Río Dulce and Lívingston

I have to say that Río Dulce and Lívingston were a couple of my favorite places to visit in Guatemala.  Río Dulce, also the name of a town on the Lago Izabal, is the river that connects Izabal Lake to the Caribbean.  Lívingston is the town right on the corner of the river delta.

Boat ride down Río Dulce to Lívingston

I didn't spend any time in the town of Río Dulce, but instead took a boat straight to Lívingston.  The boat ride down the river is also a tour, so the 2 hours or so that it takes includes a leisurely pace and some scenic stops along the river.  The temperature is a humid 85-90°F, which for me is just perfect.  I don't mind that constant layer of sticky sweat :-).  This is one of the places that I think I could live, in one of the thatch-roofed homes on stilts along the river.  There's something so romantic about the idea of living in a tropical place where you can only get around by boat.  At one point we slowed down to go through a lagoon of lily pads and immediately we were surrounded by several dugout canoes of children selling artisan jewelry and souvenirs.  Further down, the river narrows for a stretch and you're in a vegetation-covered canyon until it opens up into the delta and you see Lívingston on your left.

El Castillo de San Felipe near the town of Río Dulce

Thatch-roofed palapas along the river

Girl selling artisan jewelry among the lily pads

I had no idea where I was going to stay in Lívingston.  I just had a couple ideas of cheap places from my guidebook, so I decided I would follow a few of the other travelers from my boat to a hostel named Casa de la Iguana.  As soon as we got off the boat we were surrounded by young men offering to take us to different hotels and hostels.  I found out later that even if you know exactly where you are going, they will "lead" you there because they collect a commission from the hostels when they bring people to them.

Casa de la Iguana is your quintessential backpacker hangout.  Dorm rooms are Q40 ($5) a night, Q10 ($1.25) happy hour drinks from 6-8pm, and delicious "family dinners" for Q40 every night with a menu ranging from Italian sausage with pasta to Indian curry with bottomless naan bread.  I think I gained about 5 lbs just in the 4 days I spent there.

Lívingston's demographics is the most interesting thing about the town.  The majority of the town is inhabited by a large Garífuna population, the descendants of black Caribbean slaves who settled mostly on the shores of Honduras and spread up and down the Caribbean coast of Central America.  They have their own language, very different from Spanish or any of the indigenous dialects, and the Garífuna and indigenous populations are still heavily segregated.

Flores and Tikal

Another full day of travel to get to Flores, which is a town on a tiny island in the Lago de Petén, an hour and a half away from Tikal.  We were stuffed into the shuttle like cattle again, this time I was in the very back row with my knees wedged against the seat in front of me, my shoulders turned sideways so that we would all fit.  About 8 hours like this, with a break for lunch.  At first I really thought I was going to have a true claustrophobic attack (for the first time), but I was able to calm myself down and concentrate on the beautiful scenery. 

It takes about 20 minutes, if that, to walk around the whole island of Flores, which is connected to the mainland by bridge.  The island is pretty much dedicated to tourists who are there to visit Tikal, but at least when I was there it was very low-key and a nice place to take a walk and relax. 

Lago Petén Itzá taken from the island of Flores

The day after my arrival I boarded a shuttle for Tikal at 4:30am.  The park opens at 6am and they say that is one of the best times to go to see all the wildlife, not to mention that you can finish touring most of the park before it gets too hot and crowded.  I decided not to go with a guide so that I would have more freedom to see what I wanted and go as fast as I wanted.  In hindsight, it might have been better to have a guide, because they also point out wildlife that people may not notice otherwise.  It was truly beautiful, though.  We could hear the howler monkeys from the van before we even entered the park, doing their morning howling.  I also saw a family of spider monkeys, several toucans, and thousands of leafcutter ants on their highways heading towards their massive ant hills.

Templo III and at the top of a smaller temple

Not to mention the ruins themselves.  Tikal is not like many of the ruins you can visit in Latin America because the stuctures are still in the middle of the jungle; the trees have not been cleared around them, so it feels like they are very much still in a natural setting.  It's also nice to have the shade of the canopy while walking aound.  You can climb most of the big temples, as long as they are not in the middle of restoration.  One temple in particular, I thinks it's Templo IV, gives you a postcard view of the whole park.  Truly amazing.

View from Templo IV

Next stop:  Río Dulce/ Lívingston

Semuc Champey and Lanquín

It took literally an entire day to get from San Pedro to Lanquín.  The first shuttle to Antigua wasn't too bad, there was room to move around, but the shuttle from Antigua to Lanquín, a long 8.5 hours, was painful....literally.  The shuttles are big euro vans that supposedly seat 4 rows of three and 2 more up with the driver.  The third person in three of the rows has to sit on a royally uncomfortable fold out seat.  Guess where I was.  Luckily I had a fluffy fleece jacket to pad my back against the sharp turns and potholes.  And I sat next to a nice Israeli guy who played battleship and hangman with me to pass the time.

We arrived in Cobán at about 9pm.  This is the big city where people will stay and do excursions from, but I decided to stay closer to Semuc Champey in Lanquín, about 2 hours away.  We all got out the van and went into an office where they said we should make reservations because it was getting so late.  Then the Israeli cacophony began (all the rest of the other 12 passengers, with the exception of another American girl, were Israeli).  They were all talking at once in accusing tones, convinced that the guide was trying to swindle them.  None of them wanted to make reservations because they wanted to see what was available, even though it would be 11pm when we got to Lanquín.  If I were the guide I wouldn't want to take everyone around to different hotels late at night until all 13 of us were happy either.  So I made a reservation at a hotel near Semuc Champey (which is 2km further from Lanquín) and sat back and watched the entertainment.

After all that, the next day I went to Semuc Champey, which is a series of fresh spring pools made of limestone that run over the river Cahabón.  It's really amazing.  I almost left it out of my trip but was convinced at the last minute to go, and I'm glad I did.  There are waterfalls leading from one pool to the next and you can dive in each one.  I kind of got a deal, because I get free transport to the park from my hotel, which also runs guided tours.  I was able to piggy back on one of the tours and even got a free lunch out of it.  Although I think I ended up paying for it with the price of my room.....

The pools at Semuc Champey from the lookout

 The next day were the Grutas de Lanquín, a huge, sprawling cave with stalactites and stalagmites - to all you nerds out there, what's the difference? ;-).  Supposedly it goes more than 18km into the earth (parallel to the surface) and no one has been able to find the end yet.  I went to something very similar in Mexico a few years ago.  This time, however, it was right around twilight when we came out of the cave, which is when the bats leave to do their night feeding.  It was creepy and exhilirating at the same time to have bats flying around you, seeming to almost bump into you, on their way out of the cave.  I tried getting photos, but they're fast little buggers.

My best shot of the bats

Next stop:  Flores/ Tikal

San Pedro - Candyland for tourists

Exactly one month since I arrived in Guatemala I am leaving Xela to go travel.

First stop: San Pedro la Laguna - one of several charming towns located on Lago de Atitlán (Lake Atitlán).

I arrived to San Pedro by chicken bus around 1:30pm and was immediately directed to an alleyway of cheap hotels right near where the bus dropped me off.  I really didn't want to look around at that moment with my huge backpack (it's as big as another person), and the first hotel was cheap at about $3.50 a night, so I took it.  The bathroom wasn't pretty, the toilet was leaking into the shower drain, but it had cable TV.  So I put down my bag, paid for a night, and started walking toward the water.

View of Lago Atitlan

Man building dock on lake

 I went left down a road where I saw a couple signs for hotels because I knew I wouldn't be staying at my current one for more than tonight.  This road, as another American traveler pointed out, feels like your winding down the path on the Candyland boardgame.  Much of it is a tight alley that makes several sharp turns with a different ethnic restaurant and themed hotels around each bend - Clover Irish restaurant, Coco's bar, Zoola's hotel and restaurant, and one of my favorites, Yo Mama's Casa.  Most of the hostels were about Q50 ($6) for a bed in a dorm and shared bathroom, but with some searching I found a spacious, clean room with private bath, hot water, and a hammock out front for Q40!  Score!  I spent the next 2 nights there.

The next day I took care of all the necessities - had a french toast breakfast for $2.50 (I love comparing prices here to the States!), went to the ATM, bought a bracelet, chatted with some locals and tourists, and ate some more.  Oh yeah, and I read on the hammock at my hotel.  Let the real vacation begin!

The day after I went on a horseback ride to a beach on the lake.  It was one hour on horse in each direction, which was perfect.  All I remember from the last time I rode a horse was how much my backside hurt the next day, but thankfully not this time.  Unfortunately because of the recent heavy rains the lake is extremely high at the moment, so high that it has covered a new park they built by one of the docks, and it's creeping into the bars that are closest to the water.  So there wasn't much of a beach to speak of and I wasn't about to swim in the lake with all the runoff and who-knows-what in there.  But it was worth it for the horse ride.

Horseback ride with guide

I also went to the house of a local artist, Pedro Rafael Chavajay, whom Jean wanted me to meet.  She had comissioned him to do a painting and they are family friends.  First I met the wife, Debora, who screamed and hugged me as soon I mentined Martín and Jean's (Juanita) names.  I had some tea with her and she looked very disappointed when I told her I had to leave to meet a friend for dinner, because Pedro hadn't arrived yet.  I promised I would return later, which I did around 9pm.  Pedro welcomed me and took me on a tour of his gallery, he has done some really amazing pieces.  He explained his imagery and techniques, and he was actually working on Jean´s painting at the time.

Next morning - shuttle to Lanquín.

P.S. - This is where I noticed the droves of Israeli travelers in Guatemala.  There were several hotels and restaurants that were run by and catered to Israelis - like Zoola's and Hummas Ya.  The hotel receptionists and tour guides here in general know Spanish, usually a Mayan dialect, some English, and Hebrew!

Zunil

Zunil is the town where my primos chapines are from.  Today I took the bus there with Ixquik.  First we stopped at a little museum, which is kind of still in the making, about the history of Zunil.  They showed videos of Mayan ceremonies, had an area with typical musical instruments like the marimba, and 2 rooms where they weave textiles.  Ixquik and the wife of the museum's attendant dressed me up in the traditional dress.  It was pretty funny watching them try to fit the skirt to my long body.

I know.... I'm a giant!

Then Ixquik and I walked into town and visited San Simón, as named by the Spanish, or Maximón as named by the ladinos, or Rilaj Maam as known to the Maya.  He's kind of evolved into a combination of a Mayan protector, a Spanish conquistador, and the biblical Judas.  San Simón is not recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church, but Guatemalans of all creeds make offerings to him and ask for his blessings.  In Zunil the statue of San Simón is a replica, a bust (I think it's plastic) of a man with a stuffed body sitting up in a chair.  He has sunglasses on, a hat, a turtleneck up to his nose, and is covered in blankets.  Apparently in life he liked alcohol and cigars, so people bring cigars, aguardiente, and leave lighted candles in offering.

Next Ixquik and I went to their house, the same house where Roberto and his siblings were born.  Maya and Tepeu were also born there (Ixquik was a C-section baby).  Lesbia was preparing chuchitos, little tamales with meat and a delectable sauce inside it.  I helped tie the husks, but at first I kept sqeezing them too hard and the sauce would drip out.  I got the hang of it eventually though.  While they cooked, Ixquik and I flagged a pickup truck taxi to go to Las Cumbres, a hotel/restaurant/spa where they have saunas with natural vapor from the nearby volcano.  We spent an hour in the sauna, going back and forth between the hot vapor room and a cold shower.  Afterwards I felt so relaaaaaaxed....   When we got back to the house we had lunch and then took a nap.  Perfect.  Then Ixquik and I got a ride back to Xela with Roberto and Lesbia.

Zunil

Lesbia

Helping wrap the chuchitos

I finally got the hang of it!

Spending time with Roberto's family was great, they treated me like one of the family.  It kind of made me miss my own fam.....  Love you Mom and Dad, can't wait to see you! :-)