Guatemala Caribbean

Guatemala's Caribbean coast is the country's most overlooked and most surprising destination — a narrow strip of coastline where the Maya civilization, Garifuna culture and Caribbean nature converge in ways found nowhere else in the region. It is not the postcard Caribbean of white sand and turquoise water — it is something more interesting and more complex.

Livingston is the most distinctive town in Guatemala — accessible only by boat, inhabited primarily by the Garifuna people, and possessing a culture that combines African Caribbean heritage with the surrounding Mayan and Spanish-speaking world. The Caribbean Creole English of Livingston, the punta music that fills the evenings and the seafood cuisine that blends Caribbean and Central American traditions make it unlike any other place in Guatemala or Central America.

The Rio Dulce, the river that connects Lake Izabal to the Caribbean, is one of Central America's most spectacular waterways — a narrow gorge of dramatic limestone cliffs draped with jungle, hot springs flowing directly from the canyon walls into the river, and the remarkable Castillo de San Felipe fortress at the lake entrance. The journey by boat from Livingston to the lake is one of the most beautiful river passages in the Americas.