This October, I'm heading to Guatemala and am looking for input on traveling from Coban to El Estor, then on to Livingstone, via water travel on Lago Isabel/Rio Dulce. Can anyone advise on expected costs and time it would take? I'm thinking bus to El Estor, then...? Are there boats from there all the way out to Livingstone?
Also, from Livingstone I'd like to get to Puerto Cortes, Honduras via water taxi. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks - Reverend
if you are busing from Lanquin to El Estor, expect it to take a good eight hours. you may have to change buses and it will probably cost around Q60 if I remember right. Be aware that most of that road is dirt (and winds through the mountains) and October is rainy season, which is not a great combination in Guatemala. Apparently shuttles also run this route once per day, Q150, book at any hostel/hotel in Lanquin.
afaik, there are no scheduled boats from el estor to livingston. you could charter one, but that gets pricey. the usual way to go would be to bus to rio dulce, (less than an hour) then a public boat from there. The public boats run one in the morning one in the afternoon and cost around Q120 I think.
from Livingston there are regular boat departures to belize (once a week) rio dulce (twice daily) and puerto barrios (several daily). last I checked there was nothing scheduled for honduras, although if you got a group together you could split the cost of a charter boat. I wouldn't count on that as there aren't that many tourists around livingston in the first place and those that are headed for honduras are generally going to La Ceiba.
tour companies in livingston sell "packages" that get you from livingston to La Ceiba in time for the last ferry, but these go boat to PB, shuttle to the border, bus from there - I guess you could ask them if you were pushed for time, or just take the bus. Or ask around in Rio Dulce if there's someone sailing that way and needs a deckhand for a few days...
There are two ways from Coban to El Estor. Besides wondering why you want to go there I'll explain what I know.
There are two ways to get there. The long way, (but maybe faster) would be to retrace your tracks via paved highway back to El Rancho and then continuing to Rio Dulce by bus and then taking another bus to El Estor which is less than an hour´s bus ride from Rio Dulce.
The second, more adventuresome way, is to bus from Coban to Lanquín and then taking the shuttle directly to El Estor, via the town of Cahabón and across the mountain range on a dirt road. In spite of the warnings, I have traveled this road and can say that it is passable in all weather conditions. Midway there, the shuttle stops for lunch in a mining camp where they serve really good food. (Seems like the chef also owns the shuttle bus.)
The second of the two methods is the one I would do. It is infinitely more interesting than to simply sit like a lump on a bus going down a paved highway for hours.
Once in El Estor (which is what once was "The Store" changed to Spanish by the locals) you can go by bus to Rio Dulce and then by water taxi to Livingston. Although I am not knowledgeable about how to get from Livingston to Puerto Cortez I strongly suspect that you will first have to get to Puerto Barrios on a ferry from where there is a direct ferry service to Puerto Cortez.
I was in the same hurdle you were, going from Coban to Livingston and this is the fastest, comfortable and cheapest option: At around 7 am every morning, there is a bus terminal I don't quite remember the name but it's just 3 blocks away from the Coban cathedral downtown that has the earliest bus to Guatemala City, you just buy the ticket that leaves you at the halfway point called "El Rancho", the ticket costs about 80 quetzales or something.
The bus leaves around 7:30 am on the nice and smooth highway and it doesn't have a lot of passengers or stops so you can just snooze for a while. Around 9 am the bus will stop you in front of a lame looking cafeteria in the highway just 5 minutes away from the bus terminal of El Rancho. Unlike buses in Mexico where you can stay in the bus and keep sleeping, Guatemalan buses literally kick everyone out which kind of sucks and you are stuck outside the parking lot of the cafeteria for 20 minutes. I guess you can go buy something to eat at the place but most of the food is horrendous, at least the toilet facilities are free though. I probably find the cafeteria deal to be uber annoying because the Rancho terminal is just 7 minutes away. I find it annoying that I have to be stranded for 20 minutes when I could have arrived at the terminal by now. You are warned.
You will arrive at the El Rancho terminal at 09:30 am, the buses that take you to Rio Dulce leave at 10:30 am so you could either just sit there watching cable tv on their screen or carry all of your luggage and walk around the village. El Rancho is a boring dusty village with no Maya, the only reason I'd think anyone would go explore it was to eat some tacos in a street stand or something.
The 10:30 am Rio Dulce bus is punctual and leaves at around 10:45 am, it has a few bus stops they have to make and yet another enjoyable 20 minute cafeteria stop at the halfway point near the highway deviation to Zacapa, yaaay more expensive bad food and 20 minutes sitting in a parking lot in the heat! Expect to arrive at Rio Dulce at 4:30 pm, too late to get to Livingston. The bus ticket costs about another 80 Q. You can still get to Livingston that night if you opt to take a bus to Puerto Barrios instead of Rio Dulce which has more regular schedules. If you arrive to Puerto Barrios at 5 pm you might still get a chance to catch a late boat ferry to Livingston. I wouldn't suggest staying in Puerto Barrios for long, it doesn't look like a very safe place at night.
You can take the street buses from Coban to El Estor, but since there is no shiny and nice highway it will be a miserable bumpy ride in crowded Chicken buses. There is apparently a nice highway that connects Flores-El Estor which some say is a faster route (however remember that it's a 5 hour detour from Coban to Flores).
If time is a huge issue, you can try to find a way to hire a shuttle from Coban to Rio Dulce but it usually won't fill up with enough passengers and they will probably end up dumping you at El Rancho bus terminal for much more money than taking the bus I suggested above. You will end up arriving to Rio Dulce at 4:30 pm and spent twice as much money doing so, but if you woke up at 8:30 am I guess it's an option.
Oh, one word of advice: The boat shuttles from Rio Dulce-Livingston and viceversa are tourist oriented. It's a great trip and they will show you the outside of San Felipe Castle and a bunch of swampy islands filled with birds, but it's a 3 hour ride.. everytime. Even the locals that need a ferry to a halfway point are kind of stuck seeing bird island for the zillionth time. I took the 1:30 pm shuttle boat from Rio Dulce.
Thanks for the input, everyone! Sounds like my best bet is to take a bus from Coban to Rio Dulce, stay the night then catch a boat out to Livingstone.
You can take the street buses from Coban to El Estor, but since there is no shiny and nice highway it will be a miserable bumpy ride in crowded Chicken buses.
I thought that road was in pretty good condition, actually, and as panerian notes, the countryside is far more interesting than going via the highway. Please note that chicken buses do not run that route - public transportation is in modern minibuses with pickup trucks picking up the slack.
When was the last time you were on that road, sailoryanko?
It's worth noting, too, that if you're in the Coban area, chances are you will be in Lanquin at some point - backtracking from Lanquin to Coban adds another 2+ hours to the journey (and would require staying overnight in Coban if you were shooting for that early Monja Blanca bus), whereas going the 'back way' to El Estor you leave on the other road out of Lanquin, meaning no backtrack.
Me, I'd choose a dirt road, fantastic scenery and a bit of uncertainty over an entire day on a boring highway punctuated by truck stop meal breaks, but that's just me...