¡Tengo calor!

Holy shit, Livingston is hot. And my hotel does NOT have air conditioning. Yargh. I didn't think that maybe at the beginning of spring break (or Semana Santa if you're technical about it) I might could need reservations at the nice hotel. So I'm definitely in second class accomidations. Oh well, the Lonely Planet guide didn't slam the place, so it can't be that bad.

Livingston has not been as fun as Copan. It is a little bit shadier, a little bit dirtier and a little less revamped. But hey, I still got to see the Garifuna who are definitely a niche sorta culture. Basically a bunch of slaves mutineed (good for them) and then married a bunch of locals. The Brits eventually established control of their local paradise - then deported everyone to various remote tropical hell-holes. A lot of them died of starvation on some Godforsaken rock, but some of them survived to make it here.

Here they stay, a very unique group of folks very distinct from everyone else. I can't describe it - ya just gotta be here. My best attempt is to say that because of their presence, Livingston is like a Spanish-speaking Jamaca, only possibly poorer.

The other up side is that I met a large group of American college students touring around with two very interesting professsors. One is a history prof and one is polysci. I was lucky to run into them 'cause otherwise I have no idea how I would have gotten home from the beach.

Let me start over - the Lonely Planet guide points out that the beaches in town are all crap (true) because of the abundance of litter (also true) but there is a nice beach if you take a cab (true as well.) What they don't mention (and REALLY REALLY should!) is that there is NO obvious way to get a cab back. None. I really thought I had found shit creek... until a very nice college student asked me in bad Spanish where I was from. From there we started talking and I met the rest of the group and the profs. I asked to hitch a ride on their boat (I had come over land) and they agreed.

God, oh thank God for nice people. I would have been really screwed. So I'm gonna buy them both a beer at dinner. They all really deserve it.

And the thing is, the beach wasn't really that nice. Yikes! Tomorrow, back to Teculutan. Then Antigua! Yay!