Rio Dulce, a beautiful river to relax and jump off to other remote locations. From Rio Dulce we explored El Paraiso hot spring waterfalls and Livingston, a Garífuna community on the Caribbean.

Some overlander friends we originally met in Oaxaca, then again in Atitlan for New Years explored the area with us. They were staying on the Rio Dulce so they could ship their van to Colombia.

These friends also have a blog! She takes amazing pictures of their travels, check it out!

It cost 15Q or $1.90USD each to enter El Paraiso and 10Q or $1.25USD to park.

The water from the hot springs flow onto the mineral crusted waterfall, while the river stays cool. Wadding back and forth from the waterfall to the cooler river was ideal.

We were able to take Sombrita with us over to the the waterfalls. She loved running around and swam on her own for the first time!

Sombrita has been to the beach, rivers, lakes but has never swam on her own before. Her loyalty shined through when she doggy paddled over to us.

The local kids love their waterfall and know every place to jump into the river. Others standby as lookouts to make sure the authority figure doesn’t see they are jumping from higher and higher points on the waterfall. Danny quickly became apart of the local crew, talking with the kids in Spanish and learning how to get the the best jumping spots.

We hiked to the top of the waterfall, then all the way to the hottest point where the water exits the ground. People use the mud from around the top to exfoliate but we opted out.

From our campsite on Rio Dulce we could also check out the Caribbean! Livingston is next to impossible to get to by road so visitors head there by boat. In the motorboat we experienced more rough sea than usual so it took us a little longer to get there. But We were able to see some wildlife and the beautiful riverside houses.

Sombrita was also able to take the boat ride over to Livingston with us! She loved trying to catch the white water in her teeth.

We would suggest going as early as possible or spending the night because we felt a little short on time.

Once we got to Livingston we took a short walk around the Garífuna community, which ended at a tasty restaurant very different than most in Guatemala. We were lucky enough to try different Garífuna flavors, our favorite being the green banana fritters. They even had a vegan topada for me!

After getting lunch we were off to the warm Caribbean beach. We took a tuctuc over to the white sand beach after heating up on the walk. The perfect place to cool off and end the day in Livingston.

After our swim sesh we had to catch the boat back to our campsite on Rio Dulce. The sunset filled the sky on our ride back, making the river become very sweet.

We also made a YouTube about our time, check it out!