Tragedy on the River

We had a tragedy on the river last night.  A boat was boarded, the people were robbed and the husband was killed and the wife seriously injured.  We know the people on the boat.  As a matter of fact, they were in my spanish class and I had had lunch with them on Thursday.

They were excited about the purchase of their boat and  had just completed fixing it and getting it ready to cruise.  This had been a dream for theirs for almost 20 years.  They told me on Thursday that they were going to start taking the boat out and anchoring out so that they could familiarize themselves with the systems and get use to the boat.

Sadly, their dream ended in tragedy.  There is much talk on the river this morning about what should we do about this incident.  How dangerous is the river, should you have weapons on board, and what if anything will happen between the Guatemalan Government and the US Embassy.  Based on past history not much.

I am sure that some boaters will now think that the river is too dangerous a place to be and there will be an exodus from the river.  The Rio Dulce is a dangerous place.  So are most major cities in any country and I know of a number of boats that were robbed and people killed anchored in Florida.

We aren't over reacting.  We are trying to do our best to be vigilent and not spread rumors.  I am sure that the Rio Dulce Chisme  will have the full story as soon as Roy can get more details.

Bad things happen to good people.  We mustn't rush to judgement on Guatemala as a whole.  Please keep the wife and the family in your thoughts and prayers.