I can’t say I was planning on returning to Guatemala but due to the time I arrived by chicken bus at Punta Gorda in the south of Belize I didn’t have much choice but to take a boat to Livingston and delay my journey into Honduras until the next morning. As it was I didn’t enter Honduras until a few days later as the following day I, along with most of the backpackers staying at Casa de la Iguana (below), went on a day trip by boat to Playa Blanca.

We departed Livingston sailing by the Statue of Liberty-esque figure (above) standing on the tiniest of islands in the middle of the sea not too far from shore. Before the beach we were taken to some waterfalls which probably are spectacular when its wet but when dried out they weren’t too much to look at. I enjoyed the hiking trail up the falls to find the jumping pool you see below. It was only about 7-8 metres tall but that was enough of a fall for the two jumps I did.

We then moved on to Playa Blanca (literally translates as White Beach) which was very nice although not quite as amazing as advertised. The water certainly wasn’t as nice as other beaches I’ve been to in South-East Asia or Australia but it was still good to chill out in the sun although I couldn’t truly relax as my back had burned so red the previous day whilst snorkelling in Belize.

I had met and become good friends with Graeme from Newcastle on the boat the previous day and back in Livingston a bit later I met up with him (he had done a different day trip to Rio Dulce and back) and went for some dinner (below), beers and on the hunt for fanny! It’s not what you think though as we were just searching for some tinned sardines made by a company called ‘Fanny’. Sadly, we couldn’t find any anywhere so I’m left with no choice but to show a picture of the product from Google images below.

It was absolutely pounding down with rain amid very blustery conditions at around 4-5am on the day we were set to leave but thankfully we managed to get down to the harbour and take the boat over to Puerto Barrios without any further hints of rain. A taxi took us to the bus station where we parted fairly quickly with Graeme heading to Bay Islands in Honduras and me deciding that it may be easier to take a bus back to Guatemala City in order to go forward to Copan Ruinas (also in Honduras) without having to change local buses three or four times.

With hindsight it was probably a bad idea as when I got to Guatemala City and took a taxi to the Hedman Alas bus station I discovered there were no buses until the following morning. Furthermore, having agreed Q15 for the aforementioned taxi ride as well as gesturing the price using my fingers and palm the driver tried to con me into paying 50 or something like that. I wasn’t in the mood for such bullish*t so threw him Q20 ($2.50) and just walked off to find a nearby hotel in the city which I did not want to be back in.