Guatemala
Río Blanco

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    • Day 48

      Rio Dulce & Livingston, Caraïbes 🏖🦐

      November 12, 2022 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

      Nous voilà de retour aux Caraïbes. Après un trajet semé d’embûches, 14 heures de bus/ taxi/ bateau, un café renversé sur un t-shirt blanc, une lettre de la CAF m’indiquant que je vais certainement finir en prison….

      Nous nous stoppons au Rio Dulce, dans un hôtel sur pilotis au milieu de la jungle. Le lendemain nous en profitons pour faire un tour en kayak et découvrir les splendides environ. 🛶

      L’après midi nous embarquons pour redescendre le Rio (fleuve), jusqu’à la ville de Livingston. Petite merveille des Caraïbes, peuplée d’une population descendante d’esclaves des îles réfugiés sur le continent, bercée par la culture garífuna et sa musique aux sonorités “punta rock” (jouée avec des carapaces de tortues et des coquillages) 🪘

      La musique : https://youtube.com/watch?v=WNYY4rvgP1c&fea…

      Nous visitons avec émerveillement les alentours mais sommes très attristés par la pollution environnante. En effet, les plages sont malheureusement couvertes de déchets 😢

      Côté foodies nous nous nourrissons de cury coco et tacos de camarones (crevettes) ! Miam 😋
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    • Day 17

      Livingston to Rio Dulce

      February 16, 2023 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

      ... uncertainty in the morning but after a coffee in the hammock - the way every day actually should start 😁 - we decided to go for a chocolate tour, which was definitely the right decision ... IF you ever go to Livingston do the cacao tour with Ninet - you need to understand Spanish though or at least one of you ...

      ... we got an extended tour through the garden with plenty of different fruit trees, which was already nice by its own ... and than straight into chocolate making - a skill every human being should possess 🤪 -
      We checked the different trees, got the beans, skipped the fermentation since we didn't have 2 weeks to stay and went straight to the roasting and grinding - well and eating and drinking 😁 - after we squeezed the chocolate paste a couple of times through the press we got a nice sick paste which would go to the fridge and become a chocolate bar ...

      ... after that successful morning we took our boat back in direction to Rio Dulce and spend another night in the mangroves surrounded by the sounds of nature and boat engines roaring all night long as if we were sleeping just next to a highway ...

      ... but food and accommodation was nice and we managed to finish another strenuous workout session ...
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    • Day 11

      Livingston, Guatemala

      December 27, 2019 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      Where the Rio Dulce meets the sea lies the town of Livingston - only accessible by boat, a 45 minute ride from where we ported. We hopped off here to take a walk through the town and see how the locals lived - with all credit to Tui, the whole day felt more G Adventures than cruise ship excursion which was a pleasant change.

      The town, filled with tuk-tuks and colourfully decorated walls, retained much local authenticity rather than a tourist trap. Women washed their clothes at a communal stone wash-house, chickens roamed the gardens and local whizzed by in all manner of wheeled transport. The side streets weren't especially clean but the route through the main street and over to the bay was an interesting walk, ending at beach which used to be the main port for the region - ships would anchor off shore and supplies from neighbouring countries would be brought in by small craft.

      At the harbour, we jumped back in our boat and sped along the coastline back to the ship, passing again the flocks of pelicans that hovered around the little fishing boats.
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    • Day 225

      A Taste of Livingston

      March 14, 2016 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

      Upon arriving back in Guatemala we were again greeted with colours and noise and many street vendors selling delicious food and all kinds of other things as well - this sort of bustle just wasn't part of our experience in Belize. Livingston does have a large Garifuna population as well, though, so the multiculturalism we had encountered in southern Belize was still apparent in this little enclave of Guatemala. We met a British expat Chris on the boat ride from PG to Livingston and he invited us to camp at his hostel, Casa de la Iguana for the night. We set up our tent on the grass among the bamboo cabanas and had a relaxing afternoon lounging and working on some gear repairs. We bought some cheap empanadas for dinner (yay to the return to inexpensive street food!) and almost bought a kitten instead of an onion for a change. The next day we enjoyed riding through town and along the beach to Los Siete Altares, although the site wasn't as impressive in the dry season as you could imagine it would be when the river is actually flowing. The ride along the beach past fishermen and pelicans at work in the shallow water made for an enjoyable morning outing though.Read more

    • Day 35

      Casa de la iguana

      February 8, 2022 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

      Aparté sur ce logement dont nous avons apprécié l'atmosphère.
      2 nuits à la Casa Iguana, sdb commune avec seulement eau froide bien sûr. D'ordinaire nous petit-déjeunons de notre côté mais ici le cadre invite à se poser et David se laisse tenter par les "panequeques" qui au goût semblent au lait de coco. Le soir, suite au copieux déjeuner, dîner uniquement de tartines avec avocat mais apéro avec citron vert du jour et rhum acheté au Belize.
      Seul regret, nos voisins belges francophones nous laisseront peu dormir la 2eme nuit.
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    • Day 12

      Lívingston

      March 11, 2016 in Guatemala ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

      After being escorted by the hostel dog to the migration office on the morning, I had a nice long walk along the beach to some waterfalls, called the “siete altares“. Since it is dry season, it was rather a river, but still very beautiful. I went there with a pretty annoying Indian - nobody bothers if you want to enjoy the walk, but it's really not necessary to stop everytime you see a crane and to take one hundred completely equal pictures, nor meditating in the river.
      In the afternoon I had to pack up all the clothes I had washed (I never imagined that hand washing was so hard) and played with the puppies.
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    • Day 21

      Livingston

      January 17, 2017 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

      At the end of the boat ride down the Rio Dulce I arrived in Livingston. Livingston is a Garifuna town unconnected by road from the rest on the country. Garifuna people were brought to America as slaves but revolted and lived independently along the Caribbean Coast.
      The town felt a little run-down but still had its charme.
      I stayed in a hammock at Casa de la Iguana - a party hostel run by some nice people who engaged the party atmosphere by promoting drinking games and the "guifiti challenge". Guifiti is rum infused with herbs and the challenge was to drink 4 shots in a row. After you have mastered the challenge you can raise the number behind your country on a board. The number behind Germany was 99. But i figured there are enough crazy drinking germans traveling that will raise the number over 100. I think it's a nice place if you wanna party but to me it felt a little overdone.
      The hostel was also organizing some tours to beaches and other spots in the area but I decided to explore by myself. I took the walk to the nearby waterfalls Los Siete Altares which took me through the whole town and along the beach. The beach here was not to beautiful but nice to walk along in the water. The water was pretty warm but every now and then there were little rivers with fresh water running into the ocean and then suddenly the water would be really cold.
      Los Siete Altares was a series of waterfalls and pools which you climb up from the lowest pool just before the river connects to the ocean. It was nice to be there completely by my self but I was still happy when I met a couple with their little daughter at the highest pool as the guy showed my where to climb up here to jump down from the last waterfall.
      After I had made it back to the hostel a nice surprise was waiting for me: Sandy, Courtney and Peter who were with me on the adventure road trip through Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve in Belize had just arrived. It was great meeting them again and catch up about what we had done since we last met.
      Later that night a Garifuna Band was performing at the hostel playing some traditional drum rhythms. Again it was nice till it got a little to much when they made people come in the center one by one dancing in front of everybody. But it was still a nice night and we danced quite a lot.
      The next day I took another Lancha across the bay to Puerto Barrios to catch a bus from there to Guatemala City.
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Río Blanco, Rio Blanco

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