Livingston

I was grateful to arrive in Livingston after quite a pleasant boat trip up the river. It is amazing to have this little town stuck out in the far reaches of Guatemala that is unique both for Guatemala and Central America. The town is only small and if you walk along the main street from the dock on the river, after about ten minutes you get to the Caribbean Sea, from where you can see both Belize and Honduras. Livingston is only accessible by boat so it is more like being on an island than on the mainland.

There are four cultural groups in Livingston, the Garifuna (decended from the Caribe and, apparently, escaped West African slaves), Maya, Hindu and Chinese, although I didn’t see any evidence of the last two groups.

On my wanderings on the first day I met Paulo who took me for a tour through the Garifuna neighbourhood. No-one comes here he told me, they’re afraid of the black skin. It was Guatemalan Independence Day and there were a lot of celebrations going on although I’m pretty sure it is like this most of the time. The full bar with loud music and dancing, he explained was an everyday occurrence, not just for the holiday.

Paulo told me stories about himself and the community which was really interesting. He was telling me about something that happened the day before. One guy wanted to go after a younger guy with a machete – obviously he wasn’t happy about this young punk who got is 16 year old daughter pregnant. Paulo intervened, Man he said, this kid is not your enemy. The hormones are the enemy and there’s no way you can fight those. He also told me about his daughters, 15 and 17 – they were very hormonic he said.

Unfortunately I didn’t spend as long in Livingston as I could have. The boat to Belize only goes twice a week and it was either two nights there or six. I’d have preferred six but I have limited time left and I can’t dilly-dally around anywhere for too long now, and after the Rio Dulce thing...

The hostel there, Iguanas, was great, similar to Zephyr in set up and vibe – this was also helped by Dieter who works at Zephyr coming to Iguana for a few days to celebrate his birthday. There were some late nights and lots of fun and good conversation but it was time to end my second visit to Guatemala, sadly.