Days 44-46 - Livingston and Rio Dulce, Guatemala

LIVINGSTON TOWN AND RIO DULCE (14/02/09 - 16/02/09)

The sleepy fishing dock at Livingston. We arrived into Guatemala early by boat from Belize having dealt with the incredibly uninterested immigration official at Punta Gorda who was far more interested in the song playing on the office radio than our passports.

The main street in Livingston.

We couldn´t resist putting on this bizarre painting off the side of a hut. It appears to be a chubby man wearing a nappy with a cock´s comb on his head vomiting money. We can offer you no further explanation, sorry.

You know you´re not in a western country when you have to spend 20 minutes after getting off the boat searching the streets for the immigration office.

We stopped off for a delicious strawberry smoothie, ordering in Spanish was tricky after speaking English in Belize for the past few weeks.

We then went to a little backstreet restaurant for lunch with some typical Central American entertainment while we ate.

Livingston´s local laundry. We decided to wait until Antigua for the electric version.

Since our hotel was in the middle of the jungle, only accesible by boat, we had to wait for the boat to come an pick us up and take us down the Rio Dulce.

Liz managed to find a latte, the best coffee yet.

Adam would have driven off if he had had a key, he was desperate to get into the jungle again.

Another slightly less sophisticated river user.

Livingston´s main petrol station. There are far more boats than cars.

We are not sure who owned this boat but it certainly seemed like it was the pelicans.

The Rio Dulce was probably the most beautiful rivers we have ever been down. Regrettably the pictures really don´t do it justice.

The high canyon sides were thick with jungle.

There were lots of local fishermen in handmade wooden canoes which are simply dugout tree trunks.

Sometimes paddling a canoe just isn´t fast enough!

The first view we had of our jungle hut from the river dock. You can just see the thatched roof through the trees.

We shared our doorstep with a number of crabs. They didn´t have to take their shoes off like we did however.

The master bedroom of our hut. Complete with natural style air conditioning.

Chilling out on the deck in the hammock chair.

The dock at dusk.

The view down the Rio Lampara ( the small river off the Rio Dulce where we were staying).

A dip in the river. The owner assured us he had never seen a crocodile but he smoked so much dope that he probably wouldn´t have remembered even if he had had a conversation with one.

Again we wish that the photographs could in any way reflect the astounding beauty of the place, we were sorry to leave after 3 days, but left considerably more relaxed and not from the fumes of the owners 40 a day joint habit.