Livingston

Livingston is a town peopled by the Garifuna, descendants of slaves from the Caribbean that landed there and mingled with the native population. They have their own language and the atmosphere is much more like Jamaica than Guatemala.   Poverty is extensive but sadness is not.

A young boy scurries up a coconut tree to fetch us something to drink.  Our Garifuna guide skillfully opens the coconuts with a machete.

Our guide, Philip or "Natty", turned out to be quite the storyteller. 

A fisherman comes in from a day's work sporting three sails of plastic.  I marveled at his skill, never imagining one could use as canvas that which we lay over firewood in the backyard.  As Natty suggested, in America things have to be perfect; here we are only concerned with practical.