Izabal or bust

From Mango Creek-Independence we took a bus to Punta Gorda and from there, a boat to Livingston. We were going to go to Rio Dulce that same day and stay 2 nights there, but our boat from PG left about an hour late, thus we missed the last boat to Rio Dulce. No biggie, we stayed in a nice place in Livingston and took a boat the next morning. 

When our boat landed in Livingston it was madness of everyone trying to get us to follow them to some hostel or another, but first we had to go to immigration. While in the immigration office, we decided where we were going to stay and then jetted for that place, but we were still followed by a couple guys trying to get a commission from our stay. Thankfully the guy working at the hostel asked me if they'd brought us, I said no, they followed us. In the whirlwind of guys trying to get us to go with them, someone asked us where we were from. Erin said near Seattle. He said, "Oh, Seattle, WA....or Seattle, WA DC?".............ummmmmm, what?! I was really impressed that he knew the state, and then he killed it. Haha! 
Our night in Livingston was the first night of our trip I felt cold. It was weird! The city was pretty cool, it was like a halfway point between Guatemala and Belize....it was a little strange and interesting. Otherwise I didn't see a whole lot to do in Livingston, Belize was better for just hanging out on the beach I think.

The Kangaroo had a cold jacuzzi

Well on our boat ride from Livingston to Rio Dulce, the owner (I guess) of our hostel called the boat driver to talk to me. She said I didn't pay for the room. She said that the record said I'd paid for the food and boat tickets, but not for the room. I definitely paid. I explained to her that I paid the room in USD (it was actually cheaper than paying in Quetzales!) and the rest in Quetzales. Apparently the guy who I paid didn't write that down, wasn't at the hostel anymore, and his phone wasn't on. She apologized and told us to have a good trip. But what could they have even done if I really hadn't paid?! I was on a boat on my way to another city and my only information that they had was my name and country of residence. I think they need some administrative help.
We got to Rio Dulce, did a lap of the Castle San Felipe in the boat and headed to the main dock to get picked up by our hostel. The Kangaroo Hostel is owned by an Aussie and you can only get there by boat...which means their restaurant is your only food option. Good thing it wasn't crazy crazy expensive. While at the Kangaroo we found an Aussie crossword book and felt so overwhelmed. It goes to like 400 something!! And a lot of the clues were very Aussie specific so we had no clue! But it was cool. We also made a new friend, Ross, here for 6 weeks surveying all of the public hospitals in Guatemala. He says we should try our hardest to avoid having to go to one as a patient. But he was a cool guy and had his own driver and offered to drive us to the hot waterfall and the canyon (we were only going to barely have time to go to the waterfall if we went by bus, in order to make our shuttle for Lanquin). The hot waterfall is, apparently, the only one in the world like it. It's hot water cascading into cold water and it feels really weird to be sitting in cold water with hot water falling on your head. But it was amazing....also hard to find. I guess we passed it and ended up at the canyon first. We decided it was a good thing though because the canyon was cool, but not that cool; the waterfall was way better! So it was good because we did the canyon and then we took our time at the waterfall instead of rushing from the waterfall to make it to a so-so canyon. So we have a new friend now, and now I know who to ask if I have any ears, nose, or throat problems (it's cool being friends with doctors).

Ross getting bombarded to buy "banana bread"