Río Dulce & Livingston

Once again it was an early morning last Tuesday, when I had to get up at 5.30 to get the bus to Río Dulce. We were 4 people from the hostel on the bus, the only tourists on it, and when we arrived in Río Dulce we all got a boat to the same hostel together. The hostel was located on the side of the river, with nice views of the water and the surrounding forest. After settling in, we decided to all go visit the hot waterfalls together. We had to take a boat back into town from where we caught a bus. When we arrived at the entrance to the falls we were told that the water had gotten too high and we could not go swimming, what a disappointment. The place was still very nice though, very quietly situated in the jungle. There were only 4 other people and a girl was selling tasty banana bread.

Hot waterfalls

We had a good dinner and a nice quiet night at the hostel afterwards. The next morning, I enjoyed the quietness at and the views from the hostel a bit more and then got the afternoon boat to Livingston.

Just before the boat arrived, it started raining. The boat was full, everything and everybody had to be covered with canvas sheets - it was not very comfortable. Luckily, about half way to our destination, the rain stopped and the ride became much more enjoyable. By that time my backpack was very wet though...

In Livingston I went to stay at a hostel outside of town. I realised straight away that it truly was a party hostel like I had heard, and that night this was definitely comfirmed. Apparently we had to celebrate the leap year and so we had a pretty crazy party where many funny things happened. I can understand that some people fled to bed ;-). The hostel staff and owner were the ones partying the hardest...

Party at the hostel in Livingston

Still tired the next morning, I got on a tour to some waterfalls (called 7 Altares) and a beach. It was just what I needed, a nice quiet day. It was only 2 of us on the tour, me and a Swiss guy, and at the waterfalls we were all alone. Well, I say waterfalls, but unfortunately because of the recent lack of rain, there was not much water falling. It was basically just the waterfalls' pools we were looking at. However, it was still very nice there.

7 Altares

On the way to the beach, we were really lucky and saw some dolphins. We stopped to watch them and take photos for a while. There were a lot of them and even some little ones. It was amazing!

Dolphins between Livingston and Playa Blanca

The beach was great too. It had white sand and loads of palm trees and was very quiet. Since you can only get to the beach by boat and there were only 3 boats, there were only about 10 people on the whole beach. It was a great place to just lie in the sun and think of nothing (and get a bit sunburnt if you all asleep like I did...).

Playa Blanca

Back from the tour, I finally went to see the town. It is very small and there is not really anything to see, but it is an interesting place because of its mix of different cultures.

Boat with birds in Livingston

It was much more quiet at the hostel that night and I managed to have an early night, getting some sleep before getting up early again to get on yet another boat.