The walls
Old cannon.
Flickr user Semio — CC BY 2.0 · Gusjer — CC BY 2.0 · Semio — CC BY 2.0 · Gusjer — CC BY 2.0
A small grey-stone Spanish fort at the entrance to Lake Izabal, Guatemala's largest lake, at the narrowest point of the Río Dulce that links it to the Caribbean. It was built in the seventeenth century to protect a lakeside port from pirates, who sailed up the river to plunder cargo and destroyed and looted it several times. Visitors walk the fort's narrow passages and stone stairs, between watchtowers, soldiers' rooms and stores, with old cannon on the walls trained on the river. From the top of the tower there are views of the wide lake and the great bridge over the river. The fort was restored in the twentieth century and added to UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List in 2002. Around it a grassy park with shady trees runs along the water, popular with Guatemalans on holidays. Visitors reach it by boat or road from Río Dulce town, and boats pass it on the way to Livingston. The lake water around it is polluted, so do not swim.
Old cannon.
Lake views.
By the water.
Entrance to Lake Izabal, about 3 km from Río Dulce town
To guard a Lake Izabal port against pirates sailing up the Río Dulce from the Caribbean.