More Guatemala

We are still in Guatemala but just barely. We are back anchored at the Ox Tongue Bight. We had a fuel problem. Pam and I had a communication problem and I though we had more fuel than we had. Then we thought we needed fuel. We didn’t. When we went to try and get fuel one of the tanks was to full. The other Almost empty. I was working on the motors and had crossed the lines so when the motors were running, the return was going to the wrong tank. We only run one of the motors at a time to save fuel most of the time. We do run both when we need to. This was scary because at one time I thought we had a hole in the tank letting sea water in the tank. Only thing I could think of at the time. That sea water was coming in and forcing the fuel to the top of the tank. We have skin tanks where the bottom of the tank is the bottom of the boat. We think we have it all straighten now but we feel like we are breaking the law some. We checked out a week or more ago and we are still here. We didn’t want to go back and try the bar at Livingston. So we went to Puerto Barrios. We read we could get fuel there at the ferry dock and we did but it wasn’t easy. We anchor out in the bay and jerry jugged it across. This was before we found we had a full tank on one side. Puerto Barrios is a shipping port. Not a good place for cruisers. No good place to anchor near town but there is a fabulous place about a mile and a half on the western side of the bay. We went there. Worked on stuff and anchored out till we ran out of fresh food and our Claro stick. That is a little stick you can plug in to your computer and get on line. Worked good there and some friends were telling us to check the weather out near the Bay Islands. It was windy. One site we went on said maybe 50 knots at night so we just stayed there. There is almost no one there where we anchored. Its as pretty a place as we have ever anchored. Every day we had a charter catamaran to come about 2 and stay till about 4. It was interesting. They came to swim and paddle around on surf boards. Tourist stuff. Clothes were optional. I guess I am prejudice. I think. Old people and “fat women” should not have the option. Shopping in town was good. We took a change and went shopping. Tomorrow we are going to try again to go on to the bay island. We are going to take the chicken approach. The weather report is saying the wind is going to be good for us to “sail” to the Puerto Cortés. About 40 miles. Easley made in the day light. Then we plan to go to the little anchorage of Puerto Escondido. About 20 miles more. Again a early morning run. Then the jump to Utila is only about 40 more. A daylight run. Like I have “always” said “Chicken sailors“. Our friends are in Roatan some 20 something more miles to get there. To our friends there. We are coming so find us a good spot. We are ready to see another stamp on our pass port. Ready to go snorkeling and site seeing. The last few weeks have been Fun most of the time. “ Maybe not the fuel thing.”
Watching people live there lives here is fun. We watched two boys try to ambush an iguana there on the fuel dock. Not successful. But they tried hard. We have not had a peace of beef here in Central America any where that was good. We were in the grocery store here and there was some t-bones We bought them in desperation and they were good. That’s the way it is in all of Central America. They may never have them again but if we are ever back I will look. As I have been saying. We may not be able to get on line for a little while but when we can, maybe we can tell every body what we think the Bay Islands are like. And the places in between here to there.

On Our Way

Well the adventure is on. We have made it over the bar in the Rio Dulcet. We are trying to make Utila Honduras. But there is almost always a but. The wind is coming from the east north east. And that’s the way we need to go. So we sailed over to the Ox Tongue Bight anchor up and we have been waiting for it to change just a little. We have about 90 miles to go. Why not just motor like most all sailors do? Les’s say Pam and I had a failure to communicate moment at the fuel dock. I understood we had ¾ in each tank. We had 1/3 of a tank so I put in 15 gallons total to freshen the fuel up a little. How we don’t know if we have enough to make Utila. We motored from the fuel dock at Fronteras and across the bar before we stared to sail. So we have less than we left Fronteras with. We are checked out of Guatemala. The tide is lower now so if we try to go back and slip in to get fuel. Will we make it over the bar? Our papers to exit say Utila and we have been in Guatemala longer than we were allowed so we paid the fine of about 3 dollars a day for staying there too long. Now they have a new agreement with Honduras that our stay in Guatemala is counted as time in the 4 countries that are together now as one. Utila is also in the group but they have been not following the rules to closely. This maybe another problem We can make it to Port of Cortez no problem and maybe buy fuel but this is the mainland and they have been following the new rules. Can we slip in there? We have money “not much” but not their money. Can we find an ATM ? Get money buy fuel and leave happily motoring on in to a big chop with out getting caught ? Remember we don’t speak the language well. Let me make this clear. We don’t speak Spanish. We are getting better but it still just words. We can sail but most people don’t know how hard it is to make 90 miles good to wind. If you have wind. In and old slow home built schooner. It may take 2 or 3 days of sailing or more if the wind drops to get there. Night and day. We are still able to get on line with our Claro stick over here. We are going to try something tomorrow so if we are not on line for a while you will know we are trying to get some where and the some where when we get there. We are hopefully not doing battle with the local officials down here. What is it like where we are anchored today. Its just what you imagine when you shut your eyes and dream what the Caribbean is like. Clear water warm winds star fish laying beside the anchor chain You can see 20 feet down. If we fail to find fuel and just go on. How bad can It be to slowly sail on to the island of Utila in the warm winds of the Caribbean?

River

At Anchor

 

 

 

 

More Rio Dulce

Getting fresh veggies for the trip

On the Rio

 

Pamela Ann waiting at anchor Texan Bay

 

 

Leaving Rio Dulce

We are steal here on the Rio Dulce trying hard to leave. We gave our paper work to the agent to check us out on Monday. But if we don’t make it. The moon is full and the tide is high for the next few days. We will make it sometime this week. It is harder for some than others to leave. With us its taking advantage of all we can like we need a high tied to make the bar in the river. We draw 6 feet. We need to sail because we don’t have money to buy all that fuel. We need the weather to be good because we are “Chicken Sailors.” We don’t like big mean seas. Waiting here is easy just anchor out some where and take it easy. Eat banana sandwiches with peanut butter drink, Pepsi in glass bottles and dream of having a good steak. We haven’t had a good steak in over a year now. People say you get used to it but “people lie.” You just do with-out. We have friends in the Bay Islands and they say that food is better there but more expensive. When we get there I am going straight to the meat market and look for steak. I will worry about what it cost after I have finished off about two. We are ready to leave but we will miss this place and all it’s people. I have tried hard to describe what it like where we have been but it harder to explain how we feel. Leaving a place like this. Pam will stop crying maybe by the time we have made it pass the sea buoy. Then there is the little things like seeing land on the horizon or hearing on our FM radio out to sea where you haven’t seen land for a while. Cuba, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and now maybe Honduras coming in clear. There is so much that makes me feel something I can’t explain like seeing the big dipper at night out to sea and then seeing the north star so low on the horizon. What will it be like if we go so far south the north star is not there in the night sky any more. Tomorrow we plan to take a day off to rest “Cold front coming” before we head out to sea so this will take us across the bar at Livingston, Tuesday. Not Monday as we had planned. If we make it. We will be back on line as soon as we can and let every one know what Utila ,Honduras is like. If you try too find us on line and you can’t. You will know we are out to sea. Maybe sailing white knuckled but sailing on any way. It is even harder to explain how being out there makes me feel and when I ask Pam she says the same think. You just feel “Alive.” We hope ever one that is following our blog feels that in there lives sometimes. I love how that feels sometimes but I am not sure I can stand it too often.

Guatemalan woman just over 4 foot tall

Going under the bridge. Sad to be leaving

Our last sunset up the Rio Dulce

 

 

More Pics

Lago Izabal

Fort “Castillo San Felipe”

Cheap place to eat

 

 

KISS

We have left the dock. Marina dwellers no more. At least for a while. It feels good but in another way you feel a lost of security. We have been leaving our dink under a covered dock . Now if it comes a midnight rain storm, its get up and check to make sure we are not dragging or Dumpling is not sinking. If you hear something go bump in the dark. Its up to make sure someone is not taking your out-board are some wild thing is not homesteading your boat. Big birds are beautiful things till daylight and you realize you don’t need the fertilizer. I have put in all of our blogs that location is very important in what you do and what you see. We are going to the back side of the lake. We have been trying for weeks now but it hard to get every thing done. There is jungle there but we plan to go and see how the indigenous people there live too. I have put in all our blogs that we try to see the people here as A different culture and not just poor. I am glad we came to see Central America and its’ people. Its has answered a lot of questions I have had for years. Like what is and Mexican restaurant like in Mexico. No where in Mexico have we found a restaurant like the ones in the states. How do people live on so little money like what you read in books in poor countries. Down here it’s the culture and they just don’t have as much in possessions, as we do. Maybe I can explain it this way. When we were in Southport building the boat. We bought a small lot there in a poor neighborhood. We went to see the building inspector to see about building a 3 room house. One bedroom, one bath, kitchen -den over a garage. He said “No!” before I said any more than 3 rooms. We would have to build a 3 bedroom house. Come back when we had plans for 1300 sq feet or better. Pam and I have lived in small places for years. If you leave in a tractor trailer truck and don’t get back home for months The size of your house dose not matter. You are living in a truck with only a sleeper. Does building a house you can’t afford make you richer. Maybe but dose it make you live better. The people down here have been living in small houses for centuries. A lot of the people here live in one or two rooms A whole family and have taken in the grandmother so she dose not have to live alone. Does not having a lot of ever thing make you poor? Maybe but what is wrong with having just what you need. The culture here is like on a cold night build a small fire and set up close not a big fire and set back so ever one can see how big a fire you can make. Seeing how people here live and all the places we have been does not help with the question. Are they really happy and are we really happy. That is a hard question and has been forever. I think we are but we have been looking for greener pastures all our lives. It happen quite often some one will say how do you live in a boat so small. Then someone will say that’s a big boat. How can you afford that. And the one that always gets me is you mean you don’t have a house to go home to. Just that boat. Our boat is 46 feet not a big boat but it’s big enough for us and smaller than that little house we wanted to build. in Southport.
I see the people here caught up in what people with a lot and wanting more see as poor. Its like the saying mountain people like to say . We didn’t know we was poor till they came and told us we were. The People here seam happy. Would they be happier if they had to work a lot harder to have more. I hope if you ever come this way you see the people like we do as the cleanest people we have ever seen. And resourceful. I love to see how they make life work for them. If you need to go some where and the collectivo is full let the women ride inside and you ride on top. Hanging on . If you need to take a pig to market ride the bus and hold your pig in your lap. If you hold a child or a pig in your lap you don’t have to pay for them. We gave the old sail we took off the Pamela Ann to the little guy we had working for us . It was very tired. The next day he came to work with a new phone. Some how he turned that old sail in to a cheap phone and we don’t know what else. There is very little thrown away here.
Maybe we identify with the people here because we live so simple ourselves . Like we catch rain water to shower with because we don’t have running water. When we need to move the boat we try hard to sail the boat not buy diesel. We are sorry we didn’t get in some pitchers this week . We hope we can get in some good ones later next week. Tomorrow at day light go out side. Set and watch the sun come up. Remember it’s the same sun we are watching. We hope the world waking up and the wild things are as much fun to watch there as the ones here and you are as happy as I think we are living here with so little.

Hauling drinking water

Cold Pepsi in the bottle

 

Laundry

OFF the Dock

This week there is very little to tell. Nothing exciting has happen. But next week we have big plans. We are living Guatemala in a few weeks. Maybe we will come back. Maybe not so we want to go to the end of the lake here on the Rio Dulce. It’s is real jungle. Wild country. Monkeys, parrots, wild things. It’s also remote. This means we would be vulnerable to being maybe robbed. It has happened. So there is some more boats going. As I have said before safety in numbers. Maybe out of the boats that have said they wanted to go some will. We have been here so long we have become marina dwellers. We have been here at this marina 2 month now. We want to get back to being cruisers. Maybe it will happen next week. The boat is in better shape than when we can in but there is a lot more we wanted to do. One thing we have learned is you can always find a reason to stay. What is left to do can wait. This it a beautiful place here but we are ready to move on. See what over the horizon.

We may be out of the cyber world for a few days. If we are not there. Keep looking on-line we will be back with lots to tell I am sure. I wish there was some way to share what we are seeing. Writing about what we are seeing is not like being here. We have been out here cruising out of the states now for a little over a year. After all those years of dreaming I sometimes can’t believe we are here. We would like to think those that are keeping up with our blog. It makes us feel like we are sharing some of what we see knowing you are there. We would like to especially thank those that take time to comment on our blog and those that have shared our blog with others helping us grow our blog. We will try and keep it up as long as we can.