Rio Dulce – Guatemala

A windy road from Lanquin to the Rio Dulce made our friend Dan ill. Got to the port, bought our tickets (Q150) to a small coastal town called Livingston. We expected the trip to just be a motorboat there, but it turned into a little tour as well. We saw some old Spanish forts along the water, and enjoyed some souvenirs that a little girl was selling. Too bad we’re on a long trip because I can’t buy any souvenirs!

I've got some lovely bunch of coconuts!

  Our boat driver drove us to Bird Island where we saw tons of egrets and cormorants. The scenery is very beautiful, and the two-three hour trip was pleasant. We even got to swim in natural hot springs that stank like sulphur, and oozed heat right along the riverside.

Rio Dulce, very pretty.

Swimming in  smelly, warm water.

 The last 15 min to Livingstone were gorgeous! Limestone cliffs and thick jungle. I can’t never get sick of this scenery.  Alas it ended, but we were all hassled to go to Casa de Iguana, a small backpackers. It’s a nice place, met some interesting people. Went out for a great ceviche meal (literally a huge glass filled with prawns & salsa). Told a local we were from South Africa and he immediately stepped back. He told us a South African got ripped off (some local took his money and ran instead of giving him what he paid for) so the S. African tracked the local down, found him and beat the shit out of him! We have a reputation there, and I can’t say it’s bad if people think twice before ripping us off! Haha…

 

Livingston was very sweet, but we were destroyed by sandflies! Left early the next day to get to Utila, and made a booboo, because we had 2 options: pay $55 to get to La Ceiba by boat, or take chicken buses all the way there. Wish we did option 1! We spent ALL day on busses, from Livingston to Puerto Barrito to the boarder to San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba. We only saved $5….then we had to spend $15 on accommodation in Honduras, La Ceiba (Banana Republic) so it was a stuff up. Oh well, you live, you learn.