Christmas Is Here

It so close to Christmas here. They are playing Christmas songs on the radio you can recolonize. Of course it’s in Spanish. Jingle Bells sounds oddly different but good at the same time. It’s hot here. Pam is still working on a few sails to help us get by. Living hear is different. Working is the same. She came in the boat telling me to get the camera . We have a pet in the sail she was working on. The sail had been laying on the floor and there like she said was a new critter. A 5 inch spider. I guess it was a tarantula . Big, black and hairy. I just hoped it couldn’t jump. We made a short movie of it moving and I laid a hammer down so you could tell just how big it was as it came by me.

                                                                                        New Pet

We don’t live in a gated marina. We live in a small very quit marina near what people said was a jungle not long ago. We have had a wild monkey here, lots of iguana and even parrots. We like going to mingle with the locals so we went to what they call, “Burning of the Devil” on the 7th of December.

Pam with the devil

We wanted to see what that was like. That is what gets the season going here. They build up a pinata to look like the devil. Red paper, horns, pointed tail. Put signs on it and write people’s names they don’t like on it. Then they packed it full of fire crackers. Just any thing they could find. They put a lot of news paper around it and as the crowd gathered, they took up a collection and bought more fire crackers. Now they wrapped the devil pinata in fire works and set the paper around it on fire. It takes nerve to stand anywhere near the devil pinata when it starts burning. Fire crackers blowing, fire crackers out of the pinata to go off outside the burning devil. Loud music playing and everybody cheering and laughing. I tried to make a video but is sounds like something crackling on film. It’s a, “you need to be there thing, Up close.” It’s a thrill. There is no way they could do this in the US. A lot of what the locals do is like a very big family doing something. There is no law there. No people in uniforms saying they are there to protect you. Families put up their dogs. Parents tell there kids how close they can get and when it’s over, people laugh and you will see people hugging their neighbors. This week we went to the Christmas Tree lighting and it was all put together by a local man here that when then officials of the town couldn’t get it done. He got help and donation and the community came together and put it together. It was good. They had hot coco for the kids and tamales. Some one had donated white bread and being down here where it corn tortillas. I liked the white bread. We were setting watching and remember we stand out in a crowd. They brought what they were serving to us. I took it that they were glade we were there. Remember most people on boats live in gated commuities here. No locals around unless they are there to work in the marina. And then there watched closely. We go to a lot of local events and the locals here know us. It’s Christmas and we are here and maybe I’m wrong but I feel like the locals here like us. Pam is a hugger and where ever we go here, someone is hugging her. If your wondering what Christmas is like in the Western Caribbean,it’s hot,its loud and if you let the local people in to your life I know you can feel the love of these people that have a lot less than we are used too. I hope where ever you are you don’t believe Christmas is just for kids. If that how it is. Come to the Caribbean and feel like a kid again. Remember you can get as close as you want to the fire works down here. To ever one that knows Pam, You know Pam is a kid again when she is shooting fire works where ever she is so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone from Pam and I aboard the little schooner “Pamela Ann” in the Rio Dulce river here in Guatemala.

This is the best we could get with all the smoke from the fire works.

The Tree looks good in the day time too

 

 

A Trip To A Village

Last week I had a picture on our blog of us making a cabinet to go in a little guy house that has been working for us. He has 3 kids, no power. A very little house with dirt floors. He works hard just to get here to work. It takes about one hour of travel time to get here on his bicycle when he works. Our son from the states was here so we decided to go and install the cabinet ourselves so he could see how people live down here on so little money. There’s a women down here that has been getting old solar panels and batteries off of boat and donations for wire to put light in clinics and schools in the most remote places she can find and I have been helping her with the set up. I designed and built the panels for the breaker panels and hook up. I tell her all the time. It’s so simple a blond can do it. She had blond hair. I needed a way to go to his village. There was no reason for us to go. Our helper could just take it home to his house him self. The women I have been helping. Came to me and ask if I knew of any family that has a sick person or was really in need of lights in there house. I ask my helper. He said. He knew a blind man that was having a hard time. So this went right along with what I needed. I could go deliver the cabinet and put a light in a blind man’s house at the same time. This way our son could see what a real village is like. This was a little unit, campers use, with a little battery and solar panels with two lights. Of course the blind man couldn’t use the light but his family that takes care of him could. Remember the families down here take care of their own. The big thing with this cabinet is. I bought a cheap car radio with out any bell or whistles. Just a FM, AM radio. Very low power drain. Small speakers. This would give his family music in their house. When ever they wanted it. I had already given him a used solar panel and old but good battery. The reason for the cabinet was, this gives them more storage and a radio at the same time. Now getting there was the problem. We hired a truck. It was raining but not hard. Raining hard would mean the normal dry river bed would be up and running. When we got there. The truck wouldn’t climb the river bank on the other side. We left it just setting there and walked on to his house in the rain. Carrying the cabinet.

The Truck won’t go any farther

There the people that came by as we fastened it to a wall. All went over and touched it smiling. His wife looked it over and was smiling. The kids were in to the radio.

Our helper’s house

The blind man’s family when we went there looked like they thought we were just kidding and would maybe take the light back. They didn’t understand why we would just give it to them. We didn’t. We just delivered it. I hope our helper told them. It was a gift from an anonymous donor the woman we help sometimes had received. Our helper said they needed it so we brought it to them. When the blind man’s wife turned the lights on there are two. Her smile was worth watching and what she told him, I didn’t understand but it sounded like it was good. When I ask this week about them. My helper said. In Spanish, some words I do understand, “Very happy, First time Lights in house.” The man and his wife looked like they were in there late fifties. Here is my helper and his wife with two of his kids. I have had pitcher of them in our blog before but maybe this time. Look at his wife. My helper is 5 feet 2 inches. How tall is his wife?

Our helper’s family with banana tree in yard

This week coming, maybe I can do a blog about what they call, “Burning the Devil” down here. We went and it just fun with a bang. We will try to do that for Christmas. Burning the devil is part of Christmas here. Maybe I can describe what its like being in the Caribbean for Christmas or maybe I can’t. There’s nothing like being here. Hope you are already enjoying the Holidays.       We really are.

Christmas is Coming

In most of the blogs we have done lately we have said. It was raining here. The rain has not stopped but its not raining hard now. Some hours of sunshine sometime but don’t leave your boat to go “anywhere” with the hatches open. Working in the tropics is a challenge. We have a lot to do. We are wanting to leave. I have the main boom off the boat. I reworked it in Mexico when we broke it coming between Cuba and Mexico. Now I wanted to do some work on it that I wanted to do in the states. I found some nice wood here. Maybe now would be a good time or not so good. Working in the rain with epoxy is difficult at best. Where I have been working went under water with all the rain. Now I was standing in water 6 inches deep where the river rose more than it had in many years. I wanted to make a cabinet for the little guy that has been working for me to put a 12 volt car radio and speakers in. Remember down here there is a lot of people that have no power.

The cabinet is almost done

I wanted to do something for him before we go. I put him in a used solar panel for LED lights some time ago. Now he wants music. I’m building the cabinet more for his family than for him. His house is only about 12 feet wide and he has 3 kids. All little girls. He is now the only family in the village with lights, maybe 20 houses. The big thing is charging their cell phones here. When I say there. He charges people in the village Q2 to charge their phone. So he is making big money now for his family. About 20 cents a pop. I have built cabinets since I was young but I had forgot what it’s like to build raised panel doors with only a skill saw. The owner here lets me work some under the palapa and this week. I will have the boom back on the boat and the cabinet moved on to my helpers house so Pam can sew some on some sail she needs to repair to make us a little money under that palapa.

The Boom is looking good

Why am I telling you this. Remember, “Its always a challenge to do any thing here but what a place to work. We haven’t seen the wild monkey lately that was here just a little time back in the trees just over our boat. The wild parrots. “I think they’re a couple” are still coming around, mostly in the morning. Always iguana, Big ones, The 3 and 4 footers. When are we leaving? We are cruiser. The hardest thing to do is to leave a great place. I really don’t know but not before Christmas. Christmas is fun here. There is and will be “fire works”. They will be food on the Pamela Ann and friends coming by. It’s cool enough to sleep good at night here now. We went to the Christmas Tree lighting here Friday night in the town of Fronteras.

Christmas Tree in Fronteras, Guatemala

There were 4 gringos there in all the town we could see. The so called boating community here don’t do local events with the locals. They stay in there gated marinas doing old movie night are something. We do all the local events we can and when I say you can get close enough to the fire works to burn your hair. Remember there are no police men standing behind some roped off area telling you “Say Here” We are here to protect you. They just “shot the fire crackers here.” You can stand there are back up. It’s up to you. More to come soon about local Christmas stuff with the locals, Building stuff on the edge of what the people here still call a jungle. How the locals are bringing coffee beans buy to sell in there lanchas.

Coffee Boat , Q25 for one pound about $3 US  Real Guatemalan coffee “Very Good”

When I was building the Pamela Ann, people were telling me, “Its will never be worth the time ,money and work you are putting in to building a home made boat.”

“What do you think? Was it worth it?” I am sure they think the same “but she is definitely not for sale.”