after the longest night of my life, followed by what seemed to be the craziest journey of my life (if you know me, you have either heard this story or should ask me about it!), we finally arrived in livingston, which is on the caribbean coast of guatemala.  part of the journey to get there meant we needed to travel by boat down the rio dulce.  the ride actually started out pretty terrible, because we were caught in a downpour and hiding under tarps, but the rain eventually cleared, and we realized how gorgeous the river actually was.

we only spent one night in this lively little town, but we managed to have the most interesting dinner on the side of the street.  tapado – a soup typical of the garifuna culture in this part of guatemala – consists of everything under the sea, floating along with plantains in a coconut milk broth.  we were told we should try it at least once, but weren’t totally prepared for what arrived at our table…a whole fish, a whole crab, whole shrimps, conch shells (you slurp out the insides), random tentacles…i’ve been describing it to people as a bowl full of faces and eyes.  i stuck to the coconut milk + plantains, but braden says this was his favourite meal!  this was also our first time trying authentic ceviche on our trip, which quickly became a staple for our days on the coast :)

here, we were also introduced to the population of crabs on the caribbean coast (i think they were rainbow land crabs?).  they were so cute at first, all different sizes, waving to us from their little holes in the ground…until we caught an ENORMOUS one hiding in our dorm room, ready to fight.  my respect for those crazy little guys went up a lot more after that.

it was so good to finally reach the ocean. next post…honduras!