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 .

Arriving In Guatemala

After clearing out of Belize at Big Creek, we left Placencia and sailed out to Ranguana Cay. We spent two days and nights on a mooring ball at Ranguana Cay. Ranguana Cay is a private island with a resort and restaurant. We didn't go ashore, however, we snorkeled the reefs around the cay. Once we left Ranguana Cay, we motored down about 5 miles to Tom Owens Cay, where we anchored and once again snorkeled the reefs. Better coral and fish here than at Ranguana Cay. After only one day at Tom Owens Cay, we picked up the anchor and headed out across The Bay of Honduras towards Guatemala.

After motorsailing about 40 miles, we arrived at Cabo Tres Puntas in Guatemala, where we were to meet our good friends Rodney and Katrina Warren onboard Angelina. It was hot, and there was almost no wind, however we kept cool by swimming and touring the coastline in the dingy. Rodney and Katrina arrived the afternoon of the second day, and it was good to see them again. Of course, happy hour, food and drink followed their arrival.

The following morning, we picked up the anchor and headed to Livingston, Guatemala to check in. We arrived about 10:30am, dropped anchor and waited for Raul (our agent) and the immigration, agriculture, doctor, navy and customs people to show up at our boat for check in.










The check in team soon showed up, asked a few questions, smiled for pictures and left. We were to go into Raul's office later and pick up our papers and make the proper payments in Guatemala Qs, of course. And of course, when Rodney and Bill went into town, the only ATM machine in town was broken. Between Rodney and Bill, they got enough US dollars together, and Raul agreed to convert the currency for them. Once they returned to Mobetah and Angelina, we headed up the Rio Dulce toward our new home port at Monkey Bay Marina (about 20 miles up the river).

About 5 miles up the river, we turned into Texan Bay and anchored off Texan Bay Marina. The first thing we noticed when we pulled into Texan Bay was the flag pole with a Confederate flag and Pirate flag flying. As we anchored we noticed that our old buddy boats, Wind Shift (our New Zealand friends) was anchored in the Bay and New Horizons was tied up at the dock.















We had drinks and dinner at Texan Bay Marina and headed up the river the following morning. We went through Golfete Bay, which was very beautiful, before arriving at Monkey Bay Marina.









We have now settled into life at Monkey Bay and will soon travel to Guatemala City and Antigua for a week or so. More on that in a future post.