Livingston: The Other Side of Guatemala


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Last Updated on January 7, 2022 by Audrey Scott

Descendants of shipwrecked slaves from Nigeria; Jerry Garcia's rumored Caribbean seaside bungalow hideout; warrior dances (see video below) and turtle shell drums; echoes of an accented pigeon pidgin English that smacks of Jamaica; and a remarkable coconut seafood soup called tapado.

This is Livingston, home of the Garifuna. This is the other side of Guatemala.

Garifuna Music and Dancing - Livingston, Guatemala
A family affair at Rasta Mesa.

Who Are the Garifuna?

No story puts a finer point on Guatemala's diversity and complicated history than the one tracing the arrival of the Garifuna in Livingston.

The Garifuna (or Black Caribs, as they are sometimes referred to) trace their roots back to St. Vincent, an island in the eastern Caribbean. In 1635, two Spanish slave ships from Nigeria shipwrecked there. The slaves mixed with the locals indigenous Caribs and a new culture defined by both West African and Caribbean features and traditions emerged.

In the late 18th century, the British deported the Garifuna population to the island of Roatan (Honduras). The Spanish also got involved, moving Garifuna populations further along the Honduran coast to Trujillo and into parts of Belize. In the early 1800s, Garifuna moved from Belize into what is now Guatemala and set up the town of Livingston.

Almost two hundred years later, the Garifuna continue to maintain their traditions and speak their own Arawak language in Caribbean coastal towns in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Livingston Today

An older Garifuna man explained to us:

When I was a kid, it was all Garifuna people here in Livingston. Each time a Guatemalan arrived by boat, we'd go down to the dock for a look. Guatemalans, they were a novelty.

Then, Guatemalans began to arrive during the war. This area was safe; there was no fighting here. Guatemalans sold everything in their villages and used the money to buy up buildings from people like my parents and set up businesses.

I blame my parent's generation for selling our buildings, but the current generation won't invest in our future; they want everything immediately.

Main Street - Livingston, Guatemala
Main Street in Livingston

When you arrive in Livingston by boat, you'll notice all the shops and restaurants that line the main streets are owned by Guatemalans (and a few Chinese). The Garifuna have been relegated to the side streets, the edges of town. They live along the shore.

But it's the Garifuna culture that sells in Livingston. All restaurants offer tapado – a Garifuna coconut-based soup chock full of seafood and shellfish. A few offer Garifuna music and dance demonstrations to boatloads of day-trippers.

Rasta Mesa in Livingston

We dropped by Rasta Mesa, one of the few Garifuna-owned places, one late afternoon after a visit to the local cemetery on the edge of town. A restaurant-cum-cutural center, Rasta Mesa features evening shows to educate travelers on Garifuna culture and music, while at the same time passing on traditions to children in the Garifuna community. The owners have plans to expand their project into an organic community farm and a Garifuna cultural education center. It's not your typical business plan.

In the evening, a group of Garifuna musicians gathered with bongo drums, conch shell horns, turtle shell drums and maracas. Some kids got into the action, dancing and singing away.

The best way to describe this scene? Watch the video below…and make sure you catch the warrior dance at the end.

Watch the video of Garifuna music and dance

Jerry Garcia's Footprint?

The same man who waxed long about the changes in Livingston over his lifetime shared another little nugget: Jerry Garcia once owned a house (Casa Garcia, of course) on Livingston's Caribbean shoreside and played with local musicians. He also gave our storyteller his first guitar and sponsored his education at the University of Illinois.

While we haven't been able to confirm any of this, we still enjoy the image of Jerry Garcia jamming with a group of Garifuna musicians in this little town on the Caribbean coast of Guatemala.

Myth becomes truth, stories become reality. In Livingston, you're never really sure what to believe.

That's part of its charm.

View more photos from Rio Dulce and Livingston

Travel Information for Livingston, Guatemala

How to get there: Livingston is only accessible by boat. Take a boat from Rio Dulce ($10-$12) or from Puerto Barrios ($5).

Where to stay: Hotel Rios Tropicales on the main road across from the municipality has simple rooms with hammocks outside in a cute courtyard. Perhaps most importantly, it has the strongest wifi signal in all of Guatemala. A double room with shared bath is 100Q ($12). Contact info: [email protected] or 502-794701558

Where to eat: A lot of the restaurants offer the same menu. Here's our “best of” list from the week we spent in Livingston:

  • Best Tapado: Antojitos Gaby has excellent and inexpensive tapado (65Q or $8). The bowl is loaded with seafood – fish, crab, mollusks, conch, sea snails and shrimp – and is more than enough for two people to share.
  • Best Grilled Prawns: Restaurante TiburĂłn Gato, on the main strip, serves up delicious grilled giant garlic prawns.
  • Best Shrimp Quesadilla with Roasted Tomato Salsa: The menu at Tilingo Lingo doesn't list this dish, but you can ask for it from Maria, the self-proclaimed “only Mexican in Livingston.” Absolutely delicious. Also on the menu: Indian food (Maria lived in Calcutta for a few years), pizzas, burritos, and stand-up Turkish style coffee. Tilingo Lingo is located at the end of the main road near the coast.
  • Cheapest Breakfast: Restaurante BahĂ­a Azul offers a typical “chapin desayuno” of refried beans, eggs, fried plantains, bread, coffee and juice for 15Q ($2).
About Audrey Scott
Audrey Scott is a writer, storyteller, speaker and tourism development consultant. She aims to help turn people's fears into curiosity and connection. She harbors an obsession for artichokes and can bake a devastating pan of brownies. You can keep up with her adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. And you can learn more about her on the About Page and on LinkedIn.

19 thoughts on “Livingston: The Other Side of Guatemala”

  1. Are there pictures of Jerry just hangin’ around town?

    On a different note, you can have “Practical Details” as part of the podcast as well…It can be a segment.

    Reply
  2. Very interesting post abt the Garifuna, which I had heard about but knew little about. I wanted to let you know that I just gave you a One Lovely Blog award.

    Reply
  3. Another great post. I had not heard of Garifuna. I read Mitchner’s Carribean recently and was fascinated by the movements of people in the region.
    It looks like there is a statue in the background of the picture of the boat with the bird in your slide. Do you know what that is?

    Reply
  4. @Dave: Photos of Jerry…probably on eBay.
    “Practical Details” could be the stuff of a travel-oriented podcast. We don’t want to focus on travel logistics, however. We just offer them as an aside because they are quick to publish and are tailored for Google searches.
    @Travelogged: Thanks for the award. Glad that you enjoy the site.
    @Pete: Great to hear from you. Audrey and I were wondering aloud about you the other day…wondering whether everything was OK. Livingston and the Caribbean side of Guatemala was a surprise for us. As for the statue in the water, not sure. Perhaps a boat captain…maybe one who went out to sea and never returned. Would definitely fit Livingston if it were.
    @Bill: Many thanks. Sloppy oversight on our part. Makes for a humorous strikeout, however. We are firing our editor tout de suite.

    Reply
  5. I absolutely enjoyed the brief history lesson there. The list of eateries on your Practicalities section seem like they’ve been “well-researched” (aka eaten) by you two

    Reply
  6. Great post! There are lots of stories like that about people of African descent in Central and South America. Nobody wanted them around and they are part of the local society today, but more so on the outside looking in.

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  7. Enjoyed the history expanation too. Great also both of the videos. Also nice to see and hear you guys “in motion”. Keep well!

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  8. @brian: The African cultural influence on Central and South America definitely adds another dimension to the region.
    @jen: Eating is important to us. Food (and the way it is eaten) says a lot about a culture.
    @blaz: Thanks. We figure we ought to provide some proof that we alive…from time to time.

    Reply
  9. @Mike: Thanks for clarifying. The language spoken amongst the Garifuna is their own language that is an Arawak language. The language spoken with tourists like us is a sort of pidgen English. We’ve made the clarification above.

    Reply
  10. The language is not a pidgin English it is a full language called Garifuna. It is an Arawak language which was spoken by the Carribean Indians who first lived in Cuba, St. Vincent, and the rest of the area. In fact the garifuna people are as much if not more an indigenous people as they are African.

    Reply
  11. Hey you guys,
    Thanks for the nice article about livingston and Rasta Mesa. We hope you enjoyed your time, and it was fun to see the video. Take care, Amanda and Mega

    Reply
  12. @Amanda and Mega: Glad you enjoyed the article! We certainly enjoyed our time at Rasta Mesa with you and the other musicians. Good luck with all the great plans to expand your business and get more involved with the community!

    Reply
  13. The guy who told you the Jerry Garcia stories must have been Polo. Does that name sound familiar? He told me the same stories in 2009, when I passed through Livingston on a bicycle tour of Central America. He certainly was a likeable guy, and whether or not his stories were true, I enjoyed hearing them. One of the things he told me was that he was a musician himself and that Garcia had invited him to tour with him in California once. I asked him which towns he performed in, thinking this would trip him up if the story wasn’t true. He named a few smallish towns (Oxnard and Lompoc, to name a couple) that I didn’t think most local Guatemalans would have heard of, so that peaked my interest. I still have no idea if what he said was true, but it was an enjoyable moment in time for me anyway. That’s the great thing about traveling – moments like that live in my memory forever, whereas days, weeks and months all blur together at home.

    Reply
    • Leo, thanks for sharing your experiences in Livingston. Although I don’t remember the name exactly, your description of Polo does sound right. Like you said, I’m not entirely sure that everything we were told was 100% true, but I imagine some parts were and it makes for a good story 🙂

      Reply
      • Funny enough, I think I met Polo who told us all about how he knew Jerry Garcia back when I visited Livingston in 2016. I was just listening to a Grateful Dead song and thought of him. Pretty fun story, even it if it probably is apocryphal. Great blog, makes me want to visit this town again!

        Reply
  14. This is a great writeup with history, respect for local culture, and real foodie experience. Thank you. Specifically, it helped me relay to someone about the music there. I visited Livingston in 2009 as well so I have forgotten a bit of the details.

    Reply
    • Livingston is a really unique and special place. We’re glad our article brought back good memories and helped in sharing some stories from your earlier visit there.

      Reply

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