Still in Guatemala

In our last blog I said when you read this we will be out to sea going to Belize. I chickened out and we came back to our old slip. In a lot of our blogs I have said that it can get real out there quick. This time we went on to the bottom of the lake and anchored up at Texas Mike’s in the lagoon in “Cuatro Cayos” We were the only boat anchored there. It’s like a dream for us to anchor in places like this. Our old home built schooner setting so still with dug-out canoes coming by with the indigenous trying to sell you something. Our plan was to go on to Livingston and check out the next day then try to get over the bar in the river at 3:00pm high tide in the afternoon. This means the wind would be against us and we would be anchoring in the dark in our first anchorage. If we were the only boat leaving at this time of day this meat we my not have the guy most people use if we got stuck on the bar going over and I’m not letting the dock boys there that are always trying to hustle you when we are there touch our boat. When we were at Mike’s the people there said they were having terrible storms at night. Our first anchorage is open to south and west winds. The next morning, “Pam is a bilge rat always looking and checking on things she said “The commode was giving trouble and the rudder stuffing box is leaking a little.” I just went back to bed with her saying “I think we can make it.” The night thunder storm that night was enough to make me chicken and the “I think we can make it wasn’t helping me any.” When I finely did get up we had a day off with me fixing things on the boat. That night the storms were worse. The next morning we motored back up the lake to our old slip. We will try again soon but life in the Rio Dulce is not bad. We have only been back from the states three weeks now and life here is “Caribbean good.” Crowded streets with no sidewalks.

Many more motor bikes than cars and people living their lives a lot slower than in the US. Here a young farmer is delivering goat milk fresh. Bring your container or he will sell you a cup or a jar. I didn’t ask but you may can milk a goat yourself. A lot of people were petting the goats I did a little myself but warm goat milk straight form a goat is not my thing.

Want fresh goat milk?

We will try again to go on to Belize sometime but for now it’s fried plantains and cold Pepsi in glass bottles like the old days in the states.

A new painting on a wall in town

Enjoying Guatemala

We are back in Guatemala and settling in to life here in the Caribbean again. The change of going back to the US is good but our home is still on our boat where ever it is and we are glad to be back to it here in the Rio Dulce river. The flight back was even good. No problems with the crazies at the airport. No taking our shoes off, no taking us aside asking us what is that thing in your luggage. We just held up a paper they gave us this time and we made it all the way through with out being brought back to talk to some one. This was a first. On the way up they took a little roll of tape still on the roll from Pam. On one trip they took a few pieces of candy Pam had in her hand bag. In New Orleans one time I had a man on a trip there rubbing my ass so much I told him he was out of line and to stop. I ask the people there around us what he was doing, A big women working there beside him working with them said looks like he is looking to see if even you have a ass. Some men like you don’t have no ass and she laugh. He stopped and I went on through but I guess maybe all of this is necessary. We as in Pam and I were anchored in Sandy Hook on 9-11. We were there closes enough to watch all that happen in the real from our boat. Maybe all of this is necessary where ever we go now but I don’t think we as in Pam and I fit in most of the time in the modern world. I got my drivers licenses at 14 “farm kid” restricted from 6 in the morning to 6 evening. Pam was 21 and driving where she wanted to go but when she bought a car on credit she had to have her licenses and insurance. Now keeping our driving licenses today is a problem. You need your drivers licenses where you live the cops say. On this trip to Kansas,drivers licenses were on the to do list. “What a hassle. Where do you live, can you prove you live out here now?” We still have our banking account in Southport, North Carolina. Even when we were building our boat there we live on now, we were having trouble. We were having trouble getting a temporary power pole and power there in Southport to build this boat on a vacant lot outside of the city limits of Southport. After going to their alderman meetings and presenting our case we finely got power to our pole. Walking down the steps of City Hall there in Southport I told Mr Harper, he owned the lot and helped us with maters like this a lot that I would keep the name Southport on the back of our little schooner for as long as I could. Now 30 years have passed. We built the boat taking 10 years doing it and have traveled for over 20 years now with Southport as our port of call on the back. We even have a mail service we still use there to get our mail in Southport but that won’t get you a driver’s licenses. We finely rounded up enough paper to convince DMV in Kansas we lived there even if we have just been going out there and visiting with our son and staying a month or so when we go. Is that not living out there when we are out there and need our licenses the most? Our old motorcycle we just road out there this time from New Orleans we were not so successful. Try harder next time we are there. Still have it tagged and insured in Alabama but it’s in Kansas now. Back here it’s a simpler life but what most people don’t see is there is good things in both places. Here life is slow and it is “not” cheaper to live here than it is if you live out in rural places in the US but there is so much you can’t buy here that people learn to do with out and now say they are living cheaper. One of the things you can feel soon here is how free you are here. You are on your own here. It’s like having such a hassle back in the states with all the laws there, here you will see a car sometimes they drive that would make a California cop faint. A whole family riding on a small motor bike, women nursing a baby riding side saddle on a bike. You just don’t think about the hassle you go through to live there in the US living here. We will be at sea probably when you are reading this. We are going back to sea and back to Belize. We left some things back there when we left. It’s a little different there than here but maybe the change is the best part of this life we live. For now we still love living it.

A fish in the dink

New house on the Rio

This little girl has a new puppy.