On the ocean, ya'll
So we leave Flores on New Year’s day and head down to Rio Dulce (Sweet River), which runs into the Caribbean sea and has a boat launch to Livingston. I tried to sleep and Nate drove. Three hot hours later we arrive in Rio Dulce, a port town in every way, and ask about tickets to Livingston. Well, it turns out that we're the only people that want to go, so we can charter a private boat for 800Q per person ($1 = 7.50Q) or we can wait around and see if other people show up and if we can get 8 people, it will cost us 100Q per person. Ok then.
We settle into the Café Benedicion de Dios, Nate has shrimp ceviche (bold man) and I have a melon smoothie and we wait. An hour later a little old guy stomps across the wooden planks of the deck, gestures to the dock and says ‘boat’ – which we ascertain means that there are more people who want to go to Livingston and now a boat with them and us is leaving. So we get on it and take off.
The boat ride was magnificent. Our first stop was a 17th century castle called San Felipe, built by the Spanish Conquistadores to keep the pirates at bay. Beautiful old stone, tall walls, lots of lookouts, the whole deal. All we needed was Johnny Depp crashing through the jungle on the run from angry natives…
All along the river the jungle crawls all the way down to the shores except for small areas that are cleared for thatched roof houses and wooden boat docks. Some of the houses were obviously nice resorty summer houses for rich people with beautiful tropical landscaping and private little lagoons behind them and others were smaller houses with women washing clothes in the river, kids lounging in hammocks waving at the boats going by and men fishing in dugout canoes. It is not the first time that Guatemala really resembled all those National Geographic photos you see.
As the river goes on, the banks get steeper and turn into sheer limestone cliffs covered with jungle vegetation, like tall green walls on either side of the river: Lily pads line the banks, pelicans and storks swoop low over the water fishing and the Isla de Pajaros in the middle of the river had an uncountable number of ducks roosting in the trees. The whole trip took about an hour and a half, including a brief stop over at natural hot springs by the side of the river, and then suddenly you are at the Caribbean sea and the banks of Livingston.
Livingston is composed mostly of the Garifuna people, ancestors of Guatemalans and escaped African slaves. So it’s more African in feel than Guatemalan. It’s also a port town with one long central road, hotels, restaurants, souvenir stands and very little else. The best beach is a boat ride away and the weather is HOT and muggy and sticky and tropical. It rained off and on the whole first day we were here.
We initially stayed at the Hotel California (I know, I know, but Don Henley lied, you actually can leave) where the rooms were small concrete boxes with overhead fans, cold water showers and about one million roosters on every side greeting the dawn, along with half the village outside in the streets banging on sheet metal at 7 in the morning on the second of January. Why? Who knows… Here they appear to tolerate tourists but have no interest in a personal relationship. Plus the Spanish is Fast and heavily accented with the local African dialect. Plus I was wiped out from the flu (which also got Bet and my mom, so maybe it wasn’t food poisoning… all of my apologies to Pollolandia) so I haven’t been ultra friendly or outgoing. It’s been a great place to hang out and read books.
Which reminds me, the only thing that reminds you that it is the 21st century in most of Guate is the Internet café on every corner. I’ve had a better chance at internet connection here than in all of New Mexico last summer, go figure. The other great new thing is that every hotel and café has turned into a lending library. Travelers come through, drop off their old books, pick up something they haven’t read (and the language options have been broad but are mostly German, Dutch, English and Spanish) and repeat the experience all over Guatemala for free. And if you stay in town, you just borrow from one hotel, drop it off in another and continue the cycle. I kind of wish people put their names, dates and locations in these books so we can see where they’ve been. This has been a lifesaver for me as I ran out of my own reading material several days ago. Of course the books options are freqeuntly limited but you know what they say about beggars…
So Nate and I checked into the top end hotel, the Hotel Villa Caribe, today – I just didn’t think I could handle the roosters for one more morning... Every room has an ocean view over the palm trees and a private balcony, there’s a restaurant with a huge ocean side wooden deck, live Garifuna music and I‘ve got nowhere to be. Therefore I plan to retire to my balcony, watch the waves and think about where to go for dinner.
This will probably be my last post from Guate, we’re leaving tomorrow for Guatemala City and I will be leaving for Tucson on Friay morning. However, I do have one more post that I’ll probably make stateside. Sort of a little snapshot of what it’s like to travel with my family, for all those of you who wonder how we do it J
Meanwhile, the waves beckon…
We settle into the Café Benedicion de Dios, Nate has shrimp ceviche (bold man) and I have a melon smoothie and we wait. An hour later a little old guy stomps across the wooden planks of the deck, gestures to the dock and says ‘boat’ – which we ascertain means that there are more people who want to go to Livingston and now a boat with them and us is leaving. So we get on it and take off.
The boat ride was magnificent. Our first stop was a 17th century castle called San Felipe, built by the Spanish Conquistadores to keep the pirates at bay. Beautiful old stone, tall walls, lots of lookouts, the whole deal. All we needed was Johnny Depp crashing through the jungle on the run from angry natives…
All along the river the jungle crawls all the way down to the shores except for small areas that are cleared for thatched roof houses and wooden boat docks. Some of the houses were obviously nice resorty summer houses for rich people with beautiful tropical landscaping and private little lagoons behind them and others were smaller houses with women washing clothes in the river, kids lounging in hammocks waving at the boats going by and men fishing in dugout canoes. It is not the first time that Guatemala really resembled all those National Geographic photos you see.
As the river goes on, the banks get steeper and turn into sheer limestone cliffs covered with jungle vegetation, like tall green walls on either side of the river: Lily pads line the banks, pelicans and storks swoop low over the water fishing and the Isla de Pajaros in the middle of the river had an uncountable number of ducks roosting in the trees. The whole trip took about an hour and a half, including a brief stop over at natural hot springs by the side of the river, and then suddenly you are at the Caribbean sea and the banks of Livingston.
Livingston is composed mostly of the Garifuna people, ancestors of Guatemalans and escaped African slaves. So it’s more African in feel than Guatemalan. It’s also a port town with one long central road, hotels, restaurants, souvenir stands and very little else. The best beach is a boat ride away and the weather is HOT and muggy and sticky and tropical. It rained off and on the whole first day we were here.
We initially stayed at the Hotel California (I know, I know, but Don Henley lied, you actually can leave) where the rooms were small concrete boxes with overhead fans, cold water showers and about one million roosters on every side greeting the dawn, along with half the village outside in the streets banging on sheet metal at 7 in the morning on the second of January. Why? Who knows… Here they appear to tolerate tourists but have no interest in a personal relationship. Plus the Spanish is Fast and heavily accented with the local African dialect. Plus I was wiped out from the flu (which also got Bet and my mom, so maybe it wasn’t food poisoning… all of my apologies to Pollolandia) so I haven’t been ultra friendly or outgoing. It’s been a great place to hang out and read books.
Which reminds me, the only thing that reminds you that it is the 21st century in most of Guate is the Internet café on every corner. I’ve had a better chance at internet connection here than in all of New Mexico last summer, go figure. The other great new thing is that every hotel and café has turned into a lending library. Travelers come through, drop off their old books, pick up something they haven’t read (and the language options have been broad but are mostly German, Dutch, English and Spanish) and repeat the experience all over Guatemala for free. And if you stay in town, you just borrow from one hotel, drop it off in another and continue the cycle. I kind of wish people put their names, dates and locations in these books so we can see where they’ve been. This has been a lifesaver for me as I ran out of my own reading material several days ago. Of course the books options are freqeuntly limited but you know what they say about beggars…
So Nate and I checked into the top end hotel, the Hotel Villa Caribe, today – I just didn’t think I could handle the roosters for one more morning... Every room has an ocean view over the palm trees and a private balcony, there’s a restaurant with a huge ocean side wooden deck, live Garifuna music and I‘ve got nowhere to be. Therefore I plan to retire to my balcony, watch the waves and think about where to go for dinner.
This will probably be my last post from Guate, we’re leaving tomorrow for Guatemala City and I will be leaving for Tucson on Friay morning. However, I do have one more post that I’ll probably make stateside. Sort of a little snapshot of what it’s like to travel with my family, for all those of you who wonder how we do it J
Meanwhile, the waves beckon…
posted by KBARRETT at 1:05 PM
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