Río Dulce National Park

One of Guatemala [1]’s oldest parks, the waterway connecting the Caribbean Sea with Lake Izabal [2] is protected as Río Dulce National Park, covering 7,200 hectares along the river’s 30 kilometer (19-mile) course.

Much of the riverbank is shrouded in dense tropical forest punctuated at its most dramatic point by a large jungle canyon with hundred-meter rock faces known as La Cueva de la Vaca.

The canyon is a 15-minute boat ride upstream from Lívingston [3]. Along this route you’ll also come across a graffiti-covered rock escarpment known as La Pintada with the earliest painting in evidence dating to the 1950s.