A Busy 90 Days In Guatemala!

   As usual, when we arrived back in Guatemala, we received a 90 day tourist visa. Our 90 days is up on January 11th, so we are now preparing to sail off to the Bay Islands of Honduras. Due to weather, we will probably leave after our 90 days are up, which will make us illegal aliens. Not to worry, you just pay the fine when you leave. The fine, by the way, is 10Q ( $1.25 US) per person per day you overstay.

One of our first projects when we returned was to strip all the old varnish off the exterior teak (Mobetah has a lot of teak) and replace it with 10 coats of the latest and greatest varnish available (Epethanes ultra high UV varnish). Thank goodness we were able to find a quart of it here in Rio Dulce. We hired Marta (a local woman) to do a lot of the sanding, while Bill did the flat areas with a power sander. Marta did all the hand sanding on the hard to get to places like handrails and around cleats and such. She was a very hard worker, so we paid her 200Q a day ($25.00 US), which is considerably more than the going rate down here. She did bring her teenage son and husband a few days to help, at miumal cost.

After the teak refinishing was completed, we decided to take time off from boat projects to do a land trip. We went with two other couples to Copan in Honduras. Man, did we pack a lot of sightseeing into four days. We visited the Mayan ruins on the first day, which are very impressive. Many of the ruins have been rebuilt by archeologists from around the worlld, and there is a very impressive museum on site which houses a lot of the original artifacts from the ruins. Although Copan is smaller than other Mayan sites, it has the best preserved carvings. Our biggest break, on that first day, was finding Renaldo and his two brothers. They all own TucTucs (those funny looking little three wheel taxis from India), and all three speak good English. They became our unoffical tour guides from then on. On the second day, Norm and Linda decided they wanted to go horseback riding, and everyone else later decided to just go up into the mountains to some lesser known Mayan ruins and eat lunch at a nearby resort. After a short hike from the resort to the ruins, we arrived at the ruins to hear Renaldo on a trail leading from the opposite direction telling John and Linda that their friends were there. When we left the ruins, we went back with John, Linda and Renaldo to a small village which produces corn shuck dolls (which all the little girls try to sell to all the tourists) and has a small factory where the ladies of the village weave native fabric with hand looms. Renaldo called his brother (it may be a third world country, but everyone has a cell phone, and there seems to be excellent coverage almost everywhere), and he came up the mountain with a tuc tuc to pick us up, while Linda and Norm rode back down on the horses. It was a white knuckle trip down the mountain. We saw some tobacco barns which looked just like the tobacco barns in South Georgia looked fifty years ago. We also stopped at a small shop where artifical Mayan atrtifacts are made for tourists and for decoration of businesses around the world, (think MAYAN PRINCESS HOTEL in Las Vegas!) The next day we went up to McCaw Mountain, which is a beautiful park that nurses and houses abandoned or injured birds. We first enjoyed a fried chicken lunch at their restaurant (operated by Twisted Tanya and her husband ,who we had met previously at their restaurant in town), then toured the park and enjoyed the birds and exotic plants. Before we left we had a cup of fresh coffee which is grown, processed, roasted and packaged on site. We know it was fresh because it was just coming out of the roaster as we showed up. On our last day everyone but Bill and Sandy went ziplining. They were taken on a bumpy ride in the back of a 4-wheel pick-up way up in the hills. From there, they came down 4 kilometers of lines stretched between 14 platforms. It was exhilerating, and the views were spectacular. To compensate, Bill and Sandy went back (we had discovered it earlier) to a little comedor in the market for their pork chop, egg, bean and coffee breakfast (at a cost of about $2.50 US). Our van driver from Rio Dulce showed up right on time, and we headed back to the Rio.





Our Copan Taxi (It's called a TucTuc)

Colorful  Macaws

 

Artifacts At The Museum



Pat On The Zipline



Bill, Terry and The Big Saba Tree

  

You're  Safe In Copan Honduras If You Stick With These Guys



We also made a trip to Frutos Del Mundo (Fruits Of The World), which is a small plantation specializing in growing exotic fruits from around the world. Dwight, the owner and our guide, came down to Central America 23 years ago with the Peace Corp and just never left. We enjoyed the tour and got to taste several new fruits which we had never tried before and also enjoyed a fried fish lunch (prepared using fruits, vegetables and juices produced on site along with their own fresh Talapia taken from their irrigaion ponds.)

 



Dwight, Our Guide and Owner Of Frutus Del Mundo



Lunch at Frutus Del Mundo

  A happy hour discussion of the use of pressure cookers, turned into the cooking of dried beans and then to the plotting of the first annual Fiesta De Flatulance. The four couples who were here in the marina at the time all brought their pressure cookers and beans up to the marina's kitchen and prepared beans to be shared for supper. Everyone had a great time and the beans all turned out to be delicious.



John The Marina Manager

 

When Christmas came around, many of the Monkey Bay residents volunteered to help Casa Guatemala (a local orphanage here on the river). Since we were told that some of the most needed items were panties and bras for the older girls at the orphanage, the ladies of Monkey Bay spent one day shopping for these. John, the marina manager, volunteered as boat operator to get them to town and even assisted in the bra and panty shopping. Pat, Linda and Jan spent Christmas Eve morning helping to cook turkeys at Backpackers, a local restaurant owned by the orphanage, where many of the older children get training for jobs. Jim, a boater here at Monkey Bay Marina who has white hair and a big bushy white beard, played the part of Santa Clause on Christmas Eve night at the orphanage. Gifts were given to the childern of the orphanage, and small gifts were given to each of the over three hundred Mayan children who showed up from neighboring villages. The Monkey Bay volunteer also assisted in feeding all the visitng children tamales, which are a Central American Christmas tradition. Then the staff, volunteers and the children from the orphanage had a wonderful Christmas Turkey Dinner. The following morning we had Christmas for our marina caretaker's children, with Jim once again playing the part of Santa Clause. The four children become almost like surrogate grandchildren for all of us cruisers at the marina. Christmas of 2011 was truly a Christmas none of us will ever forget.  

 

The Turkey Cooks At Backpackers

    

Jim (Our Santa Clause) from S/V Dreamaway



Monkey Bay Crowd at Xmas Dinner - Hotel Kangroo

 During our 90 days we have had happy hour almost every night, several pot luck dinners and one shrimp boil (with shrimp, sausage, corn on the cob and potatoes boiled in seasoned water) here at the marina. It's always a good time here at Monkey Bay.

 In spite of all the good times here, it's time to sail on to new territory. We plan to sail to the Bay Islands of Honduras about the 17th of January.



Thanksgiving in Guatemala

Several marinas on the river hosted Thanksgiving potlucks, but it was decided that we should have our own Thanksgiving dinner at Monkey Bay Marina, primarily, so there would be leftovers! Jim on "Dream Away" roasted two turkeys on the barbeque grill, and the rest of us made the closest things to traditional side dishes that we could with what we could find down here. Actually, we ended up with dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, fruit salad, cranberries, home-made Parker House rolls, pumpkin pie, and spice cake, so we were successful. Even though there were four Canadians and two Guatemalans among us, everyone seemed to enjoy celebrating U.S Thanksgiving.

The tables are set for the celebration



Beautiful local flowers for a centerpiece



Buffet table set with all the usual Thanksgiving foods

Thanksgiving feast enjoyed by all

Marina manager, John, and two local Mayan girls

Back to the Rio Dulce and Mobetah

We spent two nights in Guatemala City at Los Torres Hotel. We learned our lesson about not making reservations. The night man on duty when we arrived from the airport put us in a tiny, old room with no window, a very old, soft bed, and the smell of mildew! The next morning, we asked for a room change and got one of the updated rooms with all new tile, bed, and bathroom fixtures. It also had a window. We will know to make reservations next time. We like staying at this hotel, as it is in Zone 10 (the safe zone with all the fancy U. S. hotels and big shopping centers), but only costs $32/night (on the Rio Dulce rate.)

Bill outside hotel waiting for taxi.

The day after we arrived, we came back from eating, and heard a familiar voice in the hotel lobby. It was Norm, from the boat next to ours in the marina! He and his wife, Linda, had arrived a few hours before we flew in. We all went out that night, before leaving together the next day for the Rio Dulce. We had to take two taxis to the bus station, since we all had so much luggage. We told our cab driver we wanted to go to Litegua (the bus station), but he thought we said Antigua (the town 30 miles from Guat City.) After he informed us we would owe him $32, and we realized he was heading out of town, we told him "the bus." So he took us to the chicken bus (local) to Antigua! We finally got across to him where we needed to go, and we arrived at the bus station with 10 minutes to spare. We will carry pen and paper for taxi rides from now on.

We had a good trip to the river. The air conditioning worked the whole way, and the movie was in English. We have learned not to watch the road too closely, as the bus driver is often on his cell phone, even while passing on a curve or hill in a "no-passing" zone. Our marina manager, John, picked us up in town in the launcha, and managed to get all four of us and 16 pieces of luggage in the boat for the ride to the marina. It was good to see Mobetah floating in her slip. The outside was covered with layers of dirt and spider webs, but the interior was just fine, thanks to the dehumidifier.

Bill and manager, John, catching up.

Most of the boaters in the marina were new to us, but it doesn't take long to rejoin the Monkey Bay family. We are back to happy hours most evenings (starting much earlier, since the mosquitoes are quite fierce as darkness arrives about 5:30), had a get-together potluck one night, and have been to several restaurants with the other boaters.

Potluck

Many of us went to the Halloween party across the river at Mario's Marina. Not everyone wore costumes, but there were some real creative ones there. The winners were a couple dressed in white trash bags covered with trash and paper taped on them. They called themselves, "White Trash." The emcee was a "French Maid" (Susie on Cabaret), who kept the games and music going.

But it can't be all fun and games, so boat projects can't be far off.

Summer in the USA

It was a busy summer in the States. We arrived in Chicago on June 15 and went to Milwaukee to Pat's sister's for a few days. We then flew to Pensacola to retrieve our car, graciously stored by good friends there. We visited lots of friends from our days of living in Pensacola, then drove to Jacksonville, FL to sign up for a mail box in Green Cove Springs. (Which means we are "next door neighbors" with lots of other cruising folks. This seems to be a popular mail forwarding service, since the owners understand the cruising lifestyle.)

It was then northward, to visit Bill's hometown of Blackshear, Georgia, where we checked on his mom's grave site and had lunch with his niece. We stopped in Macon, Ga at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, and then spent a few days with our step-son and his family south of Atlanta. It is always fun to see the grand-kids.













While in Atlanta, we visited with a cousin of Bill's and her family, and had dinner with his nephew and his family. Traveling on, we stopped at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky and then ended up in northern Indiana at Pat's college roommate's. We spent a few days sailing with her and her husband on their boat (beautiful 38ft Island Packet) from Michigan City to Chicago for the 4th of July. Unfortunately, this year Chicago opted to cancel their big fireworks show, so it was a pretty quite holiday.


We stayed in Milwaukee for a few weeks, making the required annual medical visits. It is amazing how much more involved that seems, the older one gets. We had lots of fun spending time with Pat's younger sister and her family. Her mother-in -law has been in a nursing home for three years, and her house on Lake Butte des Morts near Oshkosh has been sitting empty since then, so they offered to let us stay there, for some routine maintenance and re-modeling. Even though we weren't on our boat, we could still get up in the morning and look out at water. We made a trip to NW Wisconsin, to spend time with Pat's P.T. school roommate and husband at their lake house, and then drove, from there, up to Bayfield and the Apostle Islands National Seashore, where Bill worked and we lived one year about 22 years ago! We also attended the big annual EAA air show in Oshkosh, which was like a huge boat show with more vendors than one could ever get around to in one day. People fly in from all over and camp by their planes for the week. The daily airshow had military planes and "bombing" exhibitions from the WW II era, and they had their first night-time airshow---Quite spectacular! There was also a visit to Green Bay for the Tall Ships' Regatta and a drive through Door County to see the Fall leaves and visit the maritime museum. We discovered that the Marine Travel Lift was invented there. (For those non boaters--that is a big sling apparatus for lifting boats out of the water.) The first one is in a museum there!

Lots of time was spent gathering the things we needed to take back to Guatemala. By the time we were ready to leave, we had three big bags jam packed and weighing just under the 50 pound limit and one old suitcase in which Bill packed a new battery charger/inverter. (That one weighed almost 58 pounds, so cost extra to take on the plane.) We also had two carry-on duffel bags and two computers. We stored our car in the garage in Oshkosh, and Pat's sister drove us to O'Hare in Chicago on October 13. Thank goodness for luggage carts! Bill watched apprehensively, as three different TSA agents opened and studied the suitcase with the inverter. They finally waved at him and said all was fine. Amazingly, the other three bags made it through the x-ray machine and onto the conveyor belt without further inspection. As we were boarding the plane, they took our two carry-on duffels and checked them, as the plane was full and the last 20 or so passengers had no place left on the plane for carry-ons. So we had only to keep up with the two computers until we claimed the baggage in Guatemala City.

Upon landing in Guatemala City about 9:15 PM, we were a little nervous about clearing customs with our 6 bags and computers, but after retrieving the checked bags, we wheeled them to Immigration, had our passports stamped, and then gave the form we had filled out on the plane to the Customs man, and he just waved us on through. We were back "home" in Guatemala!

Settling Down In Guatemala

After arriving at the Monkey Bay Marina, our friends Rodney and Katrina, aboard Angelina, gave us a tour of the town and the other marinas as well as introducing us to several of the cruisers in the area.

The town of Rio Dulce (also called Fronteras) basically consists of a lot of small shops, fruit and vegetable stands, and food carts crammed along the edge of a very busy road which crosses the bridge across the river. Cruisers can find most basic items locally. However, once beyond the basics, obtaining parts etc. for the boat becomes a challenge.

There are several marinas located in the area. While ours does not, many of the marinas have restaurants/bars where cruisers gather, usually on the day a particular marina has a lunch special, dinner special, shows a movie or has a nautical swap meet. Less than a day after arriving in Rio Dulce we were having dinner with several other cruisers at Bruno's Steak Night! We have since enjoyed numerous lunches at Las Mexicanas, Pizza and a movie at Tortugal and Saturday morning at the Mario's Marina swap meet.

After a few days on the Rio, several cruisers made a day trip to a local hot springs and falls known as Agua Calliente. (Hot Water) After a very crowded ride in a van (16 of us), it was a nice walk in to the swimming area, where we wadded and swam in the cooler spring water or under the hot falls.

We planned to stay in Guatemala for about six weeks before heading back to the U.S. for summer and the height of hurricane season, however, most of the other cruisers were in a hurry to get their boats ready for in-the-water storage and get back home. Rodney and Katrina were scheduled to go back to Texas in late May, so we planned an inland trip to Antigua with them and Kent and Faye aboard Southern Mist, as well as Art and Rene aboard Jewell. We all bought tickets for the Litegua bus which travels from the Rio Dulce to Guatemala City in about 5 1/2 hours (cost = $7.50 US per ticket). Some buses, in the Litegua fleet are older than others. We were lucky and had a nearly new Chinese bus (which basically means the air conditioner worked all the way to Guatemala City). Once in Guatemala City we transferred to a Litegua Van for the 30 mile trip to Antugua. All our luggage was placed in a rack on top of the van with no cover or protection from the elements (after all, it was a bright sunshiny day)..... that would prove to be a mistake, because as we approached Antigua, we suddenly ran into very heavy rain. After being dropped at La Continental hotel, we checked in and begin drying our clothes. We entered the hotel through a massive wooden door that enters to a nice courtyard, around which the rooms are positioned.

The town of Antigua was originally the Spanish capital for most of Central America during the 17th and 18th centuries, but was nearly leveled by several earthquakes in 1773, after which the capital was moved to what became Guatemala City. Antigua is now a major tourist attraction, with many restored colonial Spanish buildings and ruins. It is surrounded by several volcanos. Much of the inland Mayan population lives in the hills around the town. They come into town daily to sell their wares. We spent four days visiting local tourist attractions such as the Mayan textile museum, the local market, local restaurants and a lot of old churches. The men, however, seemed to always end up at Reilley's Irish Pub for happy hour, which lasted from 1:00 pm until 7:00 pm.

After an enjoyable time in Antigua, we headed back to Guatemala City, where Rodney and Katrina, as well as Art and Rene, had to catch a plane back to the US. We checked into our mom and pop hotel, Las Torres, then took a walking tour of the neighborhood. We were in zone 10 (the safest and most Americanized of Guatemala City zones) so we were surrounded by such American icons as the Holiday Inn, Raddison Hotel, Hooters, Applebee's, TGI Friday's and of course McDonalds. We also found a casino where you could pass the time by playing electronic gambling games for a small cost (it was possible to even win a little). The good thing about the casino was, as long as you were playing the games, they kept giving you drinks. We also went to the big Central Market, which is a huge three story underground market. After two days of touring, Rodney, Katrina, Art and Rene caught their planes back to America, and the rest of us caught a bus back to the Rio Dulce. We were not as lucky going back, since ten miles out of Guatemala City the air conditioner on our not so new bus quit.

Once back at the Rio Dulce we began work on our boat's shade structure. We had planned to provide the materials and have a local canvas worker do the work (the proper materials are not always available in Guatemala), however, we were unable to get the canvas worker to commit to the project, so we set up shop in the palapa and began the week and half long project ourselves.

Once the shade structure was complete, it was time for us to start packing up and preparing to return to the US . On June 13, we got up early and had John (our marina manager) take us into town to meet the bus. Once again, we were lucky ........ The air conditioner worked all the way to Guatemala City. We spent the night once again at Las Torres Hotel. In the two weeks or so since we had been there, they had completed a renovation on some of the rooms, so we were surprised when we were given a room that was newly retiled, freshly painted and had a new T.V. and bed. We had little time to enjoy it, however, since we had to get up at 3:30 am and head to the airport for a 6:45 departure.

We arrived at the airport and were surprised that two or three hundred people were standing around outside the front doors. Our taxi driver told us that all those people were there to see a friend or family member off. He said one person would leave and fifty or so would come to see them off. Since, only ticked passengers are allowed inside the airport terminal they just stand around outside and watch the plane take off. We had no problem obtaining our bording passes etc. however Bill was searched twice and our bags were gone through two or three times.

A little after dawn, we lifted off and were headed back to the good old U.S. where Pat's brother and law picked us up at Ohare International Airport in Chicago .