by unmerited popularity and flocks of backpackers.
Joseph and I walked for about 1 1/2 hours down the beach, which stretched on forever. It was very pretty and white herons were everywhere. We finally made it to the foot bridge, crossed and then turned back as it was getting dark.
We met back up with Joel and Andrea and ate dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall place with very good food. Food in Livingston has been very expensive since everything aside from fish and coconuts has to come in by boat.
We arranged for a tour down the Río Dulce tomorrow morning, which cost more than we wanted but was unavoidable. The whole town basically decided that they wanted to raise the price of a tour from 80 quetzales to 125 and there's no way to get around it. We could be stubborn and take the ferry back to Puerto Barrios and then reach Río Dulce by bus, but that would cost just as much. Sooo we talked to a guy named Arnulfo at the dock and decided to spend a little more (150 quetzales each) to get a private boat just for the 4 of us that will go down the river slower and stop whenever we want. We leave at 8am.
