Dave did an extensive presentation on Cruising the Western Caribbean at the Seven Seas Cruising Association 2008 Gam.Both presentations (and some useful cruising links) can now be found on our Presentations page.
Showing posts with label Guatemala. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guatemala. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
2008 Presentations
Sherry did a half hour presentation on the San Blas at the East Coast Sailing Association and Melbourne Yacht Club monthly meetings.
Dave did an extensive presentation on Cruising the Western Caribbean at the Seven Seas Cruising Association 2008 Gam.
Both presentations (and some useful cruising links) can now be found on our Presentations page.
Dave did an extensive presentation on Cruising the Western Caribbean at the Seven Seas Cruising Association 2008 Gam.Both presentations (and some useful cruising links) can now be found on our Presentations page.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Out of the Rio!
Yes, we really did make it away from the dock.
We crossed the bar at Livingston at about 2pm Local Time and were anchor down at Cabo Tres Puntas about 4pm. Dave and I jumped in and scrubbed the river slime off the bottom and enjoyed a nice candlelit dinner in the cockpit (the first in months... no bugs here!)
Our First Glimpse of the Ocean in 6 Months
Buddy Boat Infini at Livingston
The Livingston Sea Bouy
Our plans are to leave here at 5am for Punta Sal, Honduras for a long (12 hour) motor up wind along the coast.
We crossed the bar at Livingston at about 2pm Local Time and were anchor down at Cabo Tres Puntas about 4pm. Dave and I jumped in and scrubbed the river slime off the bottom and enjoyed a nice candlelit dinner in the cockpit (the first in months... no bugs here!)
Our plans are to leave here at 5am for Punta Sal, Honduras for a long (12 hour) motor up wind along the coast.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Good-bye Catamaran Marina! (snif)
It is with real regret that we are leaving here.
Catamaran Marina is a real nice place for cruisers, and we've really enjoyed it here.
Soggy Paws at Catamaran Marina
The owners of the Catamaran complex, Kevin and Louisa, invited all the cruisers over to their house last night for a farewell 'cocktail party'. We've really enjoyed hanging out with Kevin in the Tiki bar for football games, the pool bar for Happy Hour, and playing round-robin tennis on his tennis court. Kevin is also ex-Navy, so Dave and Kevin spent a few hours reminiscing about 'Navy days'. So when he heard that several of us were leaving for good, he organized a cocktail party to say goodbye.
Kevin and Louisa with Dave and I
Some of our Catamaran Buddies
Tonight, we repaid the hospitality and had Kevin and Louisa over for drinks and a 'boat tour'. And then we all went over to our friends on s/v Infini for more drinks and (better) hors d'ouvres. After Kevin left to attend to arriving hotel guests, we really enjoyed talking with Louisa about life in Guatemala in the 60's. She grew up here--her father was associated with United Fruit in Guatemala for many years.
We have all our chores done, there's no more room in the fridge, the freezer, or any of the lockers. We pull out of here at 8am tomorrow morning. (YAHOO, we're cruising again!)
Our plan is to check out of Guatemala at Livingston tomorrow afternoon, go out over the 'bar' about 3pm, and anchor overnight at Cabo Tres Puntas. We are still looking at the weather and trying to decide if it will be calm enough to head east on Saturday morning.
The offshore weather looks 'boisterous', but the near-shore weather looks reasonable. If we think it's going to be OK, we'll leave Tres Puntas about 5am Saturday and head for Punta Sal in Honduras, about 60 miles east. There is a good all-weather anchorage at Punta Sal where we can weather a few days of nasty weather, if we need to. The next stop after that should be Utilla, in the Bay Islands of Honduras.
Catamaran Marina is a real nice place for cruisers, and we've really enjoyed it here.
The owners of the Catamaran complex, Kevin and Louisa, invited all the cruisers over to their house last night for a farewell 'cocktail party'. We've really enjoyed hanging out with Kevin in the Tiki bar for football games, the pool bar for Happy Hour, and playing round-robin tennis on his tennis court. Kevin is also ex-Navy, so Dave and Kevin spent a few hours reminiscing about 'Navy days'. So when he heard that several of us were leaving for good, he organized a cocktail party to say goodbye.
Tonight, we repaid the hospitality and had Kevin and Louisa over for drinks and a 'boat tour'. And then we all went over to our friends on s/v Infini for more drinks and (better) hors d'ouvres. After Kevin left to attend to arriving hotel guests, we really enjoyed talking with Louisa about life in Guatemala in the 60's. She grew up here--her father was associated with United Fruit in Guatemala for many years.
We have all our chores done, there's no more room in the fridge, the freezer, or any of the lockers. We pull out of here at 8am tomorrow morning. (YAHOO, we're cruising again!)
Our plan is to check out of Guatemala at Livingston tomorrow afternoon, go out over the 'bar' about 3pm, and anchor overnight at Cabo Tres Puntas. We are still looking at the weather and trying to decide if it will be calm enough to head east on Saturday morning.
The offshore weather looks 'boisterous', but the near-shore weather looks reasonable. If we think it's going to be OK, we'll leave Tres Puntas about 5am Saturday and head for Punta Sal in Honduras, about 60 miles east. There is a good all-weather anchorage at Punta Sal where we can weather a few days of nasty weather, if we need to. The next stop after that should be Utilla, in the Bay Islands of Honduras.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Porthole Gaskets Replaced
My job in the last few days, in between tending Dave up the mast and shopping trips ashore, has been to replace the gaskets in all the portholes.
On Soggy Paws, there are 6 small porthole up forward, 9 large portholes aft, and one strange one in the cockpit. All have 10 year old gaskets, and about half of them were leaking a little, even when dogged tight.
My job was to remove the porthole cover (the bronze and glass part that swings down to latch the porthole shut), pry out the old gasket, and glue in a new gasket with contact cement. It's pretty simple.
Old Porthole, New Gasket
We 'water tested' the first few that I did... sprayed the porthole with the hose to see if we could force a leak. All the new ones seem watertight.
We expect a few miles 'slogging to windward' in the next few months, so this was an important job to get checked off before we set out.
On Soggy Paws, there are 6 small porthole up forward, 9 large portholes aft, and one strange one in the cockpit. All have 10 year old gaskets, and about half of them were leaking a little, even when dogged tight.
My job was to remove the porthole cover (the bronze and glass part that swings down to latch the porthole shut), pry out the old gasket, and glue in a new gasket with contact cement. It's pretty simple.
We 'water tested' the first few that I did... sprayed the porthole with the hose to see if we could force a leak. All the new ones seem watertight.
We expect a few miles 'slogging to windward' in the next few months, so this was an important job to get checked off before we set out.
Nice Shiny Clean Bilge
With confirmation that the engine was running fine, with no leaks. Dave set out to clean the bilge. The normally oily spot under the big diesel now shines white. The murky spot under the main cabin sole, very deep and dark, is now clean (not quite shiny white, though).
Fortunately (for me), Dave is the only one with arms long enough to reach down to the really nasty part of the bilge.
Note Dave's 'cruiser shorts'. These are 'favorite shorts' that should have been tossed a year ago. At least they are properly repaired with sail repair tape!
Fortunately (for me), Dave is the only one with arms long enough to reach down to the really nasty part of the bilge.
Note Dave's 'cruiser shorts'. These are 'favorite shorts' that should have been tossed a year ago. At least they are properly repaired with sail repair tape!
The Engine Still Runs!
This morning Dave fired up Mr. Perkins and he rumbled to life like a good diesel should. No leaks (oil, water, or other). The transmission was exercised and went forward and backwards as expected. Yahoo!
Monday, January 14, 2008
Ground Tackle (Anchor) Maintenance done
While we were here in the Rio, tied up to a dock, Dave sent the anchors and shackles off to Guatemala City to be re-galvanized. (It's very cheap here, and they do a good job with it). We got them back quite awhile ago but hadn't finished up the re-assembly.
Yesterday we unloaded all 300' of chain from the primary anchor, into the dinghy, and end-for-ended it. Dave filled the dinghy with fresh water so the anchor chain also got a nice freshwater bath. When we loaded it all back in, Dave re-attached the shackles and anchor so we're ready to go.
We also got to see how Dave's 'distributed chain' scheme worked. We have fed the last 100' of the chain through a PVC pipe underneath the V-berth and the cabin sole, down to a spot in the bilge, just forward of the mast. This is to distribute heavy weight low and in the center of the boat. It fed up through the tube just fine... needed a little hand tugging occasionally, but we didn't have any rock solid jams.
We had to hand-feed it back in, to get it to flake into the bilge area properly, so it will come out easily again. But it only took a few minutes to do that. We will rarely use that 100' of chain, but it's nice to have if we need it.
Everything's in good condition, this also verified that the Tigress Windlass is working great, too.
Another thing off our departure list!
Yesterday we unloaded all 300' of chain from the primary anchor, into the dinghy, and end-for-ended it. Dave filled the dinghy with fresh water so the anchor chain also got a nice freshwater bath. When we loaded it all back in, Dave re-attached the shackles and anchor so we're ready to go.
We also got to see how Dave's 'distributed chain' scheme worked. We have fed the last 100' of the chain through a PVC pipe underneath the V-berth and the cabin sole, down to a spot in the bilge, just forward of the mast. This is to distribute heavy weight low and in the center of the boat. It fed up through the tube just fine... needed a little hand tugging occasionally, but we didn't have any rock solid jams.
We had to hand-feed it back in, to get it to flake into the bilge area properly, so it will come out easily again. But it only took a few minutes to do that. We will rarely use that 100' of chain, but it's nice to have if we need it.
Everything's in good condition, this also verified that the Tigress Windlass is working great, too.
Another thing off our departure list!
Provisioning Done
It took me another 2 days (between other projects) to re-inventory all the stuff I'd already stowed, but I finally have a complete and accurate inventory of everything in all the 'deep storage' closets. I've opted not to bother inventorying the stuff in the 'ready storage' closets, because they are small enough to see the entire contents without unloading the whole thing, and the contents change too often. Stuff in these closets are stored by category (breakfast food, snacks, sauces and seasonings, etc), so when I'm looking for something, I know where to go.
All the small stuff in bags have been grouped and bagged in ziplocks. This makes it less likely for packages to get rubbed through as the boat moves, and make a big mess. And, hopefully (but not always), keeps the bugs out.
I've also gotten all the meat bought, packaged, and frozen in meal-sized packages (sans all the styrofoam packaging, etc). Here in the Rio, we get most of our meat from 'Casa Guatemala', which is a combination orphanage and working farm. They have some of the nicest 'Lomo de Cerdo' (pork loin) that we've found even in the States. Completely boneless and wrapped in small packages and pre-frozen, it's perfect for us. They even sell chicken filets (boneless chicken breasts), sometimes a tough commodity to find down here.
We also bought some beef 'lomito' (loin) from our favorite restaurant Brunos (who buys Argentinian beef in Guatemala City). We expected this to come as steaks in 1-pound slices, but we got 2 whole lomitos frozen together. I had to thaw the whole 5 lbs partially to get the two hunks of meat apart, and chop them up into something like meal-sized portions.
Also note the Pressure Cooker on the stove. I bought a bunch of chicken quarters and cooked them down in the pressure cooker, and de-boned them. A meal's worth of chicken quarters cook down into a small ziplock bag. We then package 4-6 of the meal-sized ziplocks of a similar type into a big ziplock bag, and then layer the big bags into the freezer (so there's always a beef, chicken, ground beef, etc bag laying on top). It also means that everything is double-bagged, so keeps better in the long run, and less of a chance of a stinky mess if your freezer stops freezing.
All the small stuff in bags have been grouped and bagged in ziplocks. This makes it less likely for packages to get rubbed through as the boat moves, and make a big mess. And, hopefully (but not always), keeps the bugs out.
I've also gotten all the meat bought, packaged, and frozen in meal-sized packages (sans all the styrofoam packaging, etc). Here in the Rio, we get most of our meat from 'Casa Guatemala', which is a combination orphanage and working farm. They have some of the nicest 'Lomo de Cerdo' (pork loin) that we've found even in the States. Completely boneless and wrapped in small packages and pre-frozen, it's perfect for us. They even sell chicken filets (boneless chicken breasts), sometimes a tough commodity to find down here.
We also bought some beef 'lomito' (loin) from our favorite restaurant Brunos (who buys Argentinian beef in Guatemala City). We expected this to come as steaks in 1-pound slices, but we got 2 whole lomitos frozen together. I had to thaw the whole 5 lbs partially to get the two hunks of meat apart, and chop them up into something like meal-sized portions.
Also note the Pressure Cooker on the stove. I bought a bunch of chicken quarters and cooked them down in the pressure cooker, and de-boned them. A meal's worth of chicken quarters cook down into a small ziplock bag. We then package 4-6 of the meal-sized ziplocks of a similar type into a big ziplock bag, and then layer the big bags into the freezer (so there's always a beef, chicken, ground beef, etc bag laying on top). It also means that everything is double-bagged, so keeps better in the long run, and less of a chance of a stinky mess if your freezer stops freezing.
Rigging Work Done
After 1 ascent of the mast by me and 8 ascents by Dave, we have finally replaced all the upper and middle mast tangs, mounted the new tricolor light, mounted the lighting spike and mounted (and unmounted again) the spinnaker halyard bail.
Dave brought with us from States 4 sets of mast tangs that he had Rick Heim from Gulf Coast Industrial Repair of St. Pete, fabricate to his specifications (316L stainless). (Dave highly recommends Rick for any metal fab work). A set consists of 4 pieces of stainless and a very large stainless bolt. (see pic below, of 2 sets).
These are to replace the 30 year old tangs that is the last piece of original standing rigging (besides the mast itself) left on the boat. The originals were 304 stainless. They appear OK, but you never know until the worst possible time, when something like that might break on you. So before we did any major ocean passages, he wanted to get these replaced. When he gets a chance, he'll document the whole thing in his Workshop section of the website.
Dave brought with us from States 4 sets of mast tangs that he had Rick Heim from Gulf Coast Industrial Repair of St. Pete, fabricate to his specifications (316L stainless). (Dave highly recommends Rick for any metal fab work). A set consists of 4 pieces of stainless and a very large stainless bolt. (see pic below, of 2 sets).
These are to replace the 30 year old tangs that is the last piece of original standing rigging (besides the mast itself) left on the boat. The originals were 304 stainless. They appear OK, but you never know until the worst possible time, when something like that might break on you. So before we did any major ocean passages, he wanted to get these replaced. When he gets a chance, he'll document the whole thing in his Workshop section of the website.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Provisioning Again
When we were getting ready to leave Florida, and I was provisioning, there wasn't really time to do it right.
To do it right, you need to make a plan, understand how much space you have, how long you are going to be 'out', and plan how much food to buy.
As you buy it and store it, you have to keep track of what's where. When you buy 2 months worth of food at a time, it's pretty important to do proper planning, as well as have a 'stowage plan'.
At that time, I was really rusty, and not very familiar with Soggy Paws. And we were kind of pinched for time. So I just sorta winged it... I went to the Commissary at Patrick every day for about 5 days, and bought a piled-high cart load. And I just crammed it in the lockers that Dave pointed out to me, pretty much 'willy nilly'. I just kept buying, seat of the pants, until there wasn't any more room aboard. (I did have a little experience, from cruising before).
Dave also had a bunch of stuff in boxes from his storage area that either came his way from his Boy Scout Charter days or bought in 2005 when he last thought he was leaving soon for parts unknown. So that added to the 'mystery mix' aboard. (I'm still finding stuff I didn't buy, and probably won't use, in fairly large quantities).
So, bottom line, there WAS no storage plan on Soggy Paws when we left in May.
This time, I wanted to do it properly. No excuses now, time-wise. I'm retired, right?
So I started by pulling every last thing out of every deep dark locker, inventorying it, and starting from scratch. Soggy Paws has a lot more, deeper, storage space than I had on Island Time.
I put my inventory directly in an Excel spreadsheet. It took me about 4 days to get thru all the food lockers, write everything down, and make a list of what more to buy.
I was nearly done...buying and stowing... and keeping track of it all... until last night... when I was trying to clean junk off Dave's computer... to install something new.
I guess I accidentally deleted my 'What's Where' spreadsheet.
When I couldn't find it this morning, I tried in vain to recover it. I tried 2 different 'undelete' programs, but since I'd installed a bunch of stuff after deleting it, it is apparently gone forever.
*(&^%$!!
I hadn't gotten around to backing it up to another commputer or a thumb drive. :p
*Sigh*
So I have to go back thru the lockers and re-inventory everything AGAIN.
I COULD just go back to 'willy nilly' mode, but I found so much stuff that I didn't remember I had, when I was inventorying lockers, that I really want some kind of record of what's where.
I probably won't keep it up over time, but when I'm trying to figure out where that package of Brownie Mix is, at least I'll have some idea of where to start looking.
To do it right, you need to make a plan, understand how much space you have, how long you are going to be 'out', and plan how much food to buy.
As you buy it and store it, you have to keep track of what's where. When you buy 2 months worth of food at a time, it's pretty important to do proper planning, as well as have a 'stowage plan'.
At that time, I was really rusty, and not very familiar with Soggy Paws. And we were kind of pinched for time. So I just sorta winged it... I went to the Commissary at Patrick every day for about 5 days, and bought a piled-high cart load. And I just crammed it in the lockers that Dave pointed out to me, pretty much 'willy nilly'. I just kept buying, seat of the pants, until there wasn't any more room aboard. (I did have a little experience, from cruising before).
Dave also had a bunch of stuff in boxes from his storage area that either came his way from his Boy Scout Charter days or bought in 2005 when he last thought he was leaving soon for parts unknown. So that added to the 'mystery mix' aboard. (I'm still finding stuff I didn't buy, and probably won't use, in fairly large quantities).
So, bottom line, there WAS no storage plan on Soggy Paws when we left in May.
This time, I wanted to do it properly. No excuses now, time-wise. I'm retired, right?
So I started by pulling every last thing out of every deep dark locker, inventorying it, and starting from scratch. Soggy Paws has a lot more, deeper, storage space than I had on Island Time.
I put my inventory directly in an Excel spreadsheet. It took me about 4 days to get thru all the food lockers, write everything down, and make a list of what more to buy.
I was nearly done...buying and stowing... and keeping track of it all... until last night... when I was trying to clean junk off Dave's computer... to install something new.
I guess I accidentally deleted my 'What's Where' spreadsheet.
When I couldn't find it this morning, I tried in vain to recover it. I tried 2 different 'undelete' programs, but since I'd installed a bunch of stuff after deleting it, it is apparently gone forever.
*(&^%$!!
I hadn't gotten around to backing it up to another commputer or a thumb drive. :p
*Sigh*
So I have to go back thru the lockers and re-inventory everything AGAIN.
I COULD just go back to 'willy nilly' mode, but I found so much stuff that I didn't remember I had, when I was inventorying lockers, that I really want some kind of record of what's where.
I probably won't keep it up over time, but when I'm trying to figure out where that package of Brownie Mix is, at least I'll have some idea of where to start looking.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Getting Ready to Pull Out of the Rio Dulce
We are now definitely focused on leaving here and heading further south. Our target date is to cross the bar out of the Rio on Jan 18th.
Dave has compiled a short list of projects we NEED to get done before we leave.
In the last week he has (almost) finished the propane system rework. We only lack a few connection fittings that our friends on Infini are bringing back from the States. We hauled our Force 10 stove out onto the dock, and while I thoroughly cleaned the stove, Dave replaced all the 30 year old propane hose on the boat.
He also 'plumbed in' connections for our new propane instant hot water heater and a connection to the grill. The entire system can now be fed from either of 2 tanks by just changing valve settings, and we can shut on/off supply to the 2 new connections when they are not in regular use. It's a pretty slick setup.
We've also been doing some maintenance on the rigging. I spent 3 hours up there a couple of days ago--remounting hardware at the top of the mast that we had taken down (or lost overboard) due to tall mast/short bridges. We now have a new Windex and a new 'lightning spike'. I also installed new lime-green 'spreader covers'... the foam tubies from Walmart make great chafe gear, but need to be replaced about every 18 months.
View from Soggy Paws' Mast
Dave spent another 3 hours at the top of the mast yesterday, trying to get a new tricolor light mounted. Unfortunately the old holes and wire leads don't match up with the new light, so he's got to make an adaptor.
We spent some time yesterday playing with Dave's Mast Ascender. Since our friend Jim Yates raves about how easy it is to go up using his Top Climber (similar, but different brand), Dave thought he'd try it out. It has the advantage of being able to get you higher than the mast top, which is difficult in a conventional bosun's chair.
The instructions with our 'Sea Connections Mast Ascender' are 3 pages of printed instructions and no diagrams, and refer to 'the ascender directions' which are not enclosed! Apparently this company is no longer in business. But we did find some helpful diagrams on the Petzl website (the maker of the ascender devices).
It is not that hard to ascend, but for me at least, descending was very difficult. The ascenders (common mountain climbing devices) are made for ASCENDING, not descending. I saw a post on a mountain climbing website, where a rigger was asking about descending techniques and the mountain climbers' response was: you dummy, those are ASCENDERS, not DESCENDERS. Maybe the Top Climber has a better system--it's definitely using different devices (but their video doesn't show a descent!)
That's why we couldn't get over to photograph the tarantula yesterday, I had been playing with the ascender and was stuck about 15' in the air and was having trouble going down! (I did eventually get myself down without having to be rescued)
When Dave finally climbed all the way to the top of the mast, it did work as advertised going up, and for standing up at the mast. Coming down, Dave managed to get himself halfway down the mast, but we eventually just lowered him in the chair on the second safety line, just because it was faster/easier.
Dave has compiled a short list of projects we NEED to get done before we leave.
In the last week he has (almost) finished the propane system rework. We only lack a few connection fittings that our friends on Infini are bringing back from the States. We hauled our Force 10 stove out onto the dock, and while I thoroughly cleaned the stove, Dave replaced all the 30 year old propane hose on the boat.
He also 'plumbed in' connections for our new propane instant hot water heater and a connection to the grill. The entire system can now be fed from either of 2 tanks by just changing valve settings, and we can shut on/off supply to the 2 new connections when they are not in regular use. It's a pretty slick setup.
We've also been doing some maintenance on the rigging. I spent 3 hours up there a couple of days ago--remounting hardware at the top of the mast that we had taken down (or lost overboard) due to tall mast/short bridges. We now have a new Windex and a new 'lightning spike'. I also installed new lime-green 'spreader covers'... the foam tubies from Walmart make great chafe gear, but need to be replaced about every 18 months.
Dave spent another 3 hours at the top of the mast yesterday, trying to get a new tricolor light mounted. Unfortunately the old holes and wire leads don't match up with the new light, so he's got to make an adaptor.
We spent some time yesterday playing with Dave's Mast Ascender. Since our friend Jim Yates raves about how easy it is to go up using his Top Climber (similar, but different brand), Dave thought he'd try it out. It has the advantage of being able to get you higher than the mast top, which is difficult in a conventional bosun's chair.
The instructions with our 'Sea Connections Mast Ascender' are 3 pages of printed instructions and no diagrams, and refer to 'the ascender directions' which are not enclosed! Apparently this company is no longer in business. But we did find some helpful diagrams on the Petzl website (the maker of the ascender devices).
It is not that hard to ascend, but for me at least, descending was very difficult. The ascenders (common mountain climbing devices) are made for ASCENDING, not descending. I saw a post on a mountain climbing website, where a rigger was asking about descending techniques and the mountain climbers' response was: you dummy, those are ASCENDERS, not DESCENDERS. Maybe the Top Climber has a better system--it's definitely using different devices (but their video doesn't show a descent!)
That's why we couldn't get over to photograph the tarantula yesterday, I had been playing with the ascender and was stuck about 15' in the air and was having trouble going down! (I did eventually get myself down without having to be rescued)
When Dave finally climbed all the way to the top of the mast, it did work as advertised going up, and for standing up at the mast. Coming down, Dave managed to get himself halfway down the mast, but we eventually just lowered him in the chair on the second safety line, just because it was faster/easier.
Tarantula Alert!
Dave and I were up on deck working on stuff this morning and a lady from a boat down the dock started screaming about a tarantula on board.
The ruckus went on for quite some time because she lost sight of it and wasn't sure where it had gone. Then she washed it overboard, only to have the dang thing climb right back aboard. Someone who was watching said it actually swam under the boat and climbed up the other side, but I didn't see that myself.
She finally took her hose and washed it toward the shore and it disappeared into the jungle (not that far from our boat!)
Unfortunately we were not fast enough to get a picture of it. :(
The ruckus went on for quite some time because she lost sight of it and wasn't sure where it had gone. Then she washed it overboard, only to have the dang thing climb right back aboard. Someone who was watching said it actually swam under the boat and climbed up the other side, but I didn't see that myself.
She finally took her hose and washed it toward the shore and it disappeared into the jungle (not that far from our boat!)
Unfortunately we were not fast enough to get a picture of it. :(
Monday, January 7, 2008
Earthquake in Guatemala!
Just after we climbed into bed last night, we felt the rig shaking really hard for a couple of seconds. At first I thought it was a big gust of wind that had hit us. But Dave went up on deck and said it was dead calm out.
After a few minutes of discussion, we decided that it could be an earthquake. It turns out that the Rio Dulce is right on a fairly significant fault line between the Caribbean plate and the North American plate. See the little yellow 'we are here' on the map below.
Map from Major Guatemalan Earthquake in 1976
This morning on the VHF net, one of the Guatemalans came on and said there had been an earthquake last night just before midnight. I did a little poking around on the seismic sites and it looks like it was measured as a 5.1 or 5.2 somewhere in Guatemala.
Anyway, we are fine. There were no immediate reports of any damage in our area. All the boats are fine here at Catamaran Marina.
After a few minutes of discussion, we decided that it could be an earthquake. It turns out that the Rio Dulce is right on a fairly significant fault line between the Caribbean plate and the North American plate. See the little yellow 'we are here' on the map below.
This morning on the VHF net, one of the Guatemalans came on and said there had been an earthquake last night just before midnight. I did a little poking around on the seismic sites and it looks like it was measured as a 5.1 or 5.2 somewhere in Guatemala.
Anyway, we are fine. There were no immediate reports of any damage in our area. All the boats are fine here at Catamaran Marina.
New Year, New Look
We had an uneventful New Year's Eve. We missed partying with our old crowd at MYC, but had a nice time hanging out with our new gang at Catamaran Marina.
We sat on the dock and watched the fireworks upriver off the Castillo.
The hotel here was very busy between Christmas and New Years with Guatemalans on vacation. The bar was set up with a DJ for a big loud dancy party, so we opted to watch a movie on Soggy Paws. We did stay up til midnight and marveled at the beautiful starry night.
I've been poking around with Blogger trying to get a 3-column template. The old layout wasted so much white space. Since I publish the Blogger blog on my own website via FTP, the layout tools available with 'New Blogger' don't work for me.
I finally found a site that had an interactive template designer. It was really cool and I finally got the new template posted tonight. Here's the designer link for you geeks that want to play with it. PsycHo
The Sad Part About Cruising (Friends Leaving)
We were sad to see our new friend Doug leave in Serendipity today.
It is definitely one of the bad things about cruising... when new found friends go in other directions.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Back in Guatemala (Whew!)
We had an eventful last couple of weeks and I never got around to doing another update. So here's a rough sketch...
Thanksgiving with the family & unplanned road trip to Atlanta... We had been looking forward to Thanksgiving in St. Augustine to see all of Sherry's family at once. But Sherry's Dad got sick with acute pneumonia just before Thanksgiving and was unable to come down. By the time Thanksgiving was over, he was in intensive care with pneumonia in both lungs and some internal bleeding. By the end of the weekend he was on a respirator and in very serious condition. Sherry & her brothers jumped in her
brother's motor home and made a quick trip to Atlanta to see him, and Dave followed Sherry up in his car a day later. But we only stayed 2 days because we were just getting in my sister's way--she had his care well in hand and didn't need more people to care for.
It was nice to see Sherry's sister's beautiful new house in Fayetteville, but not under those circumstances.
Pictures of the family Thanksgiving can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/DLSAJ0ZkU5rCNf863
For awhile it looked like Dad was going to pull through, but he passed away quietly in his sleep on December 2.
We pushed off our planned December 6 return to Guatemala to December 9 so we could attend the family memorial service in the Keys. Again we enjoyed spending more time with Sherry's scattered family, but it was a very sad time saying goodbye to Gordo.
Pictures of Gordo's send-off can be found here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9I3kRAEZpbykjBfE2
On Sunday, we drove out from the Keys and direct to Ft. Lauderdale airport for a late night return to Guatemala via San Pedro Sula, Honduras (the only reasonably priced airfare we could get on short notice--our December 6 Spirit Airlines flight had been bought at such a discount that it was cheaper to abandon it than to change it). The flight into San Pedro Sula is pretty cheap because it is such an inconvenient time... You land at SPS airport at 12:30am.
I couldn't find much information about hotels in San Pedro Sula or the bus trip to Guatemala. We did manage to book a hotel and a shuttle from the airport via email ahead of time... good thing, because there were no taxis that late at night. And finally got some advice from other cruisers on the Rio about the bus trip.
We only got about 2 hrs sleep as we had to be up at 5am to catch the 6am once-a-day bus that goes to Rio Dulce. Though the 'crow flies' distance from San Pedro Sula to Rio Dulce is only about 60 miles, this is 'only' a 4 hour trip with an easy change in buses. But between a road that goes around the mountains, and 3 stops at the border for Honduran and Guatemalan Immigration, we were estimating 5 hours. We thought we were home free when we got to the crossroads, only 20 miles left on a straight
road to the Rio Dulce.
But the bus we were to change to got delayed, due to a traffic accident up the road. After about 2 hours, we finally gave up waiting for the bus we'd already paid for, and hired a passing van to take us and our 4 HEAVY suitcases the last 20 miles to the Rio Dulce. We finally arrived about 2pm, in the midst of a downpour. So Dave and I sat in the Rio Bravo bar annd had a pizza with Dave's friend Paul, who was there to give us a ride back to the boat.
We were happy to find Soggy Paws in good shape... except for the thin film of grey-green dust (mold) coating the interior, and some bright green mold in the low spots around the deck.
We are REALLY REALLY glad to be back. (Sherry started saying "I can't wait to get back on the boat" in about mid November).
Sherry's daughter Nicki arrives by plane in 2 days (Friday Dec 14), so we're furiously cleaning and getting the boat ready, as well as making travel reservations for travel with her around Guatemala.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Headed Home (a day in Guate City)
On Wednesday, Dave and I hopped on the morning Litegua bus to Guatemala City. It was an uneventful trip and I took advantage of the time to read a book. Dave marvels at my ability to read in a moving vehicle. But I've always done it. It's a great way to make the time pass.
We arrived in Guate about 2pm, at the Litegua bus station downtown, and negotiated for a taxi to take us to our hotel near the airport. We weren't sure what the far should be, but the taxi driver started at 90Q and we got him down to 60Q, so we probably got a reasonably fair fare.
Our hotel, a small family run hotel called Patricia's was recommended to us by a friend. http://patriciashotel.com/
It turned out to be a family home, in the traditional Guatemalan style with a courtyard in the middle. The family rents out 6 rooms with shared bath, 3 in each leg of the "U". It was a very clean and fairly cheery place, and Patricia and her family were very nice. The beds were firm, the pillows NOT lumpy, the sheets good. There is free wifi. TV is shared, in the courtyard.
We'd recommend this as a budget hotel close to the airport. The cost was $12 U.S. pp, which includes one airport transfer and a continental breakfast. They also gave us a ride into town (Zone 10) for 25Q (about $3). They do NOT do dinner, but there is a small diner within walking distance featuring typical El Salvadoran food.
After we got settled in the hotel, Dave and I spent the afternoon poking around the Zona Viva (Zone 10) in Guatemala City. This is the area where most of the foreign embassies are located, and has several US-style shopping malls, plus numerous bars, restaurants, and hotels, all within a few blocks of each other. This is where most non-backpacker tourists stay in Guatemala, either coming or going. There is a nice-looking Holiday Inn and a few other upscale US hotels. But the low end of these hotels start at $75/nite, a price we'd never consider paying in Guatemala.
We strolled the malls and were amazed at the "stuff". You can truly get just about any U.S. goods here, at a price. Not outrageous, just what you'd expect to pay when adding shipping costs and government import taxes (12%). The largest store in the Rio Dulce is about the size of a typical 3BR home in the U.S., so everything is limited in selection and quantity. So we just gawked at all the stuff in these stores. And the malls they were in were typical huge malls... 3 levels with a large food court in each one.
We also walked a few blocks to check out the budget hotel that many of the cruisers use when coming to the city. Hotel Las Torres
It is located in Zone 10 and within walking distance of all the malls, restaurants and bars. We had received conflicting recommendations from our friends. One friend said it was great, and other said they wouldn't stay there again. Though we didn't get to see a room, because they were all full, it looked "entirely adequate".
The Las Torres is right across from the Holiday Inn and costs half the price. They advertise a room rate of $38.50, but tell them you're a boater on the Rio Dulce and give them a boat card to put on their wall, and you get a room rate of $25. The front desk guy says their wifi works "most of the time". I think we'll stay here on our way back through Guate just to experience it for ourselves.
Our plan was to eat while downtown and then catch a cab back to the hotel for an early night. We needed to get up at 4:30am to catch our 7am flight out to Ft. Lauderdale.
I have to confess that we ate in the mall food court, and then had an ice cream at McDonalds. The mall meal was good--at a New Orleans themed restaurant though with a Guatemalan flair.
We flagged down a taxi back to the U.S. Again he asked for almost double what it should have been and when Dave started pressing for a lower price, he whined about rush hour, etc. We settled on 30Q, but Dave gave him 35Q, because the traffic was bad and he turned out to be a nice guy.
It appeared that we were the only guests at Patricia's. We never saw another guest, and it was a nice quiet hotel, EXCEPT for the engine noises coming from the airport. The traffic dies down after dark and the only one that disturbed us was about 4am, some turbo prop revving up his engines.
Monday, October 22, 2007
The People You Meet Traveling
I have been meaning to write for awhile about the amazing variety of people we have met while we've been traveling in Guatemala. Just on our trip last weekend, we met some really cool and different people:
Brian is a non-denominational, non-governmental social worker in the Dominican Republic. Brian is originally from South Africa, but now is a US citizen. He and his wife have been working together in Haiti and the DR for about 5 years. Though a big strong guy, he has a very gentle heart and a clear mission in life. Brian is in Guatemala studying Spanish so he can better interact with the people he is working with. Website
Adam is a newly commissioned lieutenant in the US Army Reserves. He was an Army sergeant, but just completed 6 months of officer training school, and is taking a break for a few months in Guatemala. He's studying Spanish and working as a bartender at the local sports bar.
William is a young man from Belgium, but is of Guatemalan origin. William was adopted from Guatemala as a baby, and has returned to get to know his country of birth. He's one of the most outgoing (and nice) people we met. Being Belgian, he grew up knowing French and Dutch. His English is pretty good, and he's learning Spanish.
Laurel and Darrin, a mid-life couple from California who are 9 months into a 15 month trip around the world. They've been backpacking for 9 months, and have been all over... Australia, Nepal, India, etc. From here they are headed to South America. Their $3,000 round-the-world airline ticket runs out in March... Website
Steve and Jacky are a mid-life couple from New Zealand, traveling in Mexico and Guatemala on a 6 week vacation. Jacky's stories of traveling in her younger days (3 days across Africa in the back of a fish truck) were incredible.
Kim, who is a 50-ish Korean man. His brother has lived in Guatemala for a number of years and Kim has come here to visit him. He studies Spanish in the school in Antigua during the week, and then goes to his brother's house in Guatemala City for the weekend.
John and Celine, a French Canadian couple. John is here for his 4th time. His Spanish is pretty good, but he's still expanding his vocabulary and increasing his fluency. He brought his wife Celine down here so she could learn and travel with him.
Hanneka, a Dutch woman. Here by herself, just hanging out in Guatemala, and learning Spanish and seeing the sights.
- Suresh, who is a Canadian from Ontario. He has just completed his medical school entrance exams, and has a couple of months to wait before the results come back. So he's here studying Spanish and hanging out. He already knows Spanish much better than I do (from only 2 weeks and Spain, he said).
- Lucy, a young girl about 21 who wasn't really interested in college. Her parents suggested she try a different tack and encouraged her to go to Guatemala to volunteer to do some social work up in the highlands of Guatemala. The prerequisite was 2 months of language school, which she finished last week. Lucy got on a bus for Xela last weekend to go up into the mountains until Christmas.
And of course the 'yachties'. To our amigos at the school, our life and plans are very exotic, too. They are interested in exactly how we are living (and how we can afford it.
The common questions when you meet another student (in a bar, in the square, on a bus to somewhere, at the mid-morning break at the school).
- Where are you from?
- How long are you here for?
- Where have you been in Guatemala?
- Where are you going next?
- How can you afford to do this?
It is fun sharing life stories and tips about how to see more of Guatemala for less. And it is inspiring to meet other adventurous people like ourselves.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Coban, Lanquin, Semuc Champey
We left the school at 1pm on Friday. There were 9 of us and luggage, plus we were picking up 3 more at the crossroads. Hmmm... could be a little tight in that van!
They had promised us an itinerary, but we never got one (and forgot to ask until we were underway). Maybe it was a plot to make us have to talk Spanish with our driver!
The driver, Carlos, seemed to only speak Spanish (but later I found out that he speaks English pretty well). I was worried that the fact that we were supposed to be picking Dave, Ron, and Dorothy up at El Rancho hadn't been properly communicated. So I worried the whole way until we actually had them in the bus that something wouldn't work out right. But it was no problem.
We didn't pick them up in El Rancho until about 4:30pm, and we still had about 2 hours to go to get to Coban. To fit all 12 people in, with luggage, we had to put Sue on the jump seat next to the driver, and Dorothy on the back jump seat next to the luggage. They swapped places on the way back and both ended up with sore bums.
It was a dark and rainy night and we were all glad that someone else was driving us. Carlos turned out to be a very good and careful driver. Most of the roads in Guatemala are still only 2 lanes. And they have no trains and no ports to speak of, so ALL the goods in the country move via truck. AND the roads are very mountainous, so one heavily laden truck going up a hill will essentially stall traffic to a crawl. So the other drivers just pass them anywhere, any way they can... on hills, on blind curves, etc. It is not uncommon to have 3 abreast on a 2 lane road. They are all crazy. It's nervewracking to just be in the passenger seat. But Carlos refused to pass unless he could do so safely.
The sleeping arrangements for our 2 nights in the hotel had been a little fuzzy. The normal student population (the backpackers) are used to dormitory style accommodations. But I wanted to spend at least the first night alone with Dave, so I asked for a private room for us and another for Ron and Dorothy. There were 2 other couples in the group and 4 single people. Once all the keys had been given out, it turned out that my friend Sue (who is married) ended up being paired with Kim, an older gentleman from Korea. He wasn't too keen about that and neither was Sue.
There were no more rooms to be had. So they shuffled things a little bit and they ended up putting her in with 2 other students (in a 3-bed room). I think the name of the hotel was Pasado Don Antonio, but it was somewhat unremarkable. We got there late, it was pouring rain and it continued to rain until we left in the morning.
The next morning we had breakfast in a Pollo Campero, which is a McDonalds-style fast food restaurant that specializes in chicken.
They are all over Guatemala, but so far we had refused to eat in one. But our driver, Carlos, picked this place because it was easy and relatively fast. It was not bad. Dave and I both got 'Plato Super Tipico' which included refried beans and fried plantains (and eggs, bacon, etc).
Once we left Coban for Lanquin, the paved road ended and we went the rest of the way on dirt roads. However, we saw regular mile markers (in kilometers, actually). We wondered whether someone would really go 265 Km on this road!!! I think it was only about 40 Km to our final destination, but it took us 2 hrs of driving to cover that distance. It had rained the night before and the roads were muddy and slippery, and we were going up and down hills on very rutted roads.
With the van so heavily loaded, Carlos had to get a running start before going up a hill. Once, we met another car coming our way, and we had to stop to let him pass, and then Carlos had to back down the road a quarter of a mile to get our running start again. We also had to shift a few people to the back, to put some more weight on the back wheels. We eventually made it.
The first stop on Saturday morning were the caves of Lanquin (lan-keen)... Las Cuevitas de Lanquin. This was a big series of caves with lights, etc. Our guide spoke only Spanish and took us through the cave pointing out formations that look like something else. (ie one rock looked like a monkey face, El Mono).
It was kind of uninspiring after our cave trip in Belize. Everyone was excited when Dave pointed out the bats hanging from the ceiling. The cave was lit, but they had told us to bring flashlights in case the lights go out. They say there are miles of caves that have not been explored.
After the caves, we piled back in the van for another 10 Km to get to our final destination, Semuc Champey and Hotel Las Marias. It was more bumpy slithery road, though small villages and at least one coffee plantation.
Las Marias is situated on the Rio Lanquin, right near Semuc Champey.
Semuc Champey is a series of waterfalls and pools, where the river goes (mostly) for awhile. The sight of the river falling into this big hole was an amazing site.
We got a chance to swim and climb around on the rocks in the pools.
Then Dave and I and Sue opted to walk back via the 'mirador' (overlook). It was a half hour climb up steep steps (both rock and wooden) to get there. But the view was worth it and we saw 3 toucans in the tree nearby. The picture at the beginning was taken from the mirador.
We met some of our friends from the La Union school who had also gone to Semuc Champey on a trip they organized themselves. They got to do the tubing trip in addition to the waterfalls trip.
At dinner the owner of the hotel and his buddies hauled out their Marimba and played some authentic Guatemalan music for us.
The trip back on Sunday was long. The only fun thing was our stop at Biotopo Quetzal, where we did an hour nature walk through the 'cloud forest'. There are supposed to be Quetzals (the Gaute national bird) there, but we didn't see any.
More pics here:
Coban, Lanquin, and Semuc Champey
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Language School, after Day 4
We've settled in to a weekday routine... up at 7am, breakfast on the table at 7:30 (made by our house mother Estela), and out the door to school at 7:45.
My teacher and I in school
It's about a 10 minute walk from our casa to the school. Each student/teacher pair gets a desk, and there are about 30 desks scattered around the school. We get a break from 10:00 to 10:30am. There is an old woman selling meat pies on the street at break. Or you can go next door to the internet cafe.During the morning, one of the people from school comes by and describes the day's afternoon activity and asks if you want to participate (all in Spanish). Yesterday, it was a free Salsa/Merengua class. Today it was a visit to Mayan family house for a demonstration on weaving, a mock wedding, and some 'plata typica' (typical Mayan food), with, of course, an opportunity to buy some Mayan handicrafts (yep, bought another one).
School ends at 12 noon. Lunch (back at the casa) isn't til 1pm, so we have time to either check some email or lounge a bit before lunch. Most of the afternoon activities start at 2pm, so it's back to the school for that. We are usually back at the casa by 5pm, where Estela has dinner ready.
Then we study... an hour or two, perhaps interspersed with a little bit of TV. (CNN in English, sometimes a Spanish channel).
Every weekend the school also organizes a group tour for the weekend, to some place in Guatemala. This weekend the tour is to Coban, Lanquin, and Semuc Champey. This is an area of caves and rivers, where the attractions are rain forest, caves, tubing, and waterfalls. The cost for the trip, including transportation and hotel, is $85 pp. This is an area that Dave has been dying to visit. So when I heard that was where the trip was, I called him and asked if he wants to try to meet me. He researched the logistics of getting from the Rio Dulce, and said it was do-able. He also enlisted our friends Ron and Dorothy. So the three of them are going to catch the Litegua bus to El Rancho, where the road from Antigua/Guatemala City turns left to Coban.
Note: Coban is not Copan, which is a place of ruins in Honduras.
Our humble abode.
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