I'm hoping Gatowoman can give me an opinion on this, although any advice is welcome. Last year she recommended using ship's tours in Santo Tomas. But there's a local operator, Gus (Gustavo), who does the Rio Dulce tour, visits the school project, then goes to Livingston for lunch with dance performance, etc. It's much like the ship's tour, but lots cheaper.

Lots of people in the Guatemala forum on CC think Gus's tour is great, and I've also seen a video of it on youtube.

Mostly I'm wondering if I'd be better off with the ship's tour, despite the hefty pricetag--the single big benefit that I see is a boat with 15 people instead of 25, and lunch in a different hotel (maybe better?) (The Regent concierge tour is called "Visit to Q'eqchi Indigenous River Community".)

Oh, and while I'm on the subject, should I worry about my stomach in places like Guatemala and Belize? Does the old Mexican dictum pertain, no peeled fruit or fresh vegetables, etc.?

Thanks for any thoughts on this.

[Karen, feel free to move this to Ports later.]

Wendy...while it was 3 years ago, our tour in Guatemala resulted in gastro distress for the entire group. None of us knew the others were ill until we were disembarking (we'd all be in our cabins for 2 days1) :(

It was a full day tour and they provided us with a box lunch - we decided it might have been the apple although most of us washed it with our bottle water. Who knows?????

That worries me for sure Margo. The ship's tour includes lunch in a hotel in Livingston. Not sure what we'd do about that. Maybe just eat something cooked??

Hey Wandra!

In terms of saftety and security I would always go with the ship tour...they are probably using a high-end local outfit such as Clark Tours and I would certainly feel 100% comfortable with them.

From what a saw with "Don Gus" he looks like a knowledgable guide, but somethings would make me ask a few questions e.g. where are the lifesavers on the boat? I saw a shot where they were behind the chairs (but couldn't tell if that was Gus' boat or not) and why weren't the people and the Guide wearing them? I actually knew someone who died in a drowing accident on a ferry from Rio Dulce to Livingston...it only looks safe until there is an emergency!. I'd just make sure they are readily available. Rio Dulce is VERY deep and unless people are proficient swimmers I would certainly wear the life saver, even if I looked dorky.

Otherwise it looks like a nice tour if you want to try him. The hokiest parts of the two videos was the region inappropriate music, what's wrong with good ol' marimba (or real Garifuna music, for that matter?).

Realize that unless you are in a town where they are actually celebrating a holiday or local patron saint feast (e.g. Christmas, New Years, Easter, Fat Tuesday, the yearly Fair etc. etc.) any "displays" of traditional dancing, etc. will be staged and put on as show to the visitors. I think the last video had a lot of "staged" stuff because the tour actually coincided with President Berger's visit...they got lucky. My guess is that unless they pay for a "cultural" hour of some sort or if my above mentioned holidays are in play, you won't be seeing this as part of the tour.

The food looked awesome! I read the Posada Delfin's menu and they actually had some of the local dishes, mainly tapado which is a fish stew made with local fish, cocounut milk and plantains. But as with any travel, I would not eat from any street vendors. The hotels look decent enough but I would err on the side of caution with fresh vegetables and fruit if you are nervous. Rather eat it fully cooked or packaged.

I think in Margo's case, if I recall the discussion at the time I was suspect about the sandwich from the boxed lunch they were given...if it sat in a hot car, that would do it. Bananas/oranges always better as your fresh fruit since you can easily peel them and dump the peel...apples pears and grapes...not so.

Hope this helps but let me know if you have any more questions :D

Thanks Luisa, good point about the life preservers, I admit I had not thought of that. Presumably the trip to Livingston from the port is over open water.

The Regent tour gives you a lunch at the Hotel Villa Caribe in Livingston. Can't see any menus for the restaurant, except "local cuisine".

Do you know anything about the Ak' Tenamit school up the river? Seems like people bring school supplies to give to the kids. I'm sure they are poor, but they must get awfully tired of getting pencils and pens from tourists. Or am I wrong?

I've heard about the Ak'Tenamit...they are actually of group of Mayan Indians from the Highlands that got displaced during the civil war and resettled in the area. They had to adapt to a warmner climate and more of a "caribbean" culture than what they were used to. Here is their website if you want to have a closer look

http://www.aktenamit.org/

I will say that hard candy (chocolate may melt unless you get a good stash coming from the Voyager in a cooler bag, lol!!) like Jolly Roger or such will go A LONG WAY and be rewarded with broad, happy smiles...it sounds like they may be covered in the "school list" area so agree, maybe pencils not the way to go.

I would email them ahead of time, maybe they have a special request that can be brought that would not be to big. Of course I think they would prefer a "sponsor a child" but like I said earlier, candy goes a long way in a lot of countries with the local children!!

Let me see if I can dig up intel on Hotel Villa Caribe...if they say they have "local specialities" that should include the tapado I mentioned, plus the famous "Pan de Coco" (coconut bread) they make there.

Hmm..well their website at www.villasdeguatemala.com not much help, other than what you said about the "local specialties"

That being said the picture of the "sample offerings" looks like they have a whole broiled "Mojarra" fish which is a local white fleshed fish from Rio Dulce (and very yummy!) served with a side of arroz y frijoles negros (rice and black beans). If they have it when you go, try it!

That's very interesting, thanks for the website. I'm betting you're right about the candy, although many of the tourists posting on Cruise Critic say it's deprecated. It's so tempting to lay our values on another culture--our kids get too much candy, but if it's a tremendous rare treat, then why not?

really?? Considering they are a self-sustaining community and don't get to the nearest town that often, I'm betting candy isn't something very accessbile...there fore it is a treat. UNLESS it happened in the past that someone passed on some bad candy to them and they don't want it anymore.

One of my favorite memories was in China, all these little kids surrounded me when they saw me eating a ferrero rocher and I had a few to spare... And we have certainly handed out Candy to the children of the folks who work on my parent's farm in Guatemala, no compliants!

Okay I saw the post where the poster stated "I saw some people bring Candy, which I thought was not a good idea..."

Why did he not think it was a good idea, I'm curious to know?

If anything, I would email Ak Tenamit just to make sure...but I'm willing to bet that Candy is a very precious treat out there.

By the way, for the record, would I use Gus if in Livingston with my family? Absolutely! But when recommending to friends/acquaintances traveling to Guate for the first time, I'll always recommend they do the high end operators. For my own peace of mind. Guatemala is absolutely one of most beautiful and culturally rich countries in the world, but I'm only too well aware of some of the problems...and I lived in Guate during the civil war! I'd rather people get acquainted with the country first and feel reasonably safe then they can make the judgement call next time.

On the other hand, Terry Breen may also have some great information for you. She actually worked a few years in Santo Tomas de Castilla with INGUAT (our national tourism board). I'd drop her an email!

As I said in PM, I think we've excluded "Gus" from consideration. Not because we're cautious, au contraire, my husband especially likes to get off the beaten track, and spent lots of time in Mexico back when it was kind of scary I guess (I've never been.)

It's the ersatz qualities (hoky-ness) that turn him off. We'll do the ship's tour or nothing.

There's also a tour to Mayan ruins that we could opt for (Quirigua Archaeological National Park). We might trade this for Lamanai in Belize which means we could snorkel in Belize.

If you haven't done a Mayan site before, do Quirigua, for sure. The tallest and best preserved stelaes in the Mayan World are there, as well as a couple of rare zoomorphic altars. It's smack in the middle of the Chiquita Banana plantation but its kinda charming to drive in and seeing the "cepas" of the bananas being "zip lined" around from one side to another.

I'm glad to hear you're doing the ship tour. If Gil and I had it to do over, I'm sure we'd both pick a ships tour this time around. To refresh, (I believe it was Gil's third or fourth post:
http://www.luxurycruisetalk.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=003882

Having spent six months of my college years in Mexico, I learned through first hand experience, what to eat and what not to eat. Having been in Santo Tomas, I'd say better safe than sorry. Like Gatowoman said, nothing that can't be peeled. (I wound up sick on and off for four months because of some strawberries from a very exclusive restaurant in Mexico City that were supposedly safe.) Stay away from the salads, etc. No ice cubes and only bottled water or better yet, have a beer.

I've eaten from the entire spread, including fruits & vegetables, several times in Guatemala and never had a problem. Places that cater to Americans & Europeans seem to be able to provide safe food. Pick up a couple of bags of local coffee beans to take home and enjoy.

Pillow candies from the ship are a big hit in Central America. Watch out for the old ladies, they often push ahead of the kids to get candy handouts.

As for Mayan ruins, at the moment we're set to do Lamanai in Belize. But we could switch once we're on the boat. David insists we visit at least one, since it's my first time in that part of the world. He visited Chichen Itza in the 70's.

The fish sounds great, will look for it! And I will remember to avoid ice cubes and stick to beer!

Arlene, I certainly remember your account of your (mis)adventure on Santo Tomas! And thanks for all the advice about eating. It's mostly about foreign bugs that we just don't have in our systems--I managed quite well in Bombay for a week, with an experienced colleague advising and vetting everything I ate, so if I know what to avoid, it's fairly easy. I'm thinking I'll be safe with fish, rice, beans and beer! How about shrimp?

Wendy,
We skipped Gus for the same reason you gave - just a little to "hokey" for us. We did the ship's concierge tour in Belize which was nice but took a lot of time. A good choice in the end as the day was rainy and gray. Oddly enough, our cruise skipped Costa Maya as well even though no hurricane had recently damaged it. One thing - in Belize even though I used bug repellant I got little bitty bites that took 2 months to heal. So take it along and reapply if you need.

Maybe Luisa can tell us about these bugs! Were they around you ankles, or no particular location? Sound like what we call no-see-ums. I suspect long pants and socks are in order in the jungle, both of our jungle days if we do these two tours.

They sound like what we call in Guatemala "tzizimites" but I think they are no-see-ums...I would always recommend long pants and socks and DEET in the jungle.

That being said...when Peter and I went on a 2 day trip to Tikal (and that is some dense JUNGLA out there!)this past July (my Dad who was back home at the time joined up with us) I was expecting clouds of mosquitoes AND DID NOT GET A SINGLE BITE!! I was shocked, every time I go home to my parent's house I get eaten alive, repellent notwithstanding sometimes!

Then we go on to Costa Rica and we stayed at a resort smack in the rain forest, here I am still taking precautions and BAM! I got a couple of bites!

Regarding Cerveza: You cannot leave Guatemala without trying our very good and very famous Lager style beer, Gallo

Re: Shrimp

For the most part it should be okay...however, a justly famous specialty are our Ceviches (all types: fish, conch, octopus, shrimp) Ceviches is one of those dishes that I would advise caution on...like salads. I suspect you will see a lot of ceviches in Santo Tomas/Livingston. You should be okay at the restaurant catering to tourists, but definitely don't eat it at a Cevicheria or worse yet (although these tend to be the more "tastier") off someone with a stool and tub operation.

I did wear a 3/4 sleeved shirt. Wherever the shirt was not the bites were there! It was at the Coppola (don't know how to spell it) resort in Belize which is jungly! And which serves the best gazpacho I've ever had!

Must have been Blancaneux? He also owns one called "La Lancha" off the shores of Lake Peten Itza...close enough to Tikal but still a drive. haven't been there yet, just done the research ;)

www.blancaneux.com

I don't recall if I ate shrimp or not. (That was in the days before I acquired an allergy to all shellfish.) I probably did with no consequences. I also ate cheese, chicken and beef while in Mexico with no problems.

I love Ceviche, but I will probably avoid it on land this time.