Santo Tomas de Castilla, GTM

[ourbreaktime]

We are considering a cruise in Dec/Jan that stops here and we haven't seen much on what to do. We do realize it's not the safest port to visit, but I speak fluent Spanish and we've never booked a shore excursion with the ship in the 7 cruises we've taken. Any suggestions on what not to miss at Santo Tomas de Castilla would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Karen and Doug

[flapr]

Karen & Doug,

 

Are you folks considering the Veendam out of Tampa this year or next? We are booked on the 10/28/06 sailing, and the main reason we chose this itinerary is because it calls in Guatemala and Belize.

 

I am hispanic, so the language is not a problem. Like you, we prefer to book our own port tours, and only book ship excursions when security becomes a major concern. Since our cruise is about a year away, I haven't done much research. From what I know, the political situation in Guatemala is relatively stable; however, there is a problem with violent guerilla activities in certain parts of the country. Due to poor economic conditions, there is also a lot of social unrest that forces the poor masses to turn to petty crime to survive. I have also heard the same about Belize.

 

Jose & Linda

[Beachbum1944]

This was stop #2 at Santo Tomas De Castillo. Here we had planned to go to Amatique Bay Resort on our own. From the ship we noticed the water was brown and kind of murky. We were at a working port. It wasn't the typical blue/green of the Caribbean. When we got off the ship there was a covered walkway to an enclosed market. If you walk to your right there are tour people selling tours and water taxi rides. There are also a bunch of tour guides inside the building. When we spoke to someone about a water taxi to Amatique Bay Resort, they suggested a better place to go to for less money. They said Amatiqe Bay Resort had a muddy bottom. They suggested we go to "Siete Altares", which is a series of 7 waterfalls, 1 above the other. Price was $25 each, provided there are 10 people on the boat. This sounded good to us, and there were easily 20 other people looking to do something (many CC friends). Off we went! This waterfall was something I had originally looked into, so I was very happy. We had Freddy and Anthony as our guides. It was about a 1 hour water water taxi ride. We passed the town of Livingston on the way, along with some rustic homes along the banks of AmatiqueBay. Well worth the ride. When we got there, it cost $1.50 per person to enter the falls. This is a MUST tour to take. Beautiful waterfalls with a pool of fresh cool water under each waterfall. Make sure you have good water type shoes on, because you are walking in the water and on small and big rocks. This can be handled by most any age unless you have walking problems. You can climb as far up as you want. Some of us went to the top or 7th waterfall. This is where the payoff comes. Here is the biggest waterfall of them all and the largest pool below. You can climb to the top of the waterfall and dive in, as some of us did. Or you can just walk in. You can also sit under the cascading water. Freddy took some pictures for us. After this we walked back down, got on the water taxi and went to a restaurant a little ways back to have lunch. This was pay as you go. I had the chicken which was just okay, but my wife had the shrimp, which she said was very good. Somebody else had a whole fish which he said was very good. When we left there, we were going to stop at Livingston for 1 hour, but we had boat problems for a little while. We didn't get to see Livingston, but we were back at the port by 4:30 and were able to shop for a while. Very inexpensive shopping inside at the port and a nice local dancing show. They had some real nice local crafts, coffee, silver and jade, the usual t-shirts, and lots of other stuff. The people we met there were great, very friendly and happy to have us there. When we were back on the ship, at sailing time, all the taxis lined up, blinking their lights, blowing their horns and giving us a wonderful good-by. The tour operators and children waved goodbye. They had a band playing. It was the nicest sendoff I have ever seen. They are very happy to have the cruise ships come in. They only get a couple ships every few weeks. Don't be afraid to get off the ship and take a tour. You won't regret it.:cool:

[SV-650-Girl]

Thanks for the great info. We're going in March and this is the one port we weren't sure about. Originally we were going to Amatique Bay Resort but after reading some other reviews we decided to try something else. The waterfalls sound like a great adventure!

 

Pamela

[HERKIMER417]

Great review on Santo Tomas

 

One of the CC group from Veendam has been doing a lot of lead work trying to find stuff in Santo Tomas. This certainly helps add to the information que.

 

A couple of questions;

Do you remember the name of the tour group you took?

You mentioned coming back at 4:30 - what time did they leave?

Who much time did you actually spend at the falls?

Did you go all the way by boat or was other transportation needed ?

 

Different topic - I noticed on other posts, that time zones seem to be a problem. Mexico is on Central and the ship and the US may be on Eastern. Was this a problem?

 

It does some great

Jack

[Zeno]

Lovely review beachbum!

I am dying of envy. We went to Amatique bay - which was OK but nowhere near as interesting as what you did.

[TooEze]

We were in the same cruise critics group as these guys on the Jan 28th Sun. What a great bunch of people, we've never met people the way we did on this cruise and it was all because of the roll call board (Thanks to Joyce and Tim, and CruisinJim). We did the Livingston and Rio Dulce tour with a man named Gus, from inside the market area. He had lived in Guatemala until he was a teenager, and then lived in New York for forty years. He has come back to run a hotel and eco tours, and to help develop the Livingston tourism to North American standards. He was a very interesting and well informed man. The cost for about a 5 to 6 hour tour was $45 for my wife and I, and $25 for our 13 yr old daughter, which included lunch. It's about a 25 minute launcha ride to the town of Livingston. You stop at the Hotel Gus runs and have time for a bathroom break (extremely clean, better than most at home) and you order your lunch. Choice was excellent with shrimp, sea bass, steak and I believe chicken). You then get back in the launcha and go on a 2 hour tour of the Rio Dulce. I won't go into all the details on this, other than to say that it was one of the most incredible places I've ever seen, and you only have time to see a small fraction of it. If you have ever seen the movie Apocalypse Now, that's what it reminded me of. We also went on about a 40 minute jungle walk, which was fascinating, not many bugs but bring some spray to be safe. It was then back to Gus's restaurant for a very nice lunch that included beer, soft drinks and juices. After lunch they brought in a Garafuna Group that did about a 15 or 20 minute show, after which they passed a hat. It was interesting to see this culture of African slaves that have settled in this area. We then went on about a thirty minute walking tour through the town of Livingston which was quite amazing. It gives you a perspective on how lucky we really are in our nice cushy lives. Then it was the nice launcha ride back to the ship. We really lucked out with the ports of call on this ship. We had a great day on the beach in Costa Maya and got to know Paul and Mary Ann. We had the most amazing grilled lobster and a whole red snapper at El Faro on the beach in Mahajual. The best meal I had all week. Then Guatemala was a wonderful day with Gus. The next day was Belize, where we went horseback riding with Trevor Miles and his wife Cathy from Smugglers Run. This couple made the three of us feel like part of the familly. I cannot say what an incredible day this was. And then a great lunch at Panchos Backyard in Cozumel and finish the day off with a little dancing at Carlos and Charlies. All in all four great days back to back. I envy any of you who are going on this Western trip on the Sun. Anyone has any questions about Guatemala, I'd be more than happy to try to help. You get so much more out of your shore excursions if you are well informed. And again so nice to have met everyone from our cruise critics group.

 

Regards John, Tracy and Jade

[Beachbum1944]

Great review on Santo Tomas

 

One of the CC group from Veendam has been doing a lot of lead work trying to find stuff in Santo Tomas. This certainly helps add to the information que.

 

A couple of questions;

Do you remember the name of the tour group you took?

You mentioned coming back at 4:30 - what time did they leave?

Who much time did you actually spend at the falls?

Did you go all the way by boat or was other transportation needed ?

 

Different topic - I noticed on other posts, that time zones seem to be a problem. Mexico is on Central and the ship and the US may be on Eastern. Was this a problem?

 

It does some great

Jack

 

I don't remember the name of the tour group, but if you walk to the far right as you get off the ship, you will see signs and a few tour operators. Just ask for Anthony and/or Freddie who runs the tour to Siete Altares. You will need to gather 20 people to get the $25 per person rate. The boat ride took about 1 hour each way. Originally it was going to be a 4 hour trip, but then they decided to add another hour so we could stop at Livingston. They will try to accomadate everybody. You tell them what time you want to get back and they will do it for you. We spent about 1 1/2-2 hours at the falls. If nobody goes to the top, you might spend less time. Make sure you go to the top, you won't be sorry.

 

On our ship we changed our time 1 hour to match all the stops. We changed the time on the at sea day. That way everybody was on the same time.

[Beachbum1944]

We were in the same cruise critics group as these guys on the Jan 28th Sun. What a great bunch of people, we've never met people the way we did on this cruise and it was all because of the roll call board (Thanks to Joyce and Tim, and CruisinJim). We did the Livingston and Rio Dulce tour with a man named Gus, from inside the market area. He had lived in Guatemala until he was a teenager, and then lived in New York for forty years. He has come back to run a hotel and eco tours, and to help develop the Livingston tourism to North American standards. He was a very interesting and well informed man. The cost for about a 5 to 6 hour tour was $45 for my wife and I, and $25 for our 13 yr old daughter, which included lunch. It's about a 25 minute launcha ride to the town of Livingston. You stop at the Hotel Gus runs and have time for a bathroom break (extremely clean, better than most at home) and you order your lunch. Choice was excellent with shrimp, sea bass, steak and I believe chicken). You then get back in the launcha and go on a 2 hour tour of the Rio Dulce. I won't go into all the details on this, other than to say that it was one of the most incredible places I've ever seen, and you only have time to see a small fraction of it. If you have ever seen the movie Apocalypse Now, that's what it reminded me of. We also went on about a 40 minute jungle walk, which was fascinating, not many bugs but bring some spray to be safe. It was then back to Gus's restaurant for a very nice lunch that included beer, soft drinks and juices. After lunch they brought in a Garafuna Group that did about a 15 or 20 minute show, after which they passed a hat. It was interesting to see this culture of African slaves that have settled in this area. We then went on about a thirty minute walking tour through the town of Livingston which was quite amazing. It gives you a perspective on how lucky we really are in our nice cushy lives. Then it was the nice launcha ride back to the ship. We really lucked out with the ports of call on this ship. We had a great day on the beach in Costa Maya and got to know Paul and Mary Ann. We had the most amazing grilled lobster and a whole red snapper at El Faro on the beach in Mahajual. The best meal I had all week. Then Guatemala was a wonderful day with Gus. The next day was Belize, where we went horseback riding with Trevor Miles and his wife Cathy from Smugglers Run. This couple made the three of us feel like part of the familly. I cannot say what an incredible day this was. And then a great lunch at Panchos Backyard in Cozumel and finish the day off with a little dancing at Carlos and Charlies. All in all four great days back to back. I envy any of you who are going on this Western trip on the Sun. Anyone has any questions about Guatemala, I'd be more than happy to try to help. You get so much more out of your shore excursions if you are well informed. And again so nice to have met everyone from our cruise critics group.

 

Regards John, Tracy and Jade

 

Hey John, Tracy, and Jade,

 

It was really fun meeting up you guys. I have to agree with you about Guatemala. Don't let the sight of the dock discourage you from getting out and seeing a part of Guatemala. Based on our trip and what we heard from others you should get out and explore. Hope to see you again.:)

[HERKIMER417]

Thanks to both Beachbum and Tooeze

 

It sounds like you both had a very good time with different excursions and great memories.

 

I'll be arriving in many of the same ports in March, traveling on the Veendam.

 

Santo Tomas has been a real dark horse. You folks seem to be the first to give an "on sight" review and posting. I may be nuts but I'll trust your review more than any web site or official ship review.

 

Thanks again

Jack

[passaporta]

Thank you guys for the great reviews & info. We're on the Sun Feb 25th. Can't wait.

[Digs11]

Hi Guys,

Great review, sounds like just what I'm looking for in Santo Tomas, is there

any way to get ahold of Gus prior to arrival ? If not we'll do what you did

and hope he's available.

 

Thanks again,

Jim & Vonda

[TooEze]

The hotel that they took us to in Livingston was the Posada El Delphin. I believe you can get a hold of Gus at this e-mail. eldelfin@turcios.com

 

Regards John

[monicajay]

Thank you Tooeze,

 

I had already tracked down Gus from your review (wonders of Google) and have reserved with Gus. It seems his tour is now $55.00 for adults and $25.00 for kids. I have booked for myself and family (4) and have posted the info on my rollcall 6 others have already signed up and others are thinking about it.

 

This is all thanks to your review and the CC boards. I was very sad when NCL changed for Guatemala and cancelled Roatan but I am now happy to be visiting a less explored part of the world.

 

I had meant to thank-you for your post but got caught up on the back and forth e-mails with Gus and others on my roll-call board.

 

I will post my own review after our excursion on the 28th of Feb.

 

His tour is described as follows:

 

10: 00 ? 10:30 am Departure from Cruise Terminal to Livingston ? 20 minutes -

this short trip takes you along the shoreline were you will see the San Hill

mountain and the villas of the coast.

 

11:00 am ? arriving at Posada el Delfin in Livingston were you will be taking

your lunch order.

 

11:15 am. Departure to the hanging gardens of the canyon of Rio Dulce this is

a lazy river with 300 feet walls full of jungle vegetation. While at the

canyon we will visit the water springs and be able to see the ?Cows Cave? and

the ?Pioneers Wall?

.

12:00 pm. We will enter Rio Tatin Creek and visit the Ak-Tenamit School

inside the jungle. We will see the Maya Indians manufacturing art crafts and

you will interact with kids from the school that are learning about the tourist

industry. A Maya Ketchi guide will take us into the jungle for a 5 minute tour

to learn about medicinal plants from the area. ( if you don?t feel like

walking into the jungle and visit the school, you will have time to swim in the

crystal clear waters of Rio Tatin). Before leaving the Ak-Tenamit, we will

visit the store were you can buy souvenirs.

 

12:45 pm Departure Rio Tatin and visit the Hot Water Springs and the ?Lake of

the Lilies?

 

1:30 pm Lunch at Posada El Delfin we you will be able to taste one of the

following:

Catch of the Day

Sea Bass

Chicken or steak ? all with a complimentary soft drink, beer or a glass

of wine.

 

2:15 pm ? You will learn to dance ?Punta? the Garifuna dance, and be

entertained with Folkloric African Ballet.

 

2:30 pm - We will take a ?cititour? in the Villa visiting the Fish Market,

Main Street and the ?Iguana Sanctuary?

 

3:30 pm - Back to the Cruise Terminal

 

4:00 pm - End of the tour. Until next time!

 

Monica

[TooEze]

My wife corrects me, your right it was $55, so sorry for the mistake. You won't be sorry though, Gus was well worth the money we spent. It was one of those truly special excursions you get once in a while. Royal Carribean says "Get out There", well this is definately out there. Have a great time.

 

Regards John

[Beachbum1944]

TooEze, could you send me your e-mail address? I have a picture for you.

[crimmft]

We were in the same cruise critics group as these guys on the Jan 28th Sun. What a great bunch of people, we've never met people the way we did on this cruise and it was all because of the roll call board (Thanks to Joyce and Tim, and CruisinJim). We did the Livingston and Rio Dulce tour with a man named Gus, from inside the market area. He had lived in Guatemala until he was a teenager, and then lived in New York for forty years. He has come back to run a hotel and eco tours, and to help develop the Livingston tourism to North American standards. He was a very interesting and well informed man. The cost for about a 5 to 6 hour tour was $45 for my wife and I, and $25 for our 13 yr old daughter, which included lunch. It's about a 25 minute launcha ride to the town of Livingston. You stop at the Hotel Gus runs and have time for a bathroom break (extremely clean, better than most at home) and you order your lunch. Choice was excellent with shrimp, sea bass, steak and I believe chicken). You then get back in the launcha and go on a 2 hour tour of the Rio Dulce. I won't go into all the details on this, other than to say that it was one of the most incredible places I've ever seen, and you only have time to see a small fraction of it. If you have ever seen the movie Apocalypse Now, that's what it reminded me of. We also went on about a 40 minute jungle walk, which was fascinating, not many bugs but bring some spray to be safe. It was then back to Gus's restaurant for a very nice lunch that included beer, soft drinks and juices. After lunch they brought in a Garafuna Group that did about a 15 or 20 minute show, after which they passed a hat. It was interesting to see this culture of African slaves that have settled in this area. We then went on about a thirty minute walking tour through the town of Livingston which was quite amazing. It gives you a perspective on how lucky we really are in our nice cushy lives. Then it was the nice launcha ride back to the ship. We really lucked out with the ports of call on this ship. We had a great day on the beach in Costa Maya and got to know Paul and Mary Ann. We had the most amazing grilled lobster and a whole red snapper at El Faro on the beach in Mahajual. The best meal I had all week. Then Guatemala was a wonderful day with Gus. The next day was Belize, where we went horseback riding with Trevor Miles and his wife Cathy from Smugglers Run. This couple made the three of us feel like part of the familly. I cannot say what an incredible day this was. And then a great lunch at Panchos Backyard in Cozumel and finish the day off with a little dancing at Carlos and Charlies. All in all four great days back to back. I envy any of you who are going on this Western trip on the Sun. Anyone has any questions about Guatemala, I'd be more than happy to try to help. You get so much more out of your shore excursions if you are well informed. And again so nice to have met everyone from our cruise critics group.

 

Regards John, Tracy and Jade

 

Hi Tooez: We really enjoyed meeting you all. Many thanks for the Xtabentun at Costa Maya. Heard you a little under the weather the last day or so. Glad to see you recovered. Hope we meet up in the future.

 

Fran & Joy

[TooEze]

Hi Fran & Joy, thanks for helping make this our best cruise ever for meeting people. There were so many nice people that we met through the cruisecritic group. You just can't beat Mahajual for a true Mexican day at the beach, and add in the great company we had that day, a true day in paradise. That Xtabentun is such a nice smooth shot, I can't believe those guys on the Yucatan don't give you the first one for free. Most people on vacation down there have no idea it exists, they drink tequilla instead, which is great but this stuff is much milder. So I'm glad you enjoyed it and I hope we cruise together again some day.

 

Regards John

[flashdog_1]

Gus' tour sounds great, but gathering 30 people to be able to do it is a stumbling block for me. Unless you have a very active roll call or walk ups, I can see where there might be a delay in getting off on the tour. Plus, herding 30 people on a boat would be more cumbersome than having a smaller, easier to get together, group of 2-10 people.

 

For this reason i am going to use Hotel Casa Rosada, the hotel next to Gus' in Livingston. So far we have only 4 from our roll call, and we will split the cost of a minimum of 7 passengers. The owner there says he likes to limit the number to 8-10 people. I like the idea of a smaller, more intimate group where we will feel free to ask more questions, have the option of stopping or bypassing a locale etc. For the future, because of gas price increases, he is charging $350 for a boat load (if you had 10, $35 each) and the cost would be split equally among the passengers. And we pay for our lunches separately. Choices are lobster, catch of the day, shrimp and Tapado, the local cuisine of shell fish with banana and coconut milk. I have emailed him asking the prices for those dishes.

 

He took a tour group from Norweigan Sun last Tuesday and said they got back to Puerto Barrios at 4.

 

He has been a pleasure to communicate with. He seems an honorable businessman, and I've read favorable reviews on trip advisor about his hotel and the food at the restaurant.

 

Hotelcasarosada.com

[TooEze]

Hello Phylis, I think I'm misunderstanding something here. When we went on this tour, there were 11 people on the launcha. It was the perfect number of people for a nice personalized tour. I don't know if Gus has told you 30 people, but that wasn't the case when we went. I've talked to him since we've been back a couple of times, so he's very easy to get information from. I would think he would let you reserve what ever number you want for your own party and then fill out the rest of the boat with others off the ship. The boat would have held a maximum of about 15, so tell him you are concerned about too big a group and see what he says.

 

Regards John

[flashdog_1]

TooEze

I'm referring to Tuesday, valentine's day, I guess where gus had a larger group and Hotel Casa Rosada had only 6, not your group the week before. Apparently the launcha/hotel people are realizing they will have much more business from the cruise ships than originally thought, so are using larger equipment.????

 

It's so hard to get prior information on the things around Livingston that we really don't know what to ask that we do. I clicked a link and found an ad for a hotel, I guess it was, but something in the ad made me think it might be something more, so asked about it:

PHYLLIS escribió:

I just saw this on a link you sent me about Livingston. Is it just a hotel etc? Or is it anything the Qeqchi are proud of and we need to see? thanks, Phyllis

 

*Centro Cultural Maya Qeqchi* DID YOU ALL SEE THIS PLACE?

 

It is a hotel, & they also have a souvenir shop managed by an NGO, like Ak Tenamit. This is around the lagoon areas, so if you like to have a look we can stop there, because it is on our way.

kind regards, Javier Putul.

 

So evidently, these tours we are booking independently can do whatever we want to do, within time constraints, of course. We just don't know what to ask for! It feels good to be more or less a pioneer in discovering the Livingston area and being able to report back to the cruisers.

 

So any of you who venture out on your own, please let us know what you see and like that has not been mentioned. We are trying to gather information!

 

Heretofore, the tourists who visit Lake Isabal and Livingston are, for the most part, independent travelers, either on their way to Tikal or Belize, by bus or boat, or staying in the hotels there for peaceful activities on the Lake, which, unfortunately, because of limited time, none of us cruisers will get to see. I've looked at some of the websites and it does look like an area where you could find peace.

[tennisgirl27]

DH and I just returned from our honeymoon cruise yesterday and I just wanted to post our review on the Quirigua Ruins and Rio Dulce River cruise tour. (We did it through NCL for a cost of around $120 each).

 

Because of the lack of info for this port we booked through the cruise line. I feel the cost was worth it because the tour lasted all day with lunch included. Here's a brief run down and my thoughts...

 

Started off on a 1+ hour bus ride through the countryside to the ruins. The bus was decent and the tour guide (Jaime) talked the whole time!! Although his english wasn't great and he randomly babbled about stuff, there was some really informative background info about the culture etc. The ride to the ruins was very scenic and we saw many "villages", housing types, farms, scenery etc. It was nice.

 

As you enter the ruins area, you drive through a banana plantation (actually the ruins are surrounded by these). Pretty interesting.

 

At the ruins site there are decent washroom facilities and a few vendors selling goods. If you take this tour this is the only chance you will get to shop, so take the chance!

 

These ruins consist of a number of stellae (kind of like rock totem poles) and an acropolis. I've been to Tulum and although these are no where near as big and numerous, I found this site interesting. My DH and I chose to wander on our own as our guide was giving way too much info on each formation and we chose to go and take photos before everyone else got to the acropolis. The site was very moist and I recommend bug repellant. You are able to climb up the acropolis--that was cool.

 

We wandered back to the vendors before the crowds did and I picked up a nice peice of textile for under $5. They sell a lot of table runners, placemats, some masks etc.

 

When we were there, there were four other large tour buses, so it can get quite crowded. We were at the ruins for about 1.5 hours in total before getting back on the bus.

 

We drove for about 45 minutes to our lunch stop. On the way, more countryside (I saw some pineapple farms) and they stopped on the bridge over the Rio Dulce for pictures.

 

For lunch and boarding the river boat we went to the Banana Palms Resort & Marina--you can google it to see pics. This resort was gorgeous! Lunch was a buffet consisting of soup, chicken lasagna, fish, salad, salsa, breads, rice, veggies and an apple cake for dessert. I found this food better than what was offered on the lunch buffet on our ship! We were able to buy beer etc. for a few dollars.

 

After lunch we boarded a boat (kind of like a ferry style tender boat) for our supposed 3 hour boat ride back to the ship. On the boat ride we sailed past a cool castle and saw some amazing river side homes and people fishing etc.

 

IMO, about one hour of this cruise was interesting. The rest BORING. The boat is really loud and several times you are sailing in large lakes with really nothing to look at. I recommend bringing a book or something to do for these periods. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful and interesting in spots but I was just bored for a few hours. Plus, this cruise ended up taking about 4 hours and we arrived at the ship at 5:45 pm (supposed to be on board by 5:30). It was a ship excursion so we weren't worried about it.) It was a LONNNGGGG day!

 

So in summary, I do recommend this tour, but just bring a book or something for the not so exciting sailing times and also a pair of ear plugs would make the cruise a little more bearable.

 

Remember to shop at the ruins because you will not get back to the pier in time to shop.

[flashdog_1]

Thanks so much for your review. Your writing will help lots of people decide what to do when in Santo Tomas.

[duanegrandpa]

Tennisgirl27,

 

Thanks for your review. My wife and I are cruising on the Norwegian Sun embarking 3/25, and we have booked this shore excursion, so I was eager to read about it. A couple questions just to clarify:

 

1. From the Banana Palms Resort, did you take the boat all the way back to the port at Santo Tomas? So, through the full Rio Dulce, past Livingston, into Amatique Bay and back to the ship? Thanks what it sounds like from your review. Or did you boat to another location, pick up a bus and ride back?

 

2. About how many people from the ship took the excursion? I was wondering if many do because it takes so long.

 

3. The length you describe is longer than the 7 and 3/4 hours described in NCL literature.

 

4. Lunch is included? Yes?

 

Thanks again. Best wishes on your new marriage.

[tennisgirl27]

1. From the Banana Palms Resort, did you take the boat all the way back to the port at Santo Tomas? So, through the full Rio Dulce, past Livingston, into Amatique Bay and back to the ship? Thanks what it sounds like from your review. Or did you boat to another location, pick up a bus and ride back?

 

You take the boat the entire way back from Lake Izabal (the resort is on the lake) along the entire Rio Dulce and back to the ship (they pull the boat up right behind the cruiseship at the dock). You sail past Castillo de San Felipe, into the Rio Dulce and into the canyon. As for Livingston and Amatique Bay I'm not really sure because it is really LOUD on the boat and I couldn't hear the guides very well. If you google Rio Dulce or Banana Palms resort you will see the map of the Lake and the river and get a better idea of where you go.

 

2. About how many people from the ship took the excursion? I was wondering if many do.

 

There were two charter buses on our excursion (ours wasn't full). The boat seemed pretty full, I would estimate between 50 to 85 people in total??

 

3. The length you describe is longer than the 7 and 3/4 hours described in NCL literature.

 

We were late docking in Santo Tomas. I think we ended up leaving the port by about 9 and didn't return until 5:45 pm. It was more than the time listed. My husband told me the boat cruise lasted almost 4 hours but I wasn't wearing a watch so I have no idea.

 

4. Lunch is included? Yes?

 

Yes a great lunch was included (better that the buffets on the ship LOL!) with a non alcoholic beverage. Beer and other drinks were available for a few dollars American.

 

Hope this helps. I really enjoyed the tour but like I said, I would have liked a book to read for some of the boat part. The scenery is breathtaking in spots. I found this web site with some pictures to give you an idea what it looks like: http://www.eveandersson.com/guatemala/rio-dulce