More Rio Dulce Pics

Town Pig

The best way to get fresh produce

But be careful. You will get Gringoed. You have to learn to discuss the price.

Local Shopping

Cruising

For years Pam and I cruised up and down the ICW. This is our first trip one way on the open ocean to see how far we can go. Maybe all the way around will be too far. We are getting old our boat is home built and we “really” don’t have much money but for now we are as happy as someone with all they need. We have been ask for years what it like to go cruising. That like asking what it like to be married. I don’t know what to say or how to say I just like being there. Having Pam with me and being on a trip. I’m there. So maybe telling what it was like when we left Southport our home port the last time will give you some idea what our lives are like when we are cruising. We were anchored out in the CP& L canal waiting on our friend Gene to get his boat ready. It was close to Christmas. He was talking about buying a bigger boat. We talked him in to just taking the boat he had and let’s go. A Person 26.We had a little over $800 cash in the cruising kitty and owed close to half that on the credit card but we could make payments on that and see have far we could go on what we had before it was time to go back to work. We were telling him we really needed to go and he was saying he really need one more day so I went down to the marina and made a plan to stay one night on the dock. Top off the batteries take on water walk around on land do laundry. The next day our friend Jean said just one more day so we went on to the dock his boat was already there. When we got there the dock master said there is a boat here that needed his sail fixed but the guy wasn’t there. When he came back it was late. He said he was going down the ICW too but only if he could get his sail fixed. That guy our friend Gene our friend John from Tow Boat US and I held a tarp over Pam so she could sew up his sail on deck of the Pamela Ann in the rain. That’s what we do for a living, we sew. Just before dark we paid for the dock that night and put a little more money in the cruising kitty. Then we all went to John’s house for our last supper together for what maybe a while. The next morning our friend Gene wasn’t ready. We waited. About 9 he finally got it together. We left. The guy with the sail, he decided to just tag a long too. Starting late is not the best way to started a trip but we were leaving. 9 in the morning is not late unless you were up before day light and really wanting to go. Pam was so this time she said it was late. The most important part of any trip is the leaving. We left like little ducks headed to the Oak Island bridge. As we went under the bridge there was people there standing on the bank Not a big crowd but I didn’t expect anyone to be there seeing us off. Pam cried a little. For as I know there is not a word that means sad but happy. You could see that in the face of one of my friend Gene’s best buddy standing there waving us on. It was decided we would take the lead. Set the pace and that was good. We are not a fast boat with our old VW car motors but we are easy to keep up with. When we got close to the Shallotte River our new friend with the sail was in the back. He stared to scream on the radio. There’s a plane crashing. About that time the plane came down right in front of us maybe 6 feet of the water and made a power clime back up. We had been buzzed. Now that against the law so I’m not going to say anything that would get anyone in trouble but our buddy John owns a air plane. When everything settle down our new friend Sail Man wanted to know if we had any more friends and what could he expect traveling along with us. We assured him we live boring lives and he had nothing to worry about. We were headed to the Sunset Beach bridge and that could be the most trouble we would have in the next few days. When we got there we were a few minutes after the hour so we had to wait. We did for almost an hour. Two cars crossed over the bridge. It was getting late And cold. They told us on the radio to get ready like we were not ready for the last hour. They open the bridge. We went through our buddy Gene came through then the radio came alive with Sail Man saying he had ran aground. He said he had made one more fast circle and was now hard aground. We told him to make him self comparable the tide would get him off when it came back in, but for now no one would even try pull him. If he called someone they would wait on the tide then charge him so wait on the tide and float off. Keep your money. We went on to little river and anchored. We would wait on him there. It was getting dark and colder. Pam had our home built kerosene furnish going and it was warm inside the Pamela Ann. After the hooks were down our friend Gene came over and we set in the cockpit talking about what had happen that day and what may happen tomorrow. Sailor talk. As sure as people in bars talk about bad. How bad they are. How bad their lives are how bad there boss is. You know bad. Sailors talk about how far they going and how to get the best angle on the wind even going down the ICW. Where they might sail a little. How they may save a little more money. With us it’s how we can sail and save diesel. That money. Money saved is more time that we don’t have to go back to work. Sailors have a bad reputation for being cheap but think about this. How many people quit there jobs with only a few dollars in there pockets and leave in a diesel thirsty boat to see the world or travel as far as they can. They don’t. How many people would walk up a railroad track to pick up coal to save on kerosene. We did on this trip. Most boats don’t have a little wood heater on board. We do. It was about a month later in Fernandina Fl. The railroad track is covered with coal that has fell off of trains going to the paper mill there.
Pam bought a big piece of meat at the grocery store before we left for first night out steaks. rump roast. We cut our own steaks and they are cheap that a way but we were too tired so we had beef stew home made biscuit and a little cake still warm right out of the oven for supper. After supper we sat in the cockpit and enjoyed the cold night air. Gene went home to his boat. We tried Sail Man on the radio one more time and to our surprise he came back. He said in one sentence “I got off, made the bridge ran aground again got off and I will be there in a few minutes. O Crap I’ m aground again.
Pam said “Stay there the tide coming in, don’t do anything. Tim’s on the way to help you.
I jump in Dumpling and it was out of gas. Had to find oil mix gas then made a run to help Sail Man.
He came back on the radio and said I’m off and coming your way now O Crap I’m aground again. I said on my hand held radio “Look for my light.” He said I see the light but the channel is not over there my chart plotter is new and the channel is over here.”
I went on and when I got to him we had a discussion on chart plotters and the fact that the channel markers are over there. Not over here so follow me. All the way to the river and on to the Pamela Ann. We discussed the facts that chart plotter are sometimes not as good as people think so just follow me and the “channel markers.” We rafted him up to the Pamela Ann. It was late. It was cold and I was tired. Didn’t want to watch someone anchor that had ran aground 4 times in one day. We said we had supper for him if he wanted it . He did and we sat there in the warmth of the Pamela Ann and watched him eat like he enjoyed it. He said it was the best meal he had ever had. I don’t know why people say that. Maybe it just being on a boat makes you say nice things. The next morning we had planned to leave the anchorage buy 8 we left at 7. Every one was up and ready to go. There was a boat on the radio saying they were aground down the water way blaming the president for not keeping the water way up. Sail Man said ‘Do you think we need to turn back if we cant get through and go outside?. I laughed and told him I bet he is just out of the channel like some one else we know. The water way is find. Don’t believe all you hear when they add in politics. Before the in of the day and we were anchored up Sail man had ran aground 4 more times. As it turned out he like to cook and was good at it but leaving your boat on auto pilot in the ICW to check on your cookies is maybe not a good idea. Not using channel markers just watching your new chart plotter and believing the salesman that you don’t need a deep sounder if you have a new chart plotter. You need to make sure you buy towing insurance. The big power boat aground cursing the president turned his anger on us when we went buy and I told him the channel is over here but that’s what it’s like sometimes when you go cruising and I don’t know why we love it so. But we do.

 Into the sunset

Slow sail on ICW

Safe Anchorage

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A trip to Town

A truck brought a live cow down to the river. The men laid it down and tied it’s legs.

They drug it over to a lancha

then rolled it over into their boat.

then left with a live cow in his boat

We love shopping in Fronteras

 

 

Information on Central America

This week has been a repeat of last week. We are wet and working on our boat a few min at a time when the sun out but its still fun being here. We have been planning on writing a blog on what to bring with you when are if you come to Central America . There is so much you don’t think about you don’t see here. Maybe we can tell how we came down. What we think we did wrong. We sailed most of the way. We were worried it would be to much with the south east wind and north setting current. You can do it if you work at it. For all of you that don’t sail. A lot of people don’t sail if it’s easer to just motor. Now let me say this. Pam and I have done our share of motoring. Lot of years up and down the ICW. Our old schooner sails better than she motors so we sail more than most but we will motor if we have too. You can read about our friends that sailed their little 23 foot boat Maus from New Orleans to here in some of our past blogs. They are real sailors. And maybe we can let people know what we found along the way that may help. When we first left to come down. We left Fort Myers Beach Fl. They have mooring balls there. Can’t anchor there any more. They’re cheap enough and when we left there was just a few boats there. You can take your dink to a very good grocery store there. We left and motored all the way to the Dry Tortugas. No wind it was August.

like anchoring in a bathtub 22 feet down

We decided we was not going to motor all the way to Mexico so we went to Key West. Sailed most of the way there. Found anchoring there tricky. Had a good time. Left Key west Christmas day sailed back to the Dry Tortugas left there Jan 2 headed to the west coast of Cuba. Found a counter current there. Big swells off the lower end of Cuba got hit half way across to Mexico with strong north east winds broke our main boom. My fault. Can read all about that in pass blogs. The current got us big time near Mexico. Maybe over 3 knots. Made Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Stayed 6 months. Left Isla to Puerto Morelos to Cozumel big mistake. Cozumel is a great place but no place to take a boat. No transit docks bad anchorage and that way you cross the gulf stream twice. Found that if you stayed in 100 feet of water off the Mexican coast we were out of the current. Didn’t have never enough to sail that close to the reef at night. Tried to make all we could in day light and not loose to much at night. Motor sailed some at night with short sails. Lots of thunder storms. Good sailing in Belize. No waves in side the reefs and a counter current.

Looking through the porthole and fixing lunch

In Guatemala found 7 1/2 feet of water at the bar in the Rio Dulce on a full moon tide. Motored through the gorge on an in coming tide and sailed most of the way to Fronteras. Again for people that don’t sail but want to know what it like to sail out of site of land and old man told me this a long time ago. There are 3 points of sail boredom, exhilaration and sheer terror. Ask any sailor that sails in the open ocean how far that is from the way it really is. What will give you the most trouble is the current and all them thunder storms stirring things up. What we have found in Central America that we have to deal with the most is food. We were told before we came that the vegetables here were the best in the world. We have not found that to be true. Cabbage is the size of basket balls or bigger. Carrots can be 16 inch long or longer. Potatoes, they only have one kind and beans. Its red or black. Green beans are pole beans picked early before they fill out. They only have one type of tomatoes that’s romas. long tomatoes. There is never any round tomatoes like “Better boys, “Big boys or Rutgers. If you want to see what people eat in Central America look in grocery carts in stores in the states of Latinos buying groceries. We did. Didn’t know what it meant. Do now. They will have big bag of roma long tomatoes. They cook with them. Get and hamburger with tomatoes here it will be the way they think gringos eat hamburgers. It will come with the onion and tomato cooked on top of the meat.. I’m not sure the locals eat hamburgers. Bags of limes they put lime in every thing even mayonnaise and their meat will be boneless that because they will cut any meat except chicken in to thin strips before they cook it. It dose not mater how they cut it long as it is in thin strips. No one goes to school to be a butcher here. Just cut it off and in to thin strips. Their corn here is the staple of life for most of the people here but its not like any I have ever had. Its tuff and has a strong corn taste. Grows to about 5 feet high in the field. Not the towering stuff you see in the states. Have not seen any sweet corn. If you buy canned corn you will be surprised how tuff and tasteless it is out of a can . All the time we have been dreaming about sailing about the world I thought every one ate meals basted on meat and vegetables. Maybe a starch like rice or potatoes served on a plate. Most people here eat out of bowls or out of their hands. Almost all of their meals are one pot meals “always” served with tortita bread are something fried like a taco. You can buy raw dry corn in grocery stores here take it home grind it the way you want it and make tortita bread your way. No coffee or no tea. You can buy it but they don’t drink it. That gringo stuff. What do Pam and I eat. We met and old sailor many years ago that said you go home to your boat when you want things the way it is back home and its true. Pam makes wonderful home made sausage. It’s hard to buy pork here with enough fat in it to make good sausage but they slip a lot of fat in to their ground pork so we use that. Pam bakes good biscuits they have never seen a biscuit here. What are some of the things that we didn’t expect here. One thing is there is no automatic transmission here in Central America. Even the buses here are strait drive. Not seen even one. Its hard to buy and extension cord here. I haven’t seen one for sale. They buy single strain wire and make them. When they are rolled up they look like and even bigger mess than when they rolled out. No sand paper. All you can buy here is wet and dry. Cant sand wood like teak with sand paper made for metal. Its gums up with the first stroke. Paint brushes here maybe 8 inches wide with and inch and a half bristle. If you want a good paint brush bring one. They sell a hammer in Mexico that is made just like the hammer made when the Europeans first came over. In the states people collect old hammers. Watch what you buy it may not be old just Mexican. They sell a beautiful brass plumb bob here. That a weight on the end of a string. The very first levels. Never seen any one build any thing in the states with one. They sell them every where here. They sharpen all knifes here with a grinder or with a file. The ones in the restaurant look terrible all ground down. A good knife sharpen on a oil stone will last a life time but where would you buy and oil stone here. I have watched women here working with there knifes. They look older than a Mexican hammer. A lot of what is here is home built. Every morning at the restaurant women come out and crack coconut open with a machete then grind out the meat with a home built grinder. A lot of life goes on here that a way so they don’t sell the latest and the greatest here. If you are into the latest and greatest bring it with you or you may find your self using a homebuilt thing e with a wooden crank handle. If you are coming this a way in a boat. Load up on canned goods and spare parts. They don’t live on canned good here. You can get good soap and bleach. These are very clean people. If you have a favorite paper goods bring it with you. In Mexico for a while we had a hard time finding good toilet paper. They had a lot of the John Wayne stuff. Takes nothing off of no body. If you need medicine and it not an addictive drug you can walk in to any pharmacy and buy almost any thing with out a prescription. Pennies on the dollars. If you do need a prescription doctors visit cost like 5 US dollars. We will try to keep putting in our blog what we see and how we see it. Like today is almost like tomorrow or yesterday. That takes some getting use too. Nothing changes much. When Pam and I use to drive trucks up north to Canada in the winner you had short days and very long days in the summer. Cold then hot. Not here its almost always the same. With the rain and the sun coming up and setting about the same time everyday. The locals here call this “The land of endless spring.” If you are coming down bring extra grits and find us.

 

looking at the full moon from the bridge across the Rio Dulce

More RAIN on the Rio Dulce

Rain Rain

All cowboys don’t wear hats and boots

Look at that belt buckle

Progress is coming

Two big tanks and they were rubbing the power line all the way through town

 

 

 

More Rio Dulce

This week It’s raining Again. We had 4 days in a row the sun shined some. The river was going down it’s rising again but for most of us life goes on. The gringos do there watercolor art classes, play dominoes and go to the bar in there gated communities, they call marinas to watch old moves. Pam and I don’t care much for that. What we love to do is mingle with the locals. Try our Spanish. It’s still awful but its getting better. When we came south we new about 4 words now we know maybe 5. If I can’t get what I want “I draw pictures.” It has always been may dream to be and artist. Now its paying off with the locals. It caused the people in a hardware store in Mexico to laugh, clap and shake my hand when I drew a single edge razor blade. Down here I needed a plumbing tee. Could not get the young girl to understand so I drew a picture of a tee. As the tee slowly appeared on the paper the girl spoke softly in Spanish to the people in the store. Slowly they all started to smile. No one went for the tee till I was done. I did as good a job as I could even shading it. Then she reach under the counter and gave me a tee all smiles. Its was to small but saying “Grande” did the trick and I had my tee. We go out to eat but to tell the truth its not really that good. The same in Mexico. Its really hot or just dull. Near the coast in Belize the food was okay but out in the country it was better. It was really very good away from the gringos. On the beach the food was for the tourist, beach crowd. It was more in what it’s called and what it looks like. In the country it was black people food. I love black people food. Lot of fat, lot of salt, lot of meat. Down here in Guatemala I have tried to see what they eat at home. I ask one of the guys that has been helping us what he like he said green bean cooked in eggs. Next week he is going to take us to his favorite restaurant to eat real Guatemalan food. We will let every one know what that’s like. I think a lot of what people eat here has to do with there financial state. If you have money you can eat a little better. If you live out in the country you grow a lot of what you eat. Osbaldo is one of the guys we have working for us. We had him in our blog last week. Rides a bicycle for an hour and a half to get here works like a little machine. Has a beautiful family. We pay him 65 US dollars a week Money we really don’t have. Taking it out of the cruising money. We will have to anchor out and eat more beans later. We were eating lunch together last week. Ask him what he had. He said just rice. I said “No carne?’ He said “No dinero“. Short week last week, Rain. That’s the way it is here. If you don’t have money you make do. Carney is meat as in chilly-con-carne. Chilly with meat. He didn’t know it but we were eating cheap ourselves. We had wieners fried with scrambled eggs and fresh bread, toasted. I gave him one of my 3 wieners and a Pepsi in a returnable glass bottle, down here they are just like they were when I was coming up. They’re good. After being here as long as we have you start to see that some people here live there lives a lot different than others here do. The Mayan people like living with old ways. The Latino’s are buying motorcycles, cars, modern clothes and “will change” the country for better or worse to be more modern. You see it on the street or where young people gather.

The men that work out on the ranches here are and will always be just cowboys. I like to watch the old men that come in to town off the ranches. With their cowboy boots polished, their blue jeans pressed their long sleeved fancy shirts just ironed. You can just see great story in there faces and the way they tip their hats to the ladies. When I have been talking about the people here I have not talked about the rich here. We never talk to them. There are always heavily guarded. You can’t get close to them. Who are they. People say they are owners of large tracks of land or ranches owners. Some go all the way back to when the Spaniards came took the land and gave large track of land to families here. There’re teak plantations here and rubber plantations. Who ever they are they travel in caravans with lots of guards. A couple of weeks ago I heard kids playing on the dock. I went out to see to make sure they were not in Dumpling, our dink. There on the dock were 3 kids with a well dressed man and 6 guards in full combat gear all carrying machine guns. I spoke in Spanish and English no one answered. Some how it just pissed me off. I hate arrogance even if you are carrying machine guns. After a few minutes they slowly left. They had not been gone more than 10 minutes a big thing I think are seed fell out of a tree right where they were standing. In a way I wish it had fell when they were there. When they fall they break open and go all over the place. It looks like a big brown pear maybe a little over a foot long. Maybe it was best. I think people that carrying machine guns get a little up tight when thing start falling and flying apart.
Across from where we are there is a dock for rich Guatemalans . They keep their large motor yachts there. There’s a pad there for their helicopters. They fly in and out you never see them. A while back we were over on the Shell fuel dock a helicopters came in. A little later a big power boat came slowly over to the dock. It had a man in uniform driving. A big fat man setting beside him smoking a cigar. You don’t see a lot of fat people here and never some one smoking a cigar. Maybe a gringo. On deck was a woman all made up nails hair and dress in cloths a rich woman would wear on a yacht. There was 2 young teen age girls on deck wearing as little as possible and the woman trying to make them put on a swimming suit cover up as they came to the dock. They all looked Latino. When they left two “Go- fast” boats went with them. The go-fast boats had guards with big guns. So there is some money here but most people here have very little.
I read some where some smart man said “To put a true value on any thing you have to have something to compare it to.” I never look at these people as poor. I look at them as resourceful. They do so much with so little and they are happy or they look and act happy. They are not ready to riot at the littlest things and they are so clean but if you compare them to the poor in the US . The poor in the US would be well off down here and dirty. Its hard to find a job here and the people here just can’t understand how the people in Europe and the US can get paid to do nothing. Just stop working with all the jobs there and do nothing and the government will pay you. Down here if you “can’t” work and your family won’t feed you. You beg on the streets. If you can’t find a job. You make one.

Woman selling oranges

Walk the street and sell something. Ride a bicycle for an hour and a half one way to look for work. I wish sometimes we had money. We could give the guys we have working for us a job as long as we are here but we are going to have to stop. We just don’t have any more money. To make it clearer how different life is here. I carry a Swiss Army knife. Full size not a Tinker. They have them over at the marina for Q527.00 That more than a worker can make in a week. Think about that . You have to work over a week to carry a good but simple pocket knife. How do they stay so happy. Maybe it this way. My Granddaddy used to say a rich man can not have enough money and sometimes a poor man can’t see how well off he really is. You read about it all the time when people travel how little some people have in the world and their happy. Sometimes I feel sorry we didn’t make more money. Sometimes I am glade we lived a little and didn’t work so hard. Maybe we all have a little rich man in us and I hope I have enough poor man with his eyes open to see what Pam and I really have. Tomorrow we will set as we have said before in the cockpit listen to howler monkeys, drink hot Earl Grey tea and dream about where this old home built schooner built a lot out of what other people have throw away, will take us. We may have so little we have to anchor out eat more bean and rice. What ever it takes. Down here what we have is a lot. Maybe it’s a lot back in the states. We just have to much rich man in us to see it.

 

This week’s Pics

Most famous store on the river with water inside from all the rain. We shop barefooted.

People here always seam to have a smile

 

Almost every thing down here is handmade

 

 

Paradise

This has been as it always is another week in Paradise. We are still working on our boat. Why is it taking so long? Well it’s and old boat. An old home built boat. Built out of what other people have thrown away. And there’s the thing that has always been a problem. I am easily, lets say distracted. Now I have learned that even a good excuse does not count for much with people that always get a lot done. But it has rained here all week. When we were coming down here. We were told that it rains here a lot. So how much is a lot. I think I know what a lot is now. It’s more than I have ever lived with before. If you can’t wash it. It has moss growing on it. Remember I have always said the people here are the cleanest people we have ever been a round. Maybe it’s because if you don’t wash it you will have moss growing on it. Its rain every night. Sometime during the night you can count on it. It rains during the day sometimes after you get things laid out. One thing I have learned about central America when you are doing something and you need something like it to stop raining it may not for weeks. This is week two of rain are maybe you need a bolt. You go to the store it’s closed. Another holiday. One thing for sure you can’t fight it. Go to another store. No other store has one and why would they. They have a store in town that carries bolts it’s just closed for a holiday. You wait. Another day in paradise. Sounds like it’s hard to live here. Its easy to live here. It’s hard to get any thing done but its to easy to live here. We love it here. I get up every morning go outside set in the cockpit . Watch the sun rise. Drink hot Earl Grey tea. Cant get it here have every one going or coming to the states bring me all they will carry. You start doing that if you sail a lot. Getting up and getting and early start on the day. The hot tea thing well that’s just me. We listen for hollow monkeys. We wonder what we are going to do and is the rain going to stop. Its always raining in the morning are wet from last night’s rain. By maybe 9 it clears up a little. If the sun comes out it’s hot. I cant work in the sun. Its just to hot. Ask anyone that has lived it the tropics how hot the sun is. Get out of the sun its not to bad. After lunch the wind starts to blow. You can work then till dark if it don’t rain and if you can find some bolts. The people here don’t have much but they don’t worry much about work. It’s like they need a few days off each week to get what ever they need done and if someone tries to make them work 5 days in a row. Well they have a holidays. This week they had a few. One was All Saints Day. From what I can understand it has a lot to do with babies. They go and put flowers on babies graves.

 

More flowers than veggies at the market this week

At the local church here they have their own saints. Its was his birth day. They had a special celebration. We were invited to go by the guys that have been working for us. They wanted off. I have that Easley distracted thing. So we all went. I don’t understand all the robes, candles and stuff but if it makes people feel better about there life, I am all for it. What I liked was the food. All kinds of food. Real Guatemala food. I am not going to say all of it is good. Remember they have built up a taste for what they eat like we have built up a taste for boiled peanuts. I love boiled peanuts. The real ones. Not what you by on the side of a parking lot. Real ones are boiled the day you pull them up before they have time to dry. The ones you buy most of the time have been socked are boiled so long they finally get soft then they add a lot of salt to make them taste better. You are just tasting salt. Going to that church I wanted to eat food the way they eat it. When you hear that they eat a lot of tortilla bread here. A lot dose not get close. When we got here I could not believe how much tortilla bread they eat. They eat it ever day, all day. If you go to a restaurant your food comes with tortilla bread. To me it’s dull and every thing they eat has that tastes unless it has hot pepper in it. When you add lots of pepper you know what that’s like. They have a lot of vegetables here we have never seen. They may ship some to the states someday but old white people won’t eat It. Its just to different. The people at the church watch us. We were the only gringos there but it’s a church ever one treated us with respect and was good to us. I tried every thing and ate most of what we bought. We had to buy every thing we ate. It’s a church. They were celebrating their saints birthday but raising money too. There is so much they don’t eat here. Like banana sandwiches. They don’t eat peanut butter. No mac&cheese. Mac&cheese is my favorite vegetable. They stare when we eat banana sandwiches with peanut butter. One thing we all like here is eggs. They eat eggs. Lots of eggs. They sell them everywhere. They are setting on almost every store counter. Never in a refrigerator.  Just setting on the counter and you can buy them all or just one egg. You carry them home in a bag. Pam buys hers from the woman that comes by in her boat selling stuff. Pam just hand her the plastic egg carton she keep eggs in so they won’t get broke in our fridge. Eggs here are not graded so this week they would not fit in her carton they were to big. Next week they maybe small. The biggest change in food is meat. You can buy chicken here. Every one has chicken but they cut it up a lot different. We mostly buy it hold. Pork, you can buy pork chops and other pieces of pork sometimes where they sell to gringos but beef is the challenge. A cruiser told us you get use to not eating beef. No you don’t. You do with- out. it’s the beef here Its tuff, taste-less and they have no idea how to cut meat. You buy it as a peace of meat cut of off a cow. There is no cuts of meat here. No T- bones, no rump roast. You can get it where its’ been shipped in but you pay for it. So we have been looking for something else. They catch a crab here that is a little smaller than in the states. They are good. We eat them when  we want to have something special.

 

We brought nice crabs from this man in the
dug-out canoe

Maybe that’s what makes traveling through a place like this paradise. We have not been here long enough to get boarded with this place. You can find something good to eat here. Maybe it’s not a thick juicy steak. I do miss that. You can always find something good to eat in the states but it hard to hear hollow monkeys in the mornings. When we leave here are we going to paradise or leaving paradise. Maybe we all have trouble knowing where paradise is. We have two guys that have been helping us. I listen to them. They are just as different as the food here is.
“Es ball do” is how you say one of my helper name. He has 3 kids, one just a month old. He rides for and hour and a half one way to get here on his bicycle. I pay him 65 dollars US a week. He is happy or he says he is. I am paying him more than he usually makes. You know rich gringos or that’s what they all think. His wife is very pretty. He brought his family here to meet us.

Soballdo’s Family

 

He had to take a day off to get his baby recorded. The baby was born like his other babies at home. He had to bring the baby to the hospital to show they had it. Do paper work including having the village head man sign the paper saying they had it. My other helper is a reformed wet back. Speaks some English Came back didn’t like the states. He said he had to work to much. He liked what you could buy but you never have any time to just not work. Or time to take it easy. Is living in paradise living easy or living with very little. Tomorrow when we get up it may be raining. I still need them bolts. We bought a little peace of beef. We have a cubing hammer. Maybe we can eat it if I beat it long enough. I don’t know what kind of day it will be but I would bet you know what kind of day I think it will be.