Christmas in Rio Dulce

Christmas came and we were surprised at what a fine Christmas we had. As I have said in other blogs we were worried we would maybe miss out on Christmas this year. Being so far away from the people we care for. Pam and I have spent Christmas traveling before and it was okay but I believe it’s best when you can spend Christmas with close friends and family If you are traveling it’s great to have new friends that hopefully you will see again and they will be old friends the next time you see them with you at Christmas. This Christmas was a special time for us because this was our first time out of the states We left Key West Fl last year on Christmas day. Before we went to bed that night we were laying to our anchor at the Dry Tortugas. The wind was blowing hard . It was a ruff night in the anchorage. The last outpost in the US before we were to put to sea. We had to make our decision to go are not. It’s bigger than most people think. Leaving the states going to sea. Not knowing what lays ahead. Remember we built our boat. We are getting older. We have very little money. Neither us are the boat have ever been tested to see if we can handle going to sea for Real before. We have always sailed along the coast where you can always be back inside in a day or so. Days at sea. Going places where we don’t speak there language. What if we get very sick what then? How can we handle the law in other country? What rights do you really have in a third world country? Checking in and out. Will we run out of money, what then? The list goes on . “What ifs.?” What we have found out and have we been tested . What we found is its not like we dreamed it would be. Its harder to change “our” ways than I thought. Like having a good steak. Not down here. Not happening. You think you like hot weather next summer try it with no air condition.. Just don’t turn it on. Try shopping in stores with no air condition, full of people. Down here no store has AC you have to change your ways because its always hot and do every thing with out AC. Like try to sleep it raining and its hot. The many ways we have had to change our ways goes on. Have we been tested. “ Not really.” It’s all in our blog where we broke our main boom off the coast of Cuba out to sea. Drug anchor in Mexico in a storm . Got sick enough to go to a hospital in Mexico. Running out of money that’s not a test in our world that’s just normal. So far the money it’s been close very close some times but we are making it. Has being here in Central America been worth the change? The hard work. Living with it always hot. The long days at sea. You know I am going to say yes. Being here has been better than we dreamed. Seeing all of this. Learning how other people live but we have had to learn to live with the change. Pam has a wringer for washing our clothes now.

There is no laundry-mats in Central America. You can find a few places where women will wash your clothes for you but it a hassle to take them go back to get them what they put in them to make them smell good I don’t like. Pam won’t take real dirty close because their too dirty and she don’t want them to see them. There is very few washing machines down here so Pam washes our clothes by hand like most of the women down here do but she has a new ringer ordered from the states now. She found it on line. It’s for car washes in the states. Looks awful but it works. Have you ever dreamed and wanted to go back and live on the frontier. Go sailing with only a little money. The frontier life is closer than you think. Life in Central America for a lot of it people is a simple life. Cooking with wood no running water no electricity so Christmas is very small for most but they do what they can. Pam’s Granddaddy and mine said they got and orange for Christmas one year that’s all. I can only guess the train brought them up from Fl and it was a big deal oranges for Christmas. Life is that simple for a lot down here. We ask what our helper we hired was getting for his 3 kids and he said apples and oranges so Pam went to town. Remember shopping down here is not like shopping in the states. Finding what you are shopping for is hard and almost always higher than the states but Pam found some used dolls in good shape. It’s that way down here things end up down here from the states . Used things. Clothes with miss prints on them You may see a shirt with “Merry Cristmas” on them spelled like I spell. If they can’t sell them in the states they send them to places like this and sell them here sometime cheap but it’s hard to tell what things cost because you have to bargain with the sellers and who knows what they will sell thing for. Pam is good at it not me she will walk off they will call her back she will walk of again they will chase her down she go back finally she may make a deal. Not me that’s like work. We were ask to work a party at a marina so Pam and I volunteered to work for free because it was for the local kids here. Pam went to work and found a Santa the best we have ever seen to work the party. Didn’t speak Spanish didn’t matter the kids went wild over him. He is the one on our last blog. A Santa in a red hat red tropical shirt red shorts arriving and leaving in a dink. “Christmas in paradise” They had a couple of pinatas it looked like locust when they finally broke them open and the candy came out maybe a hundred kids hit the ground all at one time. We gave bus fair to our helper to bring his family to the party and I watch his little girls 3 and 5 give old Santa a good look when they went up to see him. “Today they believe.” I believe our helper and his family had a good Christmas.

We have new friends at the marina we went to, so we could make new sails for the Pamela Ann. They are English so they invited their friends all so from England and we had some friends here on there boat from the states. We cooked a turkey on the Pamela Ann in our caning pressure cooker. Had a dock party Christmas day. The guard that lives here lives in one room with his son they came too. Don’t speak any English not a word. I have put in a lot of our blogs what happens has a lot to do with where you are at and right here it’s turkey. Turkey is the thing for Christmas and anyone that can will have turkey on Christmas day here. It’s expensive here about 40 US dollars for 14 lb that’s more than a half weeks work to most here so I watched the guard go back the third time. I hope he eat all he could and we hope he and his son had a good Christmas. Pam fixed a sail and that’s where the money we were spending came from so Pam spent the last on fireworks and she and the guard’s kid shot fire crackers on the end of the dock. She has had a weakness for fire crackers and cannons all her life. I am glad we were never in service she may have stared a war If they left her along with the cannons. She has her on cannon. She left it back in the states at one of her aunt’s house storied away. It’s hers and she will fire it at any occasion. If you can come up with a occasion deserving a cannon firing she is ready. That’s the reason we left it there. I’m not sure people in a 3rd world country understand being fired upon.. What’s happing now that we are th through Christmas. We need to go back to making our new sails. We have to leave here soon. There is a new law down here and you can’t stay no longer than 180 days if you anchor out are you are in a unapproved marina. The approved ones are expensive about like the states. You have to leave and you can’t come back for 90 days. When you check in here that about 160 US dollars the other 90 days is 320 US to stay. Total 480 dollars for 180 days here. The country we want to go to is Honduras but their in what they call a CA4 country and we may not be able to go. They are 4 countries here that have signed an agreement and your time counts in all the 4 countries so when your time is up you have to leave and you can’t go to one of the other 4 countries. Pam is always saying life is just solving problems everyday so we will have to solve this one. Maybe we can and the adventure will go on .

Some Guatemala Christmas

Christmas Is Coming

Christmas day is just a few days away. Its hot here but believe it or not it feels like Christmas. We have been worried we would just miss Christmas and it would be just another day. What ever happens we will remember it because it will be our first Christmas out of the states. There are trees here with lights everywhere.

Village Christmas Tree

There is so much I didn’t think about before we came down here. They like fire crackers down here. They sell them every where. As I have put in a lot of our blogs the law is not in your every day life here so they sell big fire crackers.

Some fire crackers come in big rolls

If you haven’t been in Central America the law here won’t stop you for little things like driving with out your lights at night or maybe having 5 people your dog holding groceries on your motor bike and driving at night with out your lights and they don’t care how big your fire crackers are. The river is the same way. In the river when Pam and I are out at night we learned a trick years a go. If you put a LED flashlight under a bottle of water in the dark it makes the bottle light up. We may not see the boats that come by us at full speed but we feel they see us. Pam has a “big bottle” in Dumpling our dink all the time. I don’t know if its Christmas sprite or not but I do feel something when we are out at night in Dumpling in the river and you see Christmas trees light up all over with Guatemala boats coming by with out lights at full speed and the banks are going off like a war with fire crackers but what ever it is. It’s fun. In past years we have had friends come over. That’s hard to do any more when you don’t stay long any where and to old friends you are just to far a way on Christmas day. Family well they have their on families and their not leaving their family to find us on Christmas day. We don’t even have a phone anymore. I do miss having some where to go on Christmas day or having a lot of people to come by. One of our best Christmas “on the Pamela Ann” was the last Christmas in Southport before we left the first time Mrs. Harper came early and stayed late. She said she had been by her self most of the day the Christmas before. So this year we ask her to stay with us. 23 people came by and we eat turkey and quail fried in peanut oil on the dock in a turkey fryer. Mrs. Harper was and older woman but she mastered the head on the boat and looked happy all the time she was there. We never told her that some of the people there during the day was less say down on there luck. Some “way down” and we never told them that she was a woman of means. It didn’t seem important to anyone that day. Everyone that came by looked happy . We even had a couple that was on there way south and were anchored in the Yacht Basin. We invited them too. I can only wonder if they remember it as a good Christmas. Going over to and old schooner full of people eating taking, laughing being there in a little coastal town like Southport NC on Christmas day. We heard back a couple of times but like always we lost touch. Its always that ways with people that travel. As I have said in a lot of our blogs where you are at has a lot to do with what you can do. Here in Guatemala in the Rio Dulce we are just west of the bridge. We have changed marina again. We found a better place to make new sails for the Pamela Ann. She needs them. I can not believe we have traveled enough to need new sails but we have. That in it self seams like a dream come true. This is the first trip out of the states but them old sails have made many a trip north south and as far west as New Orleans. Maybe the new ones will take us even futher. As I was saying location has a lot to do with what happens and we are near the end of the marinas in the lake. Some of the friends we have made here would have to come a long way to see us and a lot have already gone on south for Panama. Pam and I may spend Christmas day on our hand and heeds making sails.

New Mainsail

This to is a dream come true. When Pam and I were young and dreaming of building a boat and sailing away. I don’t think I ever thought we were going to make it happen. We tried for a very long time before it did.. I know I never thought when we were dreaming I would master the art of sail making. And old sail maker told me this one time. There has never been a sail made that didn’t work if it carries you away but a good sail will carry you away faster. Maybe after all these years with all the sails we have made our new sails will carry us in to the wind and away a little faster. Making them here so close to the jungle in a place like this is like a dream happing with your eyes wide open. Has this been the best year of our lives. Not mine the best year was when Pam and I ran away and got married at 15 and 17 but this ranks some where near the top. Up there hear the top too was when we sold our house we were making payments on and built our log cabin “some people called it a house” down on Lake Greenwood S.C. We were young back then. Cut every tree and took most of a year off before we went back to work. That first year there was a good year. There have been other good years but what makes this one so different is we were finely able to live out our dream and leave the states. Findley sail away. Sail where if you go you have to sail across the open ocean. We have sailed lot in the ocean up and down the coast. Crossing over to the Gulf it’s best to sail on a over-nighter. Sailing for that long without seeing land you are out there but having to sail over the open ocean to get any where you want go. It’s different. It’s hard for us to get a weather report out there. We don’t have money for the newest and the greatest equipment. You have to watch for ships and deal with Being sea sick, weather you didn’t know was coming. Days at sea is not the fun people say it is “believe me.” What makes it worth while is where it will take you and it brought us here. I don’t think this will be our best Christmas ever so far from family and old friends. I think the best is when you can spend Christmas day with people you care the most about. There is so many people now we will never be able to spend another Christmas with ever again. Makes you think. Henry David Thoreau said “Live life deliberately every day.” I’m not smart enough to know how to live deliberately but if I did I would probably try to do it on Christmas day. I wish I could say something cleaver this close to Christmas but all I can say is how I feel. Pam and I wish you a Christmas like the one where you got your first bike. Made your parents load it up and take it to your grand parents house so they could see it then you pushed it a round where you lived so all your friends could see it. That is the kind of Christmas we hope you have “Merry Christmas” from Tim and Pam Pennington and our sleepy old cat, Rusty aboard the schooner “Pamela Ann” at Marina La Joya up the Rio Dulce, Guatemala
N 15 39.059
W 88 59.756

Mid Week Pics

Someone is getting a new Chinese Diesel

Street Shoe Repair

What you see is all there is to this drug store.

 

 

Currant events

Last week we went to Guatemala city on a bus. Front row seats. It was modern clean and you are given a seat number for the trip. Before you get on you are patted down and your take on bags are checked. It had air condition and was nice and cool. Nice and cool is something you learn to live with out down here. Its always hot. There is different ways of getting around in Central America. Maybe the buses are the best way to get around if you are shy. It cost a little more to ride a bus but if you don’t mind being a little more friendly try a clativa. They are 3 seat vans with a side door. Our friend said the most people he ever seen riding a clativa was 23. Are you may find a chicken bus going your way. They are old school buses from the states. They are privately owned buses and can be very colorful and yes you can bring your chickens along or maybe a baby pig. On top they have luggage racks built on them. I don’t know what you can’t hall on a chicken bus but I believe if 2 men can loaded it they will hall it. The most fun way to get a round is a tuk tuk they are 3 wheel motor bike car things. They’re in most of the small town down here and the best way to get around town. Maybe I should not mention this but if you are to shy to ride in a clativa and coming this way you will have to deal with this one day too. If I am in a place where “I can’t run” what to do when a young and beautiful women starts breast feeding a baby. Where do you look if they are talking to you. Or the worst making change in a store. I can’t make change on a day when I’m in a place where I don’t want to run. It may be a beautiful thing to some “makes me nervous.” How-ever you travel it’s fun to be here. On the trip to Guatemala City we went from sea level to about 5ooo feet. A little cooler and more modern where we went than I expected but where ever we went you knew you were in a Latino city.

When we first came in to the city we went by a piñata factory with a lot hanging out on the street but one looked out of place. It was the devil and a big devil piñatas is not something you would buy for a little kids birthday. We found out it was for “burn the devil day” on December the 7th to start the Christmas Season. There not really piñatas they just are made like one out of paper and have nothing inside them. They look really bad and are some big as a person. They hang them on a wire over a street and burn them.

Al Diablo
Setting another devil on fire.

Have you ever wondered what a McDonalds is like in a foreign country? We ate in one there. One thing you can not order in English we tried I ask for a Big Mack. Had the little girl looking like she was tired of trying to help us or about to cry when a very Latino looking man said “You need help?” It’s like that down here. The people are very helpful if they can. It was a McDonalds other than that. Pam and I have been in a lot of big cities all over the states and Canada traffic is the same all over. Here in the city when the traffic stop they blow there horn. Even if there is a cop directing traffic they all start blowing their horns when they have to stop. Motor bikes in the city the people ware helmets and a jackets with there tag number printed on them The helmet and jackets looked dirty. People here are very clean. They are black and yellow maybe when you are issued a jacket and helmet you keep them for a long time. what ever they ride like bicycles in New York going around stopped cars with every body blowing their horn. We went by the Hard Rock hotel and cafe Wal-Mart, Burger King they looked like they do in the states but we have been in Wal-Mart in Mexico you fill like you are in Wal-Mart but you can’t buy what you can in the states. For one thing we are in a different culture down here . They don’t eat like we do in the states they don’t spend money like we do so you have to sell here what sells. We didn’t have time to shop at Wall mart but we did go to a very modern grocery store and it was like I said they had what sells. Mostly they don’t have what we have in the states. For some reason turkey here is very expensive. 12 lb 40 us dollars. Back in Mexico we eat turkey all the time and it was very cheap. The meat market here always have their meat cut in very thin peaces. It’s the way they cook down here so that’s how they sell meat. They don’t can here it always hot and they eat what ever vegetable is in season. We wanted to stock up on can goods like cream corn. They don’t eat it so its hard to buy. Most stores have very little can goods. I have been really surprised on beans down here. Before we came down I believed they would have all kinds of beans. Not so they always have black beans and maybe a red bean that’s it. We were back in Fronteras, a woman was selling beans on the street. That’s where we buy most of what we eat. They were a mixture of what looked like lima beans so we bought a bag. That is another thing you buy a lot in bags. They have no way of weighing things. So you buy what ever they have the way they have of measuring things. The woman had a cleaver way of measuring beans . She had a stick with two metal plates hung with a ring in the middle. On one side she had a bag of black beans on the other she poured the beans she was selling till the stick was level. I guess you could say we bought a bag of black beans worth of lima beans. When we got back to the Pamela Ann we found out the beans were fresh beans not dry beans but fresh shelled beans just out of there shell. When we go back to town she may be there selling something else or maybe she will be there selling fresh beans till they are not in season.

Scales

Don’t ever plan on going back and buying anything in Central America you may only see it one time or you get use to buying it and then its gone. Oranges are going out you don’t see so many now and no grapefruit. Haven’t seen a one in weeks.

Mobile street vendor

The locals here don’t hunt like we do in the states there no season they see something they kill it and eat it. This has people that know how fast you can kill off wild life worried but here where we are at right now they don’t let the locals kill iguanas. Not here at the marina and we have some that look like small dogs. The marina people were talking about eating one. I would hate to see a big one killed but I sure would like to try eating one. They could not be tougher than beef here. What ever we find to eat here I’m sure we won’t starve. I will never learn to eat like a locals and they think we are crazy for eating banana sandwiches even more crazy if we eat it with peanut butter. Another thing we like they don’t is hot fried plantains with cold strawberries, That’s Good. We will be leaving here after Christmas to go on south and see what the rest of Central America is like . I can only guess what that will be like . So far this has been different from what I thought it would. Better maybe. The people are great so helpful so friendly. I think we need to stop trying to live like we are in the states and maybe live more like the locals but it harder than you think.

Eating Out

Our favorite restaurant

Could you say no to giving him a bite of your food with those eyes?

 

 

On 7 December it is a tradition to burn the devil to ward off evil sprits and start the Christmas season

More on burn the devil coming in our next blog.

 

 

Big City

This week we went to Guatemala City. Leaving the river and going across country on a bus. It was a great trip. As I have said in other blogs where you are makes all the difference. Think about it this way, Pam and I have driven big rigs from Caribou, Maine to south LA, California. There is not a thing in either place like the other. This trip was not that a way. But the land and the people do change a little between the river and Guatemala City. Not as many Mayan people but more cowboys. All little boys want to be cowboys. They are here and they are real. If Pam and I lived out on one of the ranches. I’m to old to drive cattle but maybe I could drive a cattle truck and I would dress like a cowboy right down to a big cowboy hat. Tipping my old Greek fisherman’s hat when I step off of our old schooner to the ladies doesn’t have the same effect as a big cowboy hat dose when you clime down the side of a big rig loaded with Brahmans. Maybe in another life I can be a truck driving cowboy. It’s been a real long time since Pam and I let the air off of a big rig and went some where. Maybe we can still drive maybe not we may never know. I think sewing machines have made me soft. Maybe it’s best we just do sail and canvas on our old schooner and let the real tuff guys drive the big rigs We went to Guatemala City with friends we met in Mexico. First time in a big city in a “third world country” its nice to go with friends. They know how to get around and they got us front row seats on the bus. The bus on the way back had and automatic transmission the first in Central America we have seen. all trucks, car, and buses have been straight drive. For my truck driving friends the straight drive bus had a straight 6 speed transmission no split no over drive with a jake-brake and the stick was long. He had to pull and push it a long way to change gears.

Straight drive bus

I have never rode on a straight drive bus in the states and I know a lot of people that can’t drive a straight drive car. Another thing about being on the road here a lot of women ride motor bikes. Pam and I road a friend’s bike here for a few minutes and I would love to ride a bike across country here. There is so many places to go. Ride slow and see a lot. If you are thinking about riding around Central America a 250 is a big bike any thing bigger they might not let you bring it in your room at night. If you are going to leave it out all night check your insurance it may not be there in the morning and check to see if you can ride double some places it against the law to ride double. Too many drive by shooting. Is it safe here. I think so. Most crime I have seen was crime of opportunity. Leave it out. It gets dark and it’s gone. Armed robbery not so much but you hear about it happing but no one can remember when or where. I think you would have a lot greater chance in the states of getting mugged. Here is how I see crime here. Most people in the states think if you have a gun they are safe. I don’t think you can buy anything carry it and be safe. I thank you are safer if you think like a animal in the woods. Don’t ever make your self vulnerable. Don’t show of anything you have. Most people here are not impressed with you wearing a Rolex watch. To them they think you’re crazy. It would change their lives maybe forever if they had what it’s worth and you are wearing it on your arm just to tell time. To them they think you are just showing off. Would a wolf carry what it catches around to show the rest of the wolves what it has. Down here a show of strength is how people with a lot live. If you don’t have a lot no one seems to care. With a lot you have armed guards. If you handle money here you have armed guards. We don’t wear jury “don’t have any” we really don’t have much money even the gringos here say no one would steal “our dink” to old to slow and we don’t have much else. If you are coming down here it a little alarming to see armed guards pile out of a truck delivering simple supplies to a store. Every thing operates on cash here so if they are dealing with cash they have armed guards even the grocery stores have guards walking around in the stores. We are getting use to it. If you want to come down here come on down just don’t act like a fool with money. Remember this every one here thinks all white people have money maybe not enough to ask like a fool but enough to live with out working. To people here that is a lot. To make it clearer when you leave most of these little towns a lot of people live with out running water and a lot don’t have electricity Work is hard to find. They grow a lot of what they eat. We have a air condenser a generator a computer lots of stuff. It dose not mater to most of them what we have was given to us because its old or I drug it out of the trash and fixed it. They will never have it. Maybe this may put a value on what a lot is to a lot of people down here. “They will never have it.” When we left Fronteras it was great setting in the front row seats of a modern bus seeing Guatemala. It rains here a lot. every thing looks so green and clean. You go by little houses maybe 2 rooms with banana tree in there yards. You will see a pig now and then but you will always see chickens. No goats. Most houses are made out of cement blocks painted bright colors with metal roofs. A lot are painted yellow. They sell pineapple and banana on the side of the road. Most of there yard are clean. Guatemala people are very clean. Its very hilly on the way to Morales the first town after you leave the Rio Dulcet. I love towns in Central America there are no red lights just speed breakers and when you slow down to keep from being thrown out of your seat someone will be standing there trying to sell you something. Towns look like flea markets with a few building scared a round that look like stores. Restaurant very seldom look like restaurants. They look like people having a family outing. Someone will be cooking on a old car tire rim made in to a grill and they may have a sign saying what they are cooking but never how much it cost. There will be a table or two under something to keep the sun off. Maybe a friendly old dog under the table hoping for a little bite you don’t want and always chickens. Life is basic here and I am starting to love it. In the middle of a little town maybe you can find a restaurant you can set down with a door to keep the dogs out but it won’t be air condition.. There is not a lot of roads here but the ones they have can get busy and the people can drive way past crazy. If a bus is passing a big rig and a motor bike is coming the truck will give a little the bus will take the middle of the road and the bike will take what left and no one slows down. All 2 lane road can become 3 lane anytime. Remember we sat in the front row seat of the bus. As you go further on west you leave hills and get in to more mountains and it gets dryer. About half way we stopped at a truck stop very modern . It’s that way down here from people cutting wood of the side of the road for wood to cook with to very modern. They are rich Guatemalans here well to do people on down to people with mostly what they can carry. The more you look like an Indian the less is expected of you the more you look like a Spaniard the more is expected from you. Most people in the middle are the Latino that look like they have some of both but are
more Spanish. Guatemala City is mostly Latinos and a lot of it is modern. Before we got to Guatemala city and before we got to the highest mountains we went through a valley with modern packing sheds big rigs loaded with melon headed to the city and I’m sure on north maybe all the way to Canada. Next week we will try to tell what the city was like to us Remember we all don’t see thing the same. What little we seen we thought was great.

Street vendor, getting an early start. most stores were not open yet.

Modern City

 

Road trip

Mountain range on the way to Guatemala City

If you stop anywhere in Guatemala someone will try to sell you something

Everyone here in Guatemala City are wrapped up for the cold temps. 15c (58F)

 

 

Holidays??

The holidays are here and this we be the first time we will be out of the states. Its hot here. That makes it hard to think about getting in the holiday spirit. Turn on the radio and they are playing Christmas music sometimes from the states in Spanish. Jingle Bells take on a new dimension.. When we here songs we have heard all our lives in Spanish it makes us laugh and I’m not sure why. In Belize when you here what sounds like old black people singing old country music from the states it sounds so pure it beautiful I want to just stop and listen as long as they sing but Jingle Bells in Spanish I can not help myself it’s funny. We have been in places where it was warm on the holidays but not like here. Its not warm here. Its hot. There is no department stores here. No stores with toy departments. All the stores here are small and have only the basics. A large store here would be 1500 sq feet no bigger than a house some stores are about the size of a single car garage but most no bigger that a large bath room in the states. What you can buy is hard to guess but if you let them know what you really need you will get gringoed. This happens a lot in the small stores not in larger stores. If it cost 1Q and you are a gringo and let them know you need it bad you will be lucky to get it for 5Q. If you buy something off the street you can always get them down some maybe a little maybe a lot. It’s hard to stop them from selling you more than you wanted. If you are buying tomatoes and their not and even pound they will add some to even it out. Never take any out. If you buy anything and step out of the store and find something wrong remember this. In all of Central America they have the same return policy “there is no return policy” you bought it you left and it yours I think a lot about the holidays is the shopping. Shopping here is more like going to a flea market where no one speaks English and you are buying with play money. 7. 8 Q to the US dollar and then there is there change to try and dell with. Thanksgiving is just another day here. They are people here from all over the world. Only the states celebrate Thanksgiving Day but there is enough people from the states that all the marinas restaurants had a dinner. Remember this we maybe in Guatemala but we are in the Rio Dulce. Where you are at here makes a big difference. It’s like Saturday night in New Orleans is not like Saturday night in Amish country Pennsylvania in the states. The marinas here are set up for people with boats from all over the world. They are compounds or gated communities but when you leave the marina you are in a third world water front town full of people from all over Guatemala Central America and the world. They are beggars and children selling stuff. When the beggars come to me sometimes I think they are telling me in Spanish how bad off they are then someone with us will tell us they are not beggars at all they are preachers preaching to you. but a lot of the time the beggars look like they really need help. I try to give a little. The kids sell hard . They will follow you down the street trying to get you to try a peanut or something. There’s a lot of people here from different cultures. I can tell some from others like the Mayans or maybe they are Indians from the Latinos The Mayan women dress in long dresses with beautiful shawls over there shoulders but the Latino women dress sexy. Some very sexy. The Mayan are small. Some just a little over 4 feet. The Latino a little over 5 feet. Most of the women here are small. I’m not sure if a woman under 5 feet in skin tight clothes wearing 4 in heals riding a motor bike with her hair down to her waste is beautiful are sexy or both but any women in 4 in heals riding a bike will get me to look. I read some where that a lot of old people have a hard time during the holidays. They are so lonely. I think sailors or travelers every where feel it a little with no long time friends or family near by. It’s been years now since we were with long time friends or family on Christmas Day.
Last year we were out to sea Christmas Day but that night we were laying to our anchor in the Dry Tortugas. The sea can be a lonely place. The old fort gave us a warm and safe feeling being so close to the massive walls there. What will Christmas be like this year? We don’t know. We may make a trip to the far end of the lake. Spend Christmas in the jingle with the monkeys. Set in the cockpit and drink hot Earl Gray tea with the temperature in the high 90s. Watch parrots in the wild. Maybe go swimming in the river and wish it was the same as when Pam and I were 15 and 17 and first went skinny dipping. This year coming we will have been skinny dipping 50 years together. Being here its hard to tell what it feels like. Its not like going skinny dipping the first time with a girl you are going crazy over. That will never happen again But being here has a feeling of it;s own. The people we meet here that have been cruising for a long time seam to have lost that feeling. We steal have it and I hope we never lose it. I wish I could write what it feels like to be on this trip not just being here. We find ourselves stopping and saying I can not believe we are here on this trip almost a year after we left Key West. Maybe all travelers wish they could share what it’s like to travel. Even if family and friends were to show up for the holidays we all know they probably wouldn’t have the same felling for where we are the way we do. We are leaving tomorrow to take a bus ride to Guatemala city. We will tell what that like next week. “Going shopping in the big city.”

blind street beggar

Happy shopper

Biggest store in town

Street vendor

 

Look to the left at the man caring a chair he made and is trying to sell. It was very nice.

 

 
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