Livingston

After just a few weeks in Belize, we make a quick dash to Guatamela. We would have loved to have seen more of the incredible jungles and rural villages, but we just didn’t want to pay the extortionate amounts that they were asking in Belize. We met a good few decent people Belizeans on the way, but certainly not the friendly, smiley, helpful people that we met in Mexico. 

We leave Placencia via the hokey-pokey water taxi and board a bus to Punta Gorda, ready to get on a boat to Guatemala. Thankfully, a very easy boarder crossing this time. 

We arrive in Livingston (Guatamela), which is a very bustling port town. We are met by the most manky looking dogs you’ve ever seen in your life, and tuks-tuks zipping around the narrow streets. The streets are the usual hustle-and-bustle with people encouraging you to buy their wares consisting of the usual fake football shirts and general bits of tat! Despite this, the town has a good feel to it, with tiny little Zapotecan people surrounding us once again with their huge golden smiles (not because they are pleased to see us but because their teeth are rotten!)

We have really good basic accommodation which feels very extravagant in Livingston. This is clearly a very poverty stricken town, with many houses without running water. There is a central communal area where people come to bathe and wash their clothes, and I must say this is pristinely kept despite the absolute mess all around it. The place has the usual rubbish strewn everywhere, and the stink of rotting fish that is drying on the pontoons. Now that’s a smell not to remember! 

We get a tuk-tuk to the local beach where we are going to take a walk to the waterfall. The beach should be beautiful, lined with mangrove and coconut palms and It’s initially not too bad, but a few hundred metres up, we are walking on a bed of plastic washed up on the shore. We even spot an entire trainer with its own ecosystem, filled with crabs and all kinds of sea creatures. We didn’t make it to the waterfall as it really wasn’t the greatest of walks 😳, but instead we find some local boys playing football on the beach and Seb enjoys a great little match with them.