Rio Dulce and Livingston
Hola Mi Amigos!
I just got back from Rio Dulce and Livingston this weekend with my friend Eric. It was great. I have decided that riding in his Range Rover is a little better than taking a chicken bus. Livingston is on Guatemala's Caribbean coast which is only about 20 miles of Caribbean coast since what is now Belize was taken from them.
Livingston is about 4 1/2 hours from Antigua and you cannot reach it by car. You need to travel to Puerto Barrios (which is one of the dirtiest places on Earth) and catch a ferry boat to Livingston. It is amazing to see that the concept of littering or other environmental issues don't exist in other countries. Granted these people have bigger problems, but it is funny to see someone finish eating a bag of chips and throw the bag away in the ocean when they are done.
We got to Livingston Friday night and checked into the Rosado Hotel which is a cute little place on the water. Rio Dulce is one of the main rivers in Guatemala and it empties into the Caribbean Ocean. It is really quite beautiful.
That night and all the next day it rained which sort of sucked. Mainly because my eyes were glazed over in excitement of the thought of hanging out on the Caribbean sun and sand, so I only brought short sleeve shirts and shorts. Not really the warmest of clothing. On Saturday we hung out in the city of Livingston.
I am not sure if you can call it a city for it is really, really small. It has a lot of Garifuna influence which is really similar to what we would think of as "Jamaican." I didn't really care for this city too much, although Lisa loved it. I think that my expectations were a little high though.
The following day was great. The sun was out and everything was beautiful. Eric and I took a boat up Rio Dulce...What an experience. At the mouth of the river you go into this canyon with steep sides. The amazing thing about it is that the sides are completely covered in trees and other vegetation. It reminded me of "Lord of the Rings" when they are traveling down the river. Is that sad?
We were going to this finca (a big farm) that is only accessible by boat. It was so amazing to experience this. After about traveling up the river for about 25 minutes we cut across to a section partitioned off by trees and such. Then we went through this dense area of trees, which I thought was the shore, up this little tiny river that was no more than 6ft wide.
After about another 20 minutes of traveling through this little river that had trees growing all around us and Iguanas running about we arrived at the finca. There are about 20 people that live there year round to take care of it and the cattle. The farm is about 600 acres, built in roads, bridges and houses. Really amazing.
The next day we left and I wished we had one more day. There is a beach called "Playa Blanca" that I wished I would have visited. I don't think that it is worth to go back, but I am glad that I had the chance to experience it.
I just got back from Rio Dulce and Livingston this weekend with my friend Eric. It was great. I have decided that riding in his Range Rover is a little better than taking a chicken bus. Livingston is on Guatemala's Caribbean coast which is only about 20 miles of Caribbean coast since what is now Belize was taken from them.
Livingston is about 4 1/2 hours from Antigua and you cannot reach it by car. You need to travel to Puerto Barrios (which is one of the dirtiest places on Earth) and catch a ferry boat to Livingston. It is amazing to see that the concept of littering or other environmental issues don't exist in other countries. Granted these people have bigger problems, but it is funny to see someone finish eating a bag of chips and throw the bag away in the ocean when they are done.
We got to Livingston Friday night and checked into the Rosado Hotel which is a cute little place on the water. Rio Dulce is one of the main rivers in Guatemala and it empties into the Caribbean Ocean. It is really quite beautiful.
That night and all the next day it rained which sort of sucked. Mainly because my eyes were glazed over in excitement of the thought of hanging out on the Caribbean sun and sand, so I only brought short sleeve shirts and shorts. Not really the warmest of clothing. On Saturday we hung out in the city of Livingston.
I am not sure if you can call it a city for it is really, really small. It has a lot of Garifuna influence which is really similar to what we would think of as "Jamaican." I didn't really care for this city too much, although Lisa loved it. I think that my expectations were a little high though.
The following day was great. The sun was out and everything was beautiful. Eric and I took a boat up Rio Dulce...What an experience. At the mouth of the river you go into this canyon with steep sides. The amazing thing about it is that the sides are completely covered in trees and other vegetation. It reminded me of "Lord of the Rings" when they are traveling down the river. Is that sad?
We were going to this finca (a big farm) that is only accessible by boat. It was so amazing to experience this. After about traveling up the river for about 25 minutes we cut across to a section partitioned off by trees and such. Then we went through this dense area of trees, which I thought was the shore, up this little tiny river that was no more than 6ft wide.
After about another 20 minutes of traveling through this little river that had trees growing all around us and Iguanas running about we arrived at the finca. There are about 20 people that live there year round to take care of it and the cattle. The farm is about 600 acres, built in roads, bridges and houses. Really amazing.
The next day we left and I wished we had one more day. There is a beach called "Playa Blanca" that I wished I would have visited. I don't think that it is worth to go back, but I am glad that I had the chance to experience it.
posted by Unknown at 6:34 PM
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