Small Town Guatemala

We are still in Guatemala but not for long. We are hopping to be on our way to Belize over the week end. We are in the small town of San Felipa. The boat yard is there. When we ran aground in Belize, last time we were there, we messed up the rudder. We have already put in our blog we were robbed when we went for help. Christmas we flew to the US to spend time with our son. There we bought tools and shipped them here to replace the ones lost to thieves. It all came to a head two weeks ago as the tools finely arrived and we pulled the boat to fix the rudder. It’s been a marathon every since. San Felipa is your basic little town in Central America, little stores restaurants dogs and chicken running lose. Kids being brought to school in small boats here called launchas.

Street in San Felipa

In all the rush to get things done we have had wood pickers pecking on our wooden mast. Locals say they like the sound it makes when there looking for a mate. Pam doesn’t like the sound they make inside the boat and she is out there after them. Yesterday a queen bee landed on our mast and we had a swarm of bees hanging in the rigging. To top that off it’s been raining most of the days we have had the boat out of the water. Today I needed some bolts and we went to a bigger town. Going to town here means catching a little bus and going to Fronteras because bolts are scare here. This would trip most people out seeing how these buses run. They are just old van that in the US would have 3 seats, these have 4 seats across the van. The most Pam and I have ever road with was 36 people in, on top or hanging out the side door of one of these little vans. Today no one on top going or coming back. In a lot of our blogs we have put the food is bad, musics worse and it’s hot. Black bean and rice every day, rap music in Spanish and this is Central America so it’s hot here but another thing I have said a lot is how little the women are here. Today on the bus we met a girl maybe 23 or 24 and I tried to ask her if I could make her picture. Remember my Spanish is bad but I do try, most cruisers don’t, this embarrassed her some but she did stop long enough to let me make her picture with Pam.

In this picture it’s hard to see just how small she is but look at the size of the drinks next to her.

Small woman

These are just common soft drinks. In this picture Pam was standing beside her on the street. Remember I was doing this quick and I should have stepped back so you could see Pam is not standing on anything. Stepping back in Central America can get you run over by something. Maybe a 3 wheel cab or a cattle truck. If you look close she has two gold teeth and is just a sexy young girl. Only thing different about her from most small young girls or women here is she is not just small, she is little. No one but Pam knows what Pam weighs but she is 5’8”. This girl, it’s hard to say what she weights but it’s not much and she won’t make 4 feet in high heels. Maybe one day my Spanish will be good enough to get one to let me measure and weight her or maybe not.

 

Haul-Out

As I have said in all our blogs, there is never a rerun day on the Pamela Ann. We have a possible job in Belize and need the money, we are still in Guatemala, been having trouble with the rudder on our boat since we ran aground in Belize. I tried to fix it in the water and made it worse. Scheduled to have the boat pulled out to fix it. Rudders are about as important on boats as a steering wheels on a car. Don’t need to go to sea worrying about it breaking. Tools coming in from US to replace ones lost to thieves in Belize arrived as we pulled the boat, how we are on a marathon to get rudder fixed, bottom painted and back in water to go to Belize to see if the job is still there. It’s been raining here every day but that all in a day living here in the Caribbean.

Rain-Rain

Get to Work now!

As you can see every thing is wet, you feel a great urge to complain but who do you complain to. You want to say we have to get back in the water and go to Belize to work. I keep complaining and it keeps raining but life goes slowly on in the Caribbean.

Caribbean Time?

We are still in Guatemala waiting on our boxes of tools and stuff to get here we shipped from the US. “Time is not important in the Caribbean.” If you follow or blog you know we were robbed in Belize last year and we flew back to the US for Christmas to our son’s house to spend Christmas there. There we bought a lot to replace what was stolen and shipped it back here. (Still waiting?) Some of what was stolen will never be replaced. I had a single tooth saw, a very old saw with one tooth on top of the saw where you could lay the saw down up side down and pull it beside a square to make a mark and then turn it right side up and cut a strait line. I never used it but loved having these old tools. When I work on very expensive boat in boat yards, I use the best electrical tool made today. Hand tools will not do the work demanded today. I had several other antique tools stored back like a drawing knife that was nickel plated and folded up too be stored. When it was bought, it too was the top of the line tool of that day. In the boxes being shipped are only tools we need today so I can work. In Belize we have a job prospect and maybe that will help pay for what we lost. We may get there and find it’s not working out. There is no guarantees in this life we live. Again if you follow our blog you know we are getting over our troubles little by little and we are still in the Caribbean living the cruiser’s life each day. To live this life you need a since of adventure and a good since of humor to live where the food is bad, the music worse and it’s hot but the adventure is here. Here where the modern world meats the old world . Where you see a dugout canoe made for an out board motor.

Where you see free range pigs rutting around for anything to eat. Here some women poured something out near a wall in town and a pig saw it and was going to investigate. This pig is just running lose in town.

Town Pig

Hammocks are poplar every where down here and this kid is taking advantage of not being in the hot noon sun asleep and doesn’t know we are taking his picture.

Sweet Dreams

What will we do after the Belize job is over, how much money will we make? Will that job not pan out? What then? If your thinking about living the way we do “remember.” The Pamela Ann is not a cruise ship where you can complain, you just have to roll with it but in the rolling with it you sometimes find a flower you have never seen before, see something that makes you stop and look. Get a chance to eat a piece of free range pig. Some times it hard to cut with a knife meat of any kind here. It’s mostly the bad food thing. What will happen tomorrow? What ever it is I hope it’s a good thing. Maybe the wild monkey we saw here in a tree over our boat will be back. That would be a good thing and so would the boxes we are waiting on.