Pictures here
I spent my last two days in Guatemala boating down Rio Dulce to Livingstone, a port town on the eastern border of the country. On the way down, the captain swung the boat to a fortress at the mouth of the river. In all seriousness, I think it is the smallest fortress ever built, ever.. From a distance, it looked like someone’s villa with watch towers. Two small cannons gaze out of their peepholes on the side. If I saw this fortress, I would want to be a pirate just so I can raid this city.
Moving along, we stopped at a few bungalows on the river for quick snacks. These bungalows are isolated from the rest of the world. They interact with their neighbors, make some good to sell to tourists and otherwise they are pretty far apart from civilization.  Surprisingly though, one of them had a modern American-sized oven which a local lady uses to bake bread to sell.  Local carpenters worked away on half built furniture while kids paddled in half tree-trunk rafts on the river. It was just another regular day for them, but I was taking all in the beautiful surroundings.
Livingstone is the only city in Guatemala that has a large percentage of black populations. Their ancestors were slaves brought from Africa and settled on the nearby islands. Many of them wore dreadlocks and seemed how I imagined what Jamaicans would be like. I didn’t stay long there except visiting the local pretty site – the Seven Altars. After walking along the beach for what seemed like forever, I got to the seven cascading pools. This was well hidden in the woods; it’s a wonder anyone ever found this place.
I am not really scared of heights. But jumping off of anything takes some bit of thinking. My friend’s camera started recording. I had some doubts. Why was I up here and why am I going to jump off this? “Hey, the camera is rolling.â€Â That’s all I needed. I jumped. “Hey that’s wasn’t too bad. Do you want to do it again?â€Â So we jumped off twenty times.
Well, actually it was more like two times. I am really not a water mammal. I like lying in the water. That’s about it. However, by the end of next week I should have finished off my Open Water Diving courses in Honduras. I have never swum more than 50 meters or floated more than probably 2-3 minutes at a time. Time to step it up. This is what traveling is about – new experiences. Onward!