flashdog_1

Please forgive my ignorance, but how far would Guat City be from this port? My daughter was born there and asked if we could go when we dock in Santo Tomas. It is much too far from Santo Tomas, but wondered, if on another cruise, it would be doable from the south coast (Pacific). I have flown from Guat City to the Pacific coast, but have no idea how long it would take by land. Thanks.

join the travel board bootsnall.com and there is a central american site. Many people who live in guatemala may be able to answer your questions about transportation within the country.

I've done some research and there probably is not enough time in port to get to Fronteras by boat and back. But some of the ships offer a land trip to Quirigua ruins and then a 4 hour boat ride back.

That sounded too strenuous to me so I've booked a 3 hour boat ride out of Livingston to the Rio Dulce National Park, seeing the canyon, bird island, hot spring lagoons and Rio Tatin, then stopping for lunch in Livingston for the local cuisine Tapado, a walk around the center of town, and back to Puerto Barrios. All we have to do is take a 20 minute taxi from Santo Tomas to Puerto Barrios to get the boat (have been advised that taxis just outside the pier are cheaper) then the hotel will pick us up for a half hour boat ride to Livingston. We'll not leave the ship until 9 since people who've booked ship's tours get to leave first, and we still have a two hour window for getting back in time for sailaway.

Hotelcasarosada.com is doing it for us for $40 each for 7 pax (lunch not included, but will be ordered before we leave to save time). Javier Putul has been very helpful.

There are a couple of reviews of their day in Santo Tomas on this board from people returning from Norweigan Sun 2/4. Some took a water taxi (launcha) directly from Santo Tomas for $25 per person to 7 Altares which is north of Livingston for a 1 1/2 hour boat ride.

Thanks for posting. We were all anxiously awaiting some reviews.

Those of you who went to Livingston and the Rio Dulce, please let us know how it went time wise and what you got to see. I've booked independently with a hotel in Livingston to pick us up in Puerto Barrios since we were concerned that transportation back to Santo Tomas might be a problem. Thanks

Having made arrangements on my own to get from Santo Tomas to Livingston via Puerto Barrios, I was told to get a taxi outside the port where they are less expensive. They will take you to Quirigua ruins if you like, or all the way to the bridge at Rio Dulce where you may be able to get a boat back to Santo Tomas.

My arrangements are thru the Hotel Casa Rosada in Livingston who is going to come get us in Puerto Barrios, take us on a 3 hour tour of the Rio Dulce national park, the Canyon (beautiful) Rio Tatin, Bird Island, the hot springs, (but not all the way to the castle due to time constraints) back to the hotel for lunch (additional charge, but we will be able to get the dinner menu at lunch which could be lobster or the local coconut soup with shellfish called Tapado), a walk around Livingston which has a unique culture you might be interested in, and back to Puerto Barrios with two hours to spare before the ship leaves.

You can find info on riodulce.net about the area. I believe there are links on that site for other activities in the area.

If you want to contact the owner of Hotel Casa Rosada his email is found at their information page: info@hotelcasarosada.com

info@hotelcasarosada.com

The boat tours they offer are not timed for cruise ships, but Javier will be glad to make a special tour for you to match your ship's port time. Enjoy.

Maybe I was just lucky, but I got a response back from Amatique Bay within 24 hours. I was not asking him if we could go on our own, but rather, about local transportation to get to Livingston.

info@amatiquebay.net

is how I contacted them. Response was in broken english, but certainly understandable.

What is that?:confused: :confused:

What is that?

Always trying to anticipate, please tell me the approximate dimensions of the laundry bag. Thanks.

I re-read everything I'd posted and opened all links.

The review from cruise addicts was from 2 years ago where it said there were no tourist facilities at the port of Santo Tomas. But the link empornac.gov.gt/english/crucro-ehton now says the port has the following facilities for cruise ship pax.

Post Office

Money exchange

Transportation service, taxis, boats, shuttles

Craft market

Presentation of Group Garifuna

Concert of marimba

Security inside and outside harbor

So they've shaped up!

i read and re-read trying to find a link or email address and cojld not find one. If they have transportation service I am probably worrying myself needlessly, but would sure feel better if I could reach someone who can guarantee transportation to and from Livingston.

I'm still looking for a hand drawn map of Livingston.

I tried editing the above post and the administrator said I could not take more than 20 minutes, which I did, to look up names. So I'm now frustrated.

The name of the biggest lake is Izabal.

The ruins with the largest known Mayan stellae is Quirigua.

The website for photos of Rio Dulce area is riodulce.net.

The only weight restriction i could figure was if they took you to the resort by boat. Weird, isn't it?

I have done extensive research and posted it on Holland america roll call/ Veendem/ March 11, 2006. It is cumulative. A little info one day, a little more the next. there are gobs of links, and pretty pictures of the area. The entire area of Rio Dulce (also known as Fronteras) is a "protected area" meaning it is pristine with no polution.

We will have "done" some Mayan ruins in Costa Maya so I didn't want to spend 8 or 9 hours on a shore excursion to get to see the tallest stellae at 97 yards at Quiri something, and then a 4 hour boat ride back to the ship, but may have to if my contacts can't arrange transportation back to the ship.

I want to see Livingston, which is accessible only by boat. That is the settlement that was begun when a ship of slaves wrecked. They built a fort/castle to defend themselves against the slave transporters who did come back for them. So they speak their African language, Garifuna.

Livingston is at the beginning of prettiest part of the river (Rio Dulce) See the views from the castle. From there you can see hot water waterfalls, 7 lagoons (waterfalls), the canyon where the river narrows before it goes into Lake Ixlan ? (I'm sorry I can't remember these names. I don't know how to leave this post and go to my Veendam posts. Anyway, it is the largest lake in Guatemala, which surprised me. I thought it would have been Lake Atitlan with the volcano. Anyway, if you ever want to return to Guatemala, there are wonderful resorts with wonderful excursions on the OTHER end of this big lake, and unfortunately, even in a speed boat there would not be adequate time to get there on a cruise ship one day stop). But I digressed. the hotel Casa Rosario in Livingston said they can give us a 3 hour boat tour of the area mentioned for $20, minimum 7 people (but at that price, I think fewer people would just make up the difference), return to the hotel for a light lunch of tuna sandwich and fruit bowl, and then return to the ship.

The hotel CANNOT pick us up in Santo Tomas due to the monopoly the licensed boat drivers have. that's understandable.

Everyone who lives in the area says "just catch a launcha" as if it's the easiest thing in the world, not understanding that we have a time frame to meet and can't just wait until a boat operator appears. There IS REGULAR FERRY SERVICE but I don't know if it is out of Santo Tomas or Puerto Barrio. And I am not sure if the ferry would coincide with ship's departure time. I will find this out. Keep checking our roll call.

When the slow boat ferry doesn't match someone's schedule, they hire a speed boat that gets them over to Livingston lickety split. The prices I've heard are very low. Ferry $1.50, speed boat maybe up to $8 pp.

As in Belize, this area has many English speakers. Actually i just read that there are up to 8 languages spoken in the area, so people are multi-lingualed.

Although Santo Tomas is the largest commercial port in Guatemala, it is not set up for much tourism. But you will find a link in one of my first posts about what exactly you WILL find at the port's shopping area.

The tourist area, if you can say there IS a tourist area, is Livingston because of the different culture (not indigenous Indian) and the Rio Dulce.

There are clicks to the excursion the ship has to the Amatique resort in Puerto Barrios and it doesn't look all that great to me for $39 or $59 with lunch. I'd sure rather spend that $59 and go somewhere and see beautiful, unspoiled places. keep clicking my links to get an idea of what the area looks like.

Apparently the legislators who passed the law thought otherwise. Perhaps they heard an argument that it was difficult (time consuming and possibly set them up for muggers when they had an open wallet?) to find change for certain disabled people, and nothing to do with the ability to pay.

There are lots of different kinds of disabilities so if they passed a law for a particular group they probably thought they had to include every person with a handicapped sticker or license plate. Doesn't always make sense, but they passed the law. So the OP wanted to know if free parking was offered in Ft Lauderdale, too. I'd contact the Florida legislators and find out if it is state wide rather than listen to us who didn't know there was such a thing as free parking.

I picked Celebrity Summit not only because I had already been on the ship and knew my way around, but there was a special including air that I couldn't pass up. Then there is Icy Strait Point, a fairly new port of call that is not offered by all cruise lines which is not yet touristy. I hate missing Sitka, though. I chose Anchorage to Vancouver to be able to see a little bit more of the northern part of SE Alaska rather than just the inside passage. I picked Celebrity initially, not just for Alaska, because of their good food, their wonderful service, the fact that they do not polute the atmosphere with black smoke, do not make constant annoying announcements, the fact that they still offer assigned seats in the evening for dining so I can get to know some people a little better, rather than running to a different table every night, the fact that all cabins have a mini bar and sofa and are 172 sq ft, even inside cabins, that they have classical music during dinner, and that thelosotherapy pool is for adults only! If I ever get to go again, I will choose an itinerary with Glacier Bay and or College Fjords and maybe won't take so many expensive excursions and will be able to feel what Alaska is like to be in the towns.

The end product will be approximately 1/4 of the amount of yogurt you started with. So if you want to make a larger quantity of "cream cheese", try making your own yogurt and then hanging it in the strainer. To make your own yogurt, you just heat 1 quart of milk to lukewarm, add one tablespoon yogurt (be sure it says active), wrap bowl in a towel, put the bowl in a warm place like in the oven that has a gas pilot light and DO NOT TOUCH it for about 10 hours. After experimenting, I found that adding some evaporated milk or powdered milk will give a thicker yogurt. You may just want to eat the yogurt with some fruit. But if you do want the cheese, hang it as described. You can season it with herbs/salt/onion etc.