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.