Guatemala Day Six (and Seven-ish): One of My Favorite Moments. Ever.

This entry will be short, because there is mostly driving. That will be boring for you, but since day six in Guatemala included one of my favorite travel moments ever, it will be important for me to have a dedicated entry for it.

We now need to get from Sayaxche to Livingstone, Guatemala. Livingstone is a little Caribbean surprise island off the coast of Guatemala. It’s very eco tourist and given my druthers I’d like to go back for a week to hike and kayak. It’s also very far away because we have, naturally, picked destinations that are incredibly far apart from each other. So Pollo has decided that we will take the trip in two days. “We’ll camp tonight,” he says, “I know a deserted beach.”

So most of the day is spent driving (though there’s a great meal in there), which you don’t care about. But then we arrive, near sunset, at this beach.

And it is…totally deserted.

Except for these two dogs.

Here's another beach picture, of the campsite.

As you know, I am an ocean baby. I love the water. I love the idea of a totally deserted island. I dream of deserted islands. I dream of me, alone, with an ocean. As you may also know, when you camp, you wake up at 5:30am with the sun. I didn’t even bother to put a bathing suit on. I walked out of the tent and proceeded to strip down to my underwear while making a bee line for the ocean. And then I swam out to the break and stayed there until it was absolutely necessary to come back, because it was time to travel the rest of the way to Livingston.

I’m not sure if Pook or Ho took this picture, but it’s now one of my favorite pictures of me. Ever. And that morning was one of my favorite mornings in life. Ever.

The rest of the day is spent driving to and then taking the boat into Livingston, where we then spend the afternoon enjoying alcohol and hammocks and the tropical climate. I literally have one of the single best mojitos of my life. We all catch up on our travel reading. We also dine on the local specialty, Tapado. Tapado is a fish stew cooked in coconut milk and served with crusty bread, and it is delicious. See below.

And here are also some lovely photos of Livingston. I’m sorry today’s entry was so non-exciting, but the next entry is about kayaking, and it’s fun. Trust me.