Leaving Flores (22.07)After the promised dip in the lake at 8am (extremely worthwhile and refreshing) we ran to get our bus to Rio Dulce. We met a nice Swiss couple travelling for 6 months on the bus and ending up hanging out with the them the last two days. Our paths have diverged today as they are heading to Guatemala city and we are in Puerto Barrios awaiting a ferry boat to Belize (which wasnt in our original plans!)
We arrived at Rio Dulce (you should check out a map of Guate to follow our route :) and we were immediately ushered to the port to get a lancha to Livingston -- luckily that was what we had in mind in the first place. Now, in Flores we already saw very little Mayans and indigenas, people were mostly ladinos ("white latins") and after an amazing 1 1/2 hour lancha ride across the Golfete and seeing tropical rainforests, castle San Filipe and amazing rich houses on the river (cabanas) with luxurious yachts (yep, we arrived where the rich Guatelmatecos vacation) we are face to face with Garifuna (black carib people originaries of the first slaves brought to Central America).
Livingston is a relaxed “easy living” village on the carib coast. The people are friendly and speak mostly Garifuna between them but do know how to speak Spanish and English --- most have relatives in the US and you see a culture clash between the young and the old as the young are all sporting big basketball shorts and large t-shirts with their caps on backwards (very US) and there are quite a US citizens on vacation. We had a hard time finding a hotel as most were taken and walking in the steaming humidity with backpacks is not a good idea. We finally found one with bungalows…
We spent the day mostly walking around town and through the beach (which was actually quite disappointing as the water is polluted and there is rubbish everywhere but the next day promised something better as we had already booked an ecological tour :) We had a couple of beers at night with our new Swiss “friends” and headed out to a local Garifuna disco where we were told there would be live Garifuna music -- well, apart from us 4 there was only another Spanish couple but we were given a taste of the local music which consists of drums and xilophones made out of shells and a lot of singing -- Jo didnt resist trying it out or dancing with the disco owner :)
As for something extremely funny, while we were walking around town constantly saying “Buenas Tardes” to the friendly locals we ran across this old and fat Garifuna woman that thought it quite amusing to go up to Jo and actually touch and caress his penis!!!! I found this extremely amusing as we actually thought she was going for his camera and Jo didn’t have time to react, I’m still laughing about it!!
And now Paradise….
We woke up not as early as usual and had our usual breakfast (we have been eating so many eggs we can start a plantation in our stomachs!!!) Then we got off to our ecological tour with our guide Eddie, a local Garifuna. Thankfully we thought well to put on our walking shoes, even in the hot weather, as we found ourselves going to the local museums, seeing 3 crocodiles that have been put into a miserly basin in the center of town, and walking all over town and through the mush and mud and people’s houses! We walked to the river basin where we were supposed to had a canoe waiting for us…instead we had to dig out one that was already there and push it through the mud into the water among all the crabs!! (Of course, us girls ---the Swiss couple was with us as well--- just watched and took pictures hehehe) The canoe was big enough for all 5 of us to remain standing – Jo, of course, tried to rock us a bit :)
After the canoe ride we arrive at the beach where we have ham and cheese sandwiches (well, the tour was cheap…) and then headed down the beach (passing a crazy old Garifuna with a machete that has actually had to be stopped by the police for attacking tourists with his machete --- all he did to us was cry out after passing us that “voy a matar los tods” – translation: im gonna kill you all!!”) to the Siete Altares, or as I would like to put it, PARADISE!!!
It consisted of fresh water pools with waterfalls where you could jump into clear turquoise water and just enjoy yourself. It was amazing!!! Me and Jo and Claudio (the Swiss) jumped quite a few times from different spots and of course, as usual, Jo tried to keep jumping from higher and higher – we got a couple of photos but due to the speed and the light they are mostly out of focus! And Jo finally got to test his waterproof camera bag --- it works :)We stayed there a good hour before heading back to town (the entire tour was from 10am to 4pm so you can imagine our state after that!) Both Jo and I got sunburned --- which has now turned a nice colour brown :)
At night we took it easy…tried to find internet but as electricity is not always guaranteed on the island we were unlucky in our pursuit. So we enjoyed a nice quiet dinner with the most amazing
soup called Tapado made out of curry and coconut milk with crab, fish, shrimps and octopus inside (yeah, all that!) --- it was delicious!!!We headed back to the hotel (we had changed in the morning for a cheaper more spacious one as we are on a budget!) with an ice cream and attempted to make our bags as we would be leaving at 4am the next day to get the ferry to Puerto Barrios. I hardly slept during the night as there was a two hour extremely loud thunderstorm that I thought was going to gulp up the entire village! But luckily it subsided and by the time we left it was nice and breezy.
The ferry to Puerto Barrios was filled with Garifuna and indigenas (they don’t mix much amongst them – we only saw a couple of mulatto kids) and it took an hour…we saw the sunrise over Puerto Barrios
Now we are waiting for the ferry to Belize and have already got out exit stamps and tickets…so next stop Belize!!
See ya guys then :)
Love Jo and Fil
P.S. Hope you enjoy the photos --- sorry for the quality—next on my list: a proper digital camera—the colours here are too amazing to miss!
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