Livingston, Guatemala

2/20/15


We are finally getting ready to leave the river, but first a trip to Livingston to complete our exit paperwork.  Luvy, our marina owner, lent us his launcha with a Honda 50 outboard motor, this made our trip only an hour down river to the town of Livingston.  On the way, we pass through a beautiful gorge with towering cliffs and jungle on each side.  There is a cliff wall along the way, they call "graffiti wall" for obvious reasons and so we enjoyed revisiting it again this year.  We just couldn't contain ourselves so we added our names last year.

Upon reaching Livingston, we made our way to the SAT office where we began the lengthy process of checking out of the country.  The same happens on entering the country also.  After the SAT office, we were sent to the Port Captain where more papers were stamped and more money is paid out.  This took some time as the electricity had evidently gone out and they had to hook up a generator in order to run the computer and copy machine to finish our paperwork.  Next we were sent to Customs for our passports to be stamped.  Charlie asked a young guy where the Customs office was and he sent us on a wild goose chase to the other side of the city.  But, not all was lost as we saw some pretty interesting sights.
                                                    Drying fish on long layers of cyclone

 fencing...can you almost smell it?  After all this walking we worked up an appetite and started looking for a place to eat.  One restaurant on the main street was full of people, always a good sign, but a Garifuna band was playing and the noise was unbearable so we continued on down the street and finally found a hole in the wall with one gentleman eating there.  Hunger over took us so we settled in and had a most delightful meal.  We both got the seafood soup and several cervezas.   It was delicious.

So with full bellies we got our passports stamped and we are on our way out of Guatemala and on to the Caribbean Sea and blue salt water.