Livingston has no road to it. Everything arrives by boat, and most of what there is to do leaves the same way: up the gorge to Río Dulce through the limestone walls, along the coast to the Siete Altares — a staircase of falls and pools in the forest — and out to Playa Blanca, the only white sand within reach.
The town itself is Garífuna, which makes it unlike anywhere else in Guatemala: a Caribbean creole town at the mouth of a Guatemalan river, with its own language, its own drumming and tapado, the coconut and seafood stew that is the thing to eat here.
The agencies on the main street also sell the international crossings — Punta Gorda in Belize, Omoa in Honduras — which run on demand rather than to a timetable.