It was time to head back into Guatemala after sailing south down the Belizean coast. The logistics of getting from Placencia to Livingston were a bit bananas:
Walk to Hokey Pokey water taxi depot in Placencia to get to Independence. They leave every hour to a couple of hours and cost $10B ($5US) each. This trip will take 30-45 minutes. Check the schedule! We grabbed an early one because as you are about to see, we had a long travel day ahead of us.
Get a cab from Independence dock to the bus station. There are plenty of guys waiting to offer a ride. We paid $10B ($5US) for both of us.
Get a bus to Punta Gorda. They run every hour or so and cost $9B ($4.5US) each. This trip will be about two hours. Have water! It’s a hot ride.
Let the bus driver know you’re headed to Guatemala. Ours dropped us off in the middle of the road closish to the customs office and dock. Have your bags ready to grab and go.
Customs is on one side of the road and the guy you buy your ticket from is on the other. Buy your ticket, wait until it’s time to go, then present your passport the customs folks. There’s a nice little restaurant near the ticket guy you can wait at with a cold drink.
Take a boat to Livingston. In the offseason in 2019, we paid $60B ($30US) each. It’s a boat similar to the lanchas in Atitlan and holds about a dozen or so people comfortably. It’s a nice boat ride (if you’re not prone to motion sickness). The boat to Livingston happens on Tuesdays and Fridays, at 10am and 1pm. Plan accordingly, updates here. The 1 pm boat is why all our travel plans before this we were trying to make the earliest options.
Go get your passport stamped once you arrive in Livingston. There are lots of men waiting around who are (energetically) volunteering to show you to the immigration office. It’s a short walk, about halfway up a steep hill. If you’re finding it difficult to find on your own, folks will walk you there. Have some Qs handy to pay them for their assistance.
Find your lodging in Livingston. We stayed at Casa Rosada.
Like I said. Bananas. I’m not sure if you could pay more for a more direct and comfortable travel day. There don’t seem to be many tourists who choose this route. We definitely didn’t see any. By this point, we were well into the off-season, though, so that might explain the lack of sun-burned backpackers like myself. This was also in the last two weeks of our trip and we were trying to make the last of our cash last. Extreme budgeting did not allow us to explore more comfortable options.
Livingston
We only stayed in Livingston for two nights. I would definitely recommend staying at Casa Rosada. Every bed had its own mosquito net and fan, which were necessary. They have good food options, but I would consider them overpriced. Nevertheless, we ate there a couple of times because I simply wasn’t feeling well enough to explore our options. The heat was getting to me and I still had uncomfortable heat rash all over my body along with the remnants of our sailing trip sunburns.
The heat along the coasts of Guatemala is not a joke, especially as you approach the summer months. There’s a reason this is the off-season. The mosquitos get pretty intense with the rising humidity as well. Sunscreen & mosquito spray are a MUST, and neither is easy to buy since none of the locals seem to need them. Stock up in Belize and/or the states or wherever you’re coming from. It’s all very conducive to afternoon naps and several cold showers daily. We had already experienced this reality with mi amor’s parents (who live on the west coast near the Mexican border) and in Peten (which is also at a lower elevation, although not coastal). Despite this prior experience, I think all that air conditioning and sea breeze in Belize made me forget just how all-consuming the heat could be.
Needless to say, we probably didn’t get even the teensiest of tastes of what Livingston has to offer given our exhaustion and lethargy. This part of Guatemala has an afro-Caribbean culture very unique from the rest of the country. Google Garifuna.
We did take several long walks in the morning and evening to people watch. We watched a storm come in over the sea and contemplated her depth and danger. We enjoyed the colors and energy around a large church on Sunday. We had some ice cream and got mi amor another local hair cut.
But my favorite thing we did, was the boat ride from Livingston to Rio Dulce (220Q/$29 for two). It gave me all the vibes of King Kong’s island from that movie with Jack Black. Steep hills. Lush greenery. Flocks of birds. And a bit of constant breeze from the moving boat.
Rio Dulce
We got dropped off under the bridge at Rio Dulce and walked around looking for The Shack. We were only going to be around for a couple of nights, so we went with the cheapest option we could find. Don’t do it. My pride in being adaptable and able to be comfortable in most situations bit me in the ass. Hard. I’m sure it’s a fine dock bar and restaurant, but the few beds they have upstairs they rent out to guests are not worth it. Even at a few bucks a night. Hot. Loud. Lots of bug bits in the mosquito netting. A really small bathroom and dirty shower tacked on outside the bar. Just don’t.
Stay at Hotel Backpackers instead. It’s relatively clean and comfortable and seems to be situated the best for travelers. They have a desk for booking onward travel to tons of locations. Even here, there was one major drawback: NOISE. One half of the place is a bar and restaurant that had party music BLARING until the wee hours of the morning. There wasn’t even a party happening! Literally just a handful of folks nursing some beers. But c’est la vie. It was mostly too hot to sleep anyway.
And again here we are with my strongest memory of this leg of our trip. Heat. Rio Dulce itself was no gem either. It all seemed to be crowded along one strip of blacktop leading to and from the bridge. Lots of smog from large trucks and slow-moving traffic over the narrow bridge that was obviously the best way for vehicles to get over the river for many miles. Given our state of exhaustion, it was overwhelming.
BUT there were two extremely redeeming factors that, despite all the complaining up until now, would make me STILL recommend trying to swing through Rio Dulce. I loved them that much.
Finca al Paraiso
Literally “Paradise Falls” in English, we read about these hot spring waterfalls in a Lonely Planet guide book in our hostel in Antigua. To get to them, walk along the highway until you see those 12-16 passenger minibuses I associate with church youth groups. Say “Finca al Paraiso” and someone will offer a ride. (30Q/$4 for two, about 40 minutes outside of Rio Dulce). I would suggest starting as early as you can manage because the falls can get pretty crowded in the afternoon. It’s a popular place for local folks too. They’ll drop you off at the side of the road where you can see a big brown building that I think is a restaurant. I suggest bringing snacks because the food was overpriced. Take that with a grain of salt though, we were also on an extreme budget. Walk along the path until you get to the falls. Along the way will be someone - for us it was an older guy - to take your money (30Q/$4 for two) for a ticket.
The warm falls felt like bathwater that fell into the pools that felt like a swimming pool. Fountain of Paradise, indeed. The warm water was soothing on our aches and the cool water was rejuvenating for our exhaustion. I could feel all the recent stresses and discomforts of traveling melt away, and I remembered why we had chosen to do all of this in the first place. THIS. Warm water in the middle of a jungle. Floating on my back listening to birds I’d never heard anywhere else. A little cave underneath and behind the falls that felt like a sauna. Splitting a can of pringles on a big rock while sharing it all with my favorite human.
El Boqueron
We had planned for the falls in the morning and El Boqueron (a jungle canyon) in the afternoon. So after a blissful morning, we went back to the road and waited for a church van to come by. We flagged down a renovated school bus and asked to be taken to El Boqueron. It was 10Q/$1.5 for two and was only about about 30 minutes farther down the road. The bus dropped us off at a large facility with lots of parking spots, but they were mostly empty because - offseason/rainy season. It was also threatening rain that very moment. There was a 5Q($0.65) entrance fee each. We paid one of the fellas sitting there to hire a canoe (15Q/$2 each). He paddled us down the greenest of green canyons and dropped us off where some rocks got in the way of the canoe. He waved us on to hike as far as we wanted. He was paid by the hour.
We stayed only about an hour or two. Yet again, cool water washed away our worries, and jungle sounds reminded us of the rewards of adventure-seeking. Despite the heat, and stress, and sleeplessness, and dwindling finances, it was all worth it. I felt ALIVE in a way that only new and beautiful places has ever made me feel. Especially when it takes a little work to get there.
We made our way back to our kind guide who chatted with mi amor the whole way back. We headed back out to the road and hailed a church van headed back toward Rio Dulce (25Q/$3.25 each). That van got VERY full the closer we got to town, but I didn’t even mind. I had found my travel bliss again, and it’s really hard to take that away. At least on the same day it’s found.
Back to Antigua & Guatemala City
We had already booked our bus back to Antigua at Casa Rosada back in Livingston (200Q/$26 each). It’s an all-day ride, so get your podcasts ready. As the elevation climbed the heat and humidity lifted and my persistent heat rash dissipated. SWEET, SWEET RELIEF. We stopped several times for snacks and bathrooms, and for our poor overheating van to get a break from the steep mountain roads. It was a little nerve-racking at times because the van was having some serious problems. I’m talking hot steam and replacement parts mid-trip.
But we made it. It was cool enough I needed a jacket at night. We had just so happened to book 5 nights at the best hostel in the world in one of my now-favorite cities in the world. We would be seeing mi amor’s family again. And in just a few days, almost exactly 4 months after a one-way ticket, we would be flying home.
Whatever that means. If home is where your heart is, I’ve left pieces of myself in homes all over the world. A pretty big piece has stayed in Guatemala with mi amor’s family, the greenest green, Antigua, Lake Atitlan, and jungles and volcanoes and mountains and beaches and lakes. All in one tiny country more known to the world for its challenges than its beauty. The challenges are real. But I hope sharing my time there can help you to see just how real the beauty is too.
Until next time.
Go ahead, try it.
And save for later so you remember how.
