There was heavy thunder throughout the night, but apart from the one that shook our bungalow, it didn’t stop us from sleeping well.
We grabbed mugs of coffee and watched the sunrise over the lake. Back in the bungalow, we observed our colony of bats, nesting in the eves.
Breakfast of champions. Cazuela Ko Bán – eggs poached in ranchero sauce, topped with cheese and chopped cilantro over tortillas with more cheese in a casserole, with fresh fruit on the side. Andy had the Fruta de la Ruta Maya – an assortment of fresh fruit with lime, honey, yogurt and granola.
We’d chartered a boat for the day amongst eleven of us, and departed at 9am for Livingston.
Our first stop was the San Felipe fort on Lake Izabal. The small Spanish colonial fort was built as a defence against British pirates when the area was an important shipping route, and later served as a prison.
The Rio Dulce (‘Sweet River’) flows out of Lake Izabal to the Caribbean Coast. There are many posh yachts – it’s a popular place to moor your boat during the hurricane season.
Next, we toured bird island – many cormorants, pelicans, egrets, and other flying things. On the lake, men were fishing in dugout canoes.
We went down a narrow channel, and saw water lilies, mangroves, and a few houses. Local woman and children in dugout canoes rush to our boat to sell their wares.
We stopped at a natural hot spring. Opting out of this one, we sat with coffees and ginger biscuits.
We sped through a canyon, dense vegetation on each side and orangey iguanas sunbathing at the top of trees.
Livingston is a Garifuna town at the mouth of the Rio Dulce. It is the only Garifuna community in Guatemala, with Belize having a larger population. There are no roads to Livingston, the town can only be reached by boat.
The town has a great vibe and we spend a couple of hours wandering the streets. There is great street art, street food stalls, pigs roaming the streets, fish drying in the sun and the Caribbean sea at the end of the streets on the east side of town, as well as a few shops and restaurants catering for tourists.
We tried the tapado Garifuna at Happy Fish Restaurant and it’s delicious.The ‘real’ version has a coconut cream base with fish, crab and shrimp; ours was made with banana, plantain and vegetables.
There is just enough time to shop. I broke my sunglasses on Christmas Day and patched them up with sellotape, but with the humidity and the sweat, this was always going to be a short-term fix. I tried various pairs of ‘Ray Ban’ sunglasses in a shop and the price of the ones which fitted me best drop by 5 quetzales for no reason. I probably could have haggled them down further, but these people are trying to make a living. After all, I can’t complain; £4 for ‘genuine’ Ray Ban is a bargain.
The return journey goes quickly. With hills in the background, and low vegetation on the foreground, there is so much sky and the clouds are spectacular.
There is time to catch up with our journals with a beer before dinner.
Early start tomorrow, with a seven to nine hour journey by private bus to Antigua.