Founded in the 1880s by President Rufino Barrios, the port of PUERTO BARRIOS soon fell into the hands of the United Fruit Company, who used their control of the railways to ensure that the bulk of trade passed this way. Puerto Barrios was Guatemala's main port for most of this century, and the Fruit Company were exempt from almost all tax.

These days the boom is over and the town distinctly forlorn, with a smattering of strip clubs, all-night bars and brothels. The streets are wide, but they're poorly lit and badly potholed, and the handful of fine old Caribbean houses is now outnumbered by grimy hotels and hard-drinking bars. The reason most travellers come here is to get somewhere else: to Honduras via the new border crossing at Corinto, to Lívingston, or to Punta Gorda in Belize by boat