EL ORIENTE AND IZABAL - Guatemala - page 390

and enhanced with a generous helping of rum. The simple bars along Calle Principal as
you come up the street from the municipal docks, including La Buga and Chichimangos,
across from the Bahía Azul restaurant, can usually satiate your thirst should the fancy take
you.
Lívingston hasafairly vibrant nightlife scene befitting ofits tropical location bythe sea.
Down by the beach on the northern end of town (Playa Bariques) is Bar Beluba Neruba
with a small dance floor and tables right on the sand. Another lively spot in this neighbor-
hood is Coco Bongo's, playing Jamaican reggae and Garífuna punta rock. They can both
be reached by heading west along the beach at the end of Calle Principal.
Along a side street also heading west from Calle Principal, Café-bar Ubafu is usually
hopping, with live music on weekends. On Calle Principal, Tropicool is a disco that opens
at 8 P.M. on weekends. The Black Sheep, next to the Bahía Azul restaurant, shows movies
nightly at 8 P.M.
The classiest place in town is part of the Villa Caribe hotel. Dugu Bar (5 P.M.-midnight
daily) is housed in a cheerful, yellow wooden house on the town's main street opposite the
Immigrationoffice.Theinteriorisdecoratedwithtonsofoldpicturesandthere'safullbar.
GUIDE COMPANIES
Highly recommended for its knowledgeable guides and the variety of interesting tours,
Exotic Travel (Calle Principal, inside Restaurante Bahía Azul, tel. [phone] or
7497-0151, www.bluecaribbeanbay.com ) has daily transport to Río Dulce ($11) as well as
a daily Jungle Trip. The latter encompasses a walk through town past Garífuna neighbor-
hoods before heading up to a lookout spot with wonderful views of the town and sea. You
then take a canoe ride down the Río Quehueche to Playa Quehueche before hiking through
the jungle to Siete Altares, where you have a few hours to relax and eat lunch at an on-site
restaurant.Thelastlegofthejourneyisafive-kilometerhikebacktotownalongthebeach.
The trip leaves daily at 9:30 A.M., returning at around 4:30 P.M., and costs $7. Entry fee
to Siete Altares ($1.50) is additional. Another option is a twice-daily half-day mountain
bike ride to Río Quehueche, continuing to Siete Altares and returning via the beach. This
trip leaves at 8 A.M., returning at 12:30 P.M., or at 1 P.M., returning around 5 P.M. This
trip costs $10, including gear, box lunch, and hydration fluid. A final option is a full-day
horseback-riding trip to Finca Río Blanco, where there are some waterfalls. The trip costs
$25, including horses, guide, entrance to the farm, and a box lunch. There's a 400-meter
zipline at the finca, costing an extra $15, if you want to zip between the trees on a metal
cable. Exotic Travel also does trips to Playa Blanca with a six-person minimum, stopping
at Siete Altares and Río Cocolí along the way.
Hotel Casa Rosada (tel. [phone], www.hotelcasarosada.com ), Happy Fish (tel.
7947-0661 or 7947-0268, www.happyfishresort.com , $5-25), and Hotel Río Dulce (tel.