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Post Santo Tomas de Castilla Info Here

rpader

By rpader,
in Guatemala

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patca

patca

Posted
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We will be St Tomas on Dec. 26 on the Veendam. Looking forward to taking Gus's tour. Does anyone know if he accepts credit cards, or is it strictly cash? There will be 4 of us and I really don't want to take that much cash ashore. Thanks Pat

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Sailing Girl

Sailing Girl

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We're going to be Santo Tomas next week. Thanks for sharing your photos. So, it seems there are plenty of opportunities to pick up a tour in the port after the ship docks is that correct? Do you need to have cash for the tours inside the port or will they take credit cards?

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flashdog_1

flashdog_1

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You may have read my postings from earlier in the year but I'll repeat them here.

 

If you want the experience of seeing the town of Santo Tomas and its church built in the 1600s, a very short trip to Puerto Barrios and seeing that town, you can get a taxi there at the pier for $10 round trip, and the driver (ours was Romeo) will let you out at the municipal pier there and you can take a launcha to Livingston (and he WILL be back to pick you up at the designated time!). Our launcha and tour was arranged by Hotel Casa Rosada in Livingston. Their website is hotelcasarosada.com. You can reach the owner by email thru the website or at javier.putul@gmail.com. Javier picked us up in his covered boat (photo on the website) and after the 25 minute boat ride to Livingston, served us coffee while others freshened up. We placed our lunch orders, then we embarked on the Rio Dulce.

 

I love to say that I thought I'd found paradise! Wild exotic birds were calling to one another in the hotel gardens. The photo on Gus's website showing his pier is taken from Hotel Casa Rosada's garden. They are next door to one another. Locals were transporting themselves in canoes, fishing for their suppers etc. Absolute peace. We had plenty of time to walk around Livingston. It was pretty hot in mid March so none of us wanted to venture far.

 

Like on Gus's tour, we went to a school, and various rivers. It was just gorgeous. I am glad i did it and got to see the three towns, eat Guatemalan food (Tapado is my recommendation for authenticity) and have a smaller group of 6 total. The boat would have held more but we liked to spread out. The cost is about the same, just add the cab fare.

 

I was on Veendam and we were in port one more hour than Sun, so adjustments to either Gus's or javier's tours would be made to accommodate the difference in time.

 

P.S. it was about $44 each for 6. Would have been $40 if we'd had 7 or more. Lunch was $10. Beers sold individually.

 

Prices may have increased a little due to price hikes in gasoline.

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nolaAlive

nolaAlive

Posted
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We're going to be Santo Tomas next week. Thanks for sharing your photos. So, it seems there are plenty of opportunities to pick up a tour in the port after the ship docks is that correct? Do you need to have cash for the tours inside the port or will they take credit cards?

 

I paid cash, not sure about the credit cards, but Gus or others should know. I can try to find out but may take a while.

 

You will pass through a gauntlet of people trying to sell you tours. Feel free to just say you want to check everything out first. It reminds me a little of Belize where a number of people are running around trying to get you to go to a particular booth in return for a commission of some sorts. If you are really lost, they are helpful and it doesn't cost you anything for the service, but you might wonder what the booth next door was selling.

 

I think many of the booths inside sold the same tours and whenever they got enough people and/or tour guides and/or vans, the tour departed. I ended up with a free beer because it took longer than expected for the tour to leave. I found out I do LIKE the Guatemala beer! If someone tells you a tour will depart in 5 minutes, I am almost certain it will be more than 5 minutes. But you might get lucky.

 

Outside, you can also catch a boat to Livingston where it seems you are dropped off to wonder around on your own and then return back to the dock. I think $35 was the price I heard for that.

 

You can rent bicycles, but I honestly don't know exactly what would be near that you would be riding too.

 

The first people off the ship will probably be the first tours that depart, but you can absolutely book tours at the dock. The ones that take all day may be sold out and/or departed if you are late, but one like the waterfalls/city tour I think run sort of regularly.

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nolaAlive

nolaAlive

Posted
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I have read several posts about tours offered by the hotel casa rosada/rosario. i have tried both info@hotelcasarosada and info@casarosario and both times received an error message. does anyone have the correct email address or a website for this establishment?

thanks

 

http://www.hotelcasarosada.com/

 

info@hotelcasarosada.com <info@hotelcasarosada.com> ssems to be the email listed. Or you could try calling.

 

A post on one tour description:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=8212555#post8212555

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  • 2 weeks later...
yamson

yamson

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My wife and I visited Guatemala on the NCL Sun last week... here's my input:

 

I had emailed Gus late the week before we left, and unfortunately I didn't get his information in time, so we booked the Los Escobas Waterfall tour through the ship for $63 each. The tour was run by Grey Line Guatemala. Three busses took passengers (40 people each bus) through the town and around some very windy narrow dirt roads to the waterfalls. Our guide was a native of Guatemala and spoke very good English. We were able to swim in several of the pools below the waterfalls, which was very fun. There were many other tours going on at the same time so there were A LOT of people there. After the tour, we bought some chicken and rice from an older woman who seemed to be selling the lunch mostly to the tour guides (we paid $5, although I'm sure the tour guides paid much less). There was also another woman selling a very strange desert consisting of a layer of shaved ice, a layer of stewed tropical fruits, grape syrup, and dulce de leche topping (like a thick, caramelly, sweetened condesned milk) for $1. It was strangely tasty.

 

It seemed as though many other people simply hired a taxi to take them to the waterfalls and get a tour (I heard they were charged about $30 each). I also saw people from Gus' company giving tours as well. Most of the other guides did not seem to speak as much English as our guide did.

 

My impression was that the town and surrounding area was very safe (no, the soldiers with the machine guns are not going to shoot at you...), and was actually very charming. The people are VERY friendly and excited to show off their country to you; everyone in the town waved at us at the bus went by. One of the security guards at the shopping area spoke to my wife (in Spanish) asking her how she liked the town, hoping that she didn't think it was too dirty (it was really very clean), and sincerely hoped that she enjoyed her time there. I wouldn't go wandering into town on your own if you don't speak any Spanish though.

 

In the future, I will definately "Go With Gus" on one of his tours. There was a stand set up in the shopping area where you can set up a tour the same day you get into town. Just make sure to get off the boat early to set it up. It seemed his Rio Dulce tour was running about $75 pp (including lunch), but I've heard great reviews.

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rossbabsy

rossbabsy

Posted
Posted
Thanks for the advice. We are going here in Feb. on the Norwegian Sun, but the shore excursions still are not listed for Guatemala.

 

My neighbors are from Guatemala, I'm sure they are familiar with the rum you mentioned. We have quite a number around the DC/MD/VA area, so maybe the rum is available here.

 

I am really looking forward to visiting Guatemala.

 

Check out the Sun December Shore Excursions, I'm sure they will be the same.

 

Also check out the private tour with Gus.

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  • 3 weeks later...
BeadBabe

BeadBabe

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How long is the boat ride?

 

CN...oh wow, now you are making me think...:rolleyes:

 

We left the pier and high tailed it to Livingston, I'm thinking not more than 30 mins at full speed. The more leisurely boat ride down the river was a good couple of hours all together, but it's a lovely trip and a stop about half way to walk the jungle. The jungle walk, by the way, is pretty flat walking on very easy paths. You don't have to do the walk, and can just wait at the landing. Then there is the sit down lunch and the Garifuna dancers. So you don't feel like you are in a boat all day. Then again a full speed trip back to the pier another 20-30 mins.

 

It was my favorite excursion of the trip. And I think a few of my fellow cruisers felt the same way.

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cnjones1

cnjones1

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CN...oh wow, now you are making me think...:rolleyes:

 

We left the pier and high tailed it to Livingston, I'm thinking not more than 30 mins at full speed. The more leisurely boat ride down the river was a good couple of hours all together, but it's a lovely trip and a stop about half way to walk the jungle. The jungle walk, by the way, is pretty flat walking on very easy paths. You don't have to do the walk, and can just wait at the landing. Then there is the sit down lunch and the Garifuna dancers. So you don't feel like you are in a boat all day. Then again a full speed trip back to the pier another 20-30 mins.

 

It was my favorite excursion of the trip. And I think a few of my fellow cruisers felt the same way.

 

Thanks so much!

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Chickpea19

Chickpea19

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We just got back from our cruise last week (NCL SUN), and I’ve decided to post a (VERY LONG!) review of our day in Santo Tomas, since there wasn’t too much information about this port when I was trying to decide what to do, and even less information about anything NOT involving Gus. Don’t get me wrong…I’m sure he runs a nice tour. I’m just not much of a tour person to start with, so I like to find things we can do ourselves. I hope this helps some of you on your vacations!

Santo Tomas is a great port for going off on your own because of the way the taxis are organized. When you take a taxi from the port, your taxi driver basically becomes your private tour guide. It seemed to me that most of the drivers spoke English to at least some extent. They all go to classes at night, so the more time you give them, the better and better their English will become. I speak fluent Spanish, but our driver still spoke English to us, I think in order to practice. Everyone at this port seems so excited to have tourists there, and they are really eager to show you their country. It also felt very safe, by the way, so don’t be put off by any scary stories you might hear about the capital city!

We took a taxi from the port to Las Escobas Waterfalls ($60 round trip for up to 4 people for the taxi and $5 per person entrance into the national park, all paid at the port). It was a quick trip to the national park (about 15 minutes maybe), and you get to drive through the town of Santo Tomas. People here are, of course, very poor as you may have read on other posts, but we still found it very interesting to see how people live, etc. At the park, your taxi driver comes with you on the hike, and you are also given a pre-teen guide to point out different plants and animals along the way. Basically, for the two of us, we had two private guides ;-). I don’t think the children speak very much English, but if someone in your group speaks some Spanish, it is much easier to communicate. Also, since we had the taxi driver there, I’m sure he would have tried his best to translate if I wasn’t able to understand. Keep in mind, by the way, that for two people, this was half the price of going with the cruise ship tour (I think they charge $68 per person!), and we got to do what we wanted, when we wanted, with a private tour. We saw lots of different kinds of rain forest vegetation and our guide explained what the uses for each plant were (shampoo, coco, baskets, hats, roofs, furniture, etc). The hike is not too long and the waterfalls are really very beautiful. For us, the most interesting thing was just being in the rain forest and being able to get an up-close look at all the plants and wild life. It was so nice to have the freedom to go at our own pace, stop if we wanted to, not wait for anyone, and run past the crowds on the cruise ship and other tours. We even saw a Quezal, the Guatemalan national bird, which we are told is very rare. What a treat!

On our way out of the park, our driver found a native fruit for us to try. I wish I remembered what it was called, but it was about the size of a pineapple, with a tough, green skin and a white, fleshy inside with big black seeds. It was interesting to try it, and very nice of the driver to think to take it from the forest for us. He didn’t have to do that, of course, and it was very endearing that he was so eager for us learn about his country. He was so full of information to tell us!

We decided we wanted to eat lunch, so for an extra $40 for the taxi, our driver took us to Puerto Barrios to a restaurant called Safari. The place was right on the water, and VERY Guatemalan. There are not too many cruise ship ports left that you can go into a restaurant and be the only tourists there! They serve traditional Guatemalan food, or if you aren’t feeling adventurous, they also have sandwiches and the cheapest burgers I’ve ever seen (a burger with fries was about $2.50 and my fiancé said it was very good). I had the Tapado, a traditional coconut milk based soup with seafood and plantains. For $11 I got an ENORMOUS bowl (looked like a serving dish!) with an entire fish, 2 crabs, shrimp, gambas, a huge piece of conch, and plantains. It had a sweet, smoky flavor to it, and was absolutely delicious! Here’s a link to a recipe I found online, but the one I had tasted a bit more complicated than this (I think there were more ingredientes): http://www.recipesource.com/soups/soups/20/rec2087.html

After lunch, we were given a tour in the taxi of Puerto Barrios and were able to see where they filled all the shipping containers to export bananas. Then, since we still had time left (the $40 had bought us an extra 2 hours with the taxi after lunch), our driver took us to the botanical gardens. We were able to see more exotic plants and could see the flowers up close here. Be prepared, however, if you come here, because there is no charge to visit the garden, and they rely on the gift shop and café to support the place. We didn’t feel any pressure from anyone to buy, but we felt that we ought to spend some money there since we did enjoy the gardens. Fortunately, they have a nice gift shop with lovely hand carved Mayan masks, paintings, Guatemalan weaved cloth, jewelry, and the typical touristy things like post cards. Usually I hate buying souvenirs because once you get them home, there doesn’t seem to be any use for them except to lie around. Here, however, we had no problem picking out a really nice Mayan mask to hang on the wall.

We went back to the port, where they have a very large metal building set up with music, dancers, and lots of vendors. There is a huge selection of merchandise here, and in my opinion, Santo Tomas had the most interesting things to buy out of our whole cruise. I broke my “no souvenirs” rule again here, and bought a painting as well. This and the mask were the only things we bought the entire trip, and I love both of them :-) All in all, we had by far the best day of our vacation in Santo Tomas and it was, without question, our favorite port. Do yourself a favor and do some exploring here. Those who stayed on the ship really missed out!

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kelster42

kelster42

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Great review. I loved the recipe for the Tapado. I wanted to do something besides the standard tour with Gus and not many options were out there. Luckily Javier at hotelcasarosada put together a custon tour for my group. I'm sure many people will benefit from your review.

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Linda-B

Linda-B

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I have read that NCL Sun has a weight limit for some trips in Santo Tomas de Castillo. Does anyone know what that weight limit is?

Does Gus or Happy Fish have a weight limit for their tours?

We are a group of 4 and the men are over 200lbs.

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  • 1 month later...
sueshi83

sueshi83

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Just returned from our NCL Sun (02/25) cruise and I'd like to personally thank Justin and Javier for the best excursion (private or ship) of the trip. DH and I had the greatest time. Our fave part was swimming in the cave pool. And it was just the 10 of us for the whole day. No crowds or long waits. Thanks again for the awesome time.

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  • 1 month later...
mrleo33

mrleo33

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We really enjoyed the our tour in Guatemala. It was absolutely terrific! We booked it with Javier Putul the owner of Hotel Casa Rosada in Livingston. He picked us up in the port and was just a very soft-spoken, articulate, gentleman. We toured the Rio Dulce, Rio Tatin Thermal hot springs and the Ak Tenamit Project where local people make handcrafted items and sell them. He fed us a great lunch at his hotel and I could have spent a week with him exploring the area. I felt as though I was on an expedition of the Amazon with National Geographic. It was a great experience for all of us, young and old alike. Do bring something for the children, either candy and/or school supplies. This is a very poor country, but it does have its treasures.

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  • 2 months later...

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