Tourists for the Day

We had a great offer fall in our laps yesterday morning.  Lucy is here from the UK visiting her parents.  They had booked a river tour and asked us if we wanted to come along.  At first I will admit that we had several things that we thought we had to do...you know play one more game of Zuma or Solitaire or read another book.  You get the picture.  So we got our stuff together in less than a half hour and had the time of our lives!

I will admit that sometimes when I see the tourist launchas going down river I feel a little smug.  After all we live here on our boat.  They are only visiting.  So here we are in a tourist launcha waving at our fellow boaters and they can't figure out who the hell we are.

First we went up by the Casitllo San Felipe.  The sun was shining and it was just....perfect.  Back we headed down river for the big part, going down the river to Livingston at the mouth of the river.  We roared through the Golfete and slowed down at Texan Bay where we went through the flower lagoon and up little tributaries to a quiet lagoon where the lilly pads were plentiful and we got a little bit of a shower.  Back out into the Golfete and a storm was brewing on our starboard.  Fortunately it missed us and we continued down river.

We had a stop at the hot water springs and Kim and Lucy toured the cave while Michael  Geoffrey and I sat and enjoyed the river as it went by

We had lunch in Livingston at the Blue Bay.  Kim and I decided to be adventurous and had the local specialty, Taponado Garifuna.  It has an entire fish in it, octopus, squid, mussels, shrimp, plantains, green peppers, and onion all in a coconut cream sauce.  Once I got past the idea of my lunch looking at me it was wonderful.

We got some sun, good food, beautiful scenery, and of course good company.  Moral of the story?  Don't  forget to be a tourist in your own home.  There's a lot to see out there.

Mario's Marina Make-Over

Well you sure can tell it is "Cruising Season". Boats are leaving in record numbers and the docks are looking empty. That is not a bad thing.

This morning started with the old metal electrical boxes being removed along with the electrical meters. Now Carlos is here with his new toy a hydralic pile driver. It sure beats four men pounding them into the ground with a 125 pound weight!

The back canal is being dredged! Hopefully to the depth of seven feet. This could mean more dock space.

Overall things are looking good.

Gloria Update

We have heard Armando whistling and Gloria answers back.  It appears that she is across the little bay and has been spotted by the locals.  We are not inclined to go and get her.  She and Armando were having problems and perhaps a cooling off period is in order.  Inez and I agree that, Amor es "dificil" (love is difficult).

So we know that Gloria is alive and well.  We shall see if she decides to come back and back a go of it with Armando.

Suspected FOWL Play!

Tragedy has struck Armando and Gloria....When I arrived for morning coffee today Gloria was MISSING! I must say that Armando was a very cool cucumber about the whole thing. There is much searching going on and several theories are being proposed.

That Little Green Heron certainly looked happy about the disappearance of Gloria. It was standing rather close this morning, with I do believe a sly grin on it's beak. The Grackles were no where to be found, perhaps they feel that they should stay as far away from the scene of the crime as possible as they are not well liked.

Edgar has not shown his face around either come to think of it. There are no tell-tell feathers or any signs of violence.

Did she just swim away? Did she walk back to her owners? Was she stolen? Did Armando run her off? Did she become dinner with a lovely orange sauce? We don't know and Armando isn't talking.

LOVE is in the Air

Sometimes we humans just can't leave things alone.  Armando our little black bellied whistling duck was lonely.  We all knew he was lonely.  We talked about it constantly in the restaurant.  I know get a life!  Anyway, Armando had his little green heron that was his friend and even Edgar the Egret was coming around.   Edgar especially started coming around when Trish inadvertantly fed Edgar the remains of her pancakes.

There has been talk from day one that we should get a mate for Armando.  We heard of a fellow in the village that had some ducks but he was unwilling to sell at any price.  So we kept asking around and last week two youngsters showed up with duck in hand.  After much debate about the sex of the new duck it was decided that it was a female.  Enter Gloria.

Statistically arranged marriages last longer than the "we fell in love/lust marriages. " So we thought we were doing a good thing.  Gloria is not the brightest bulb.  She immediately started chasing poor Armando and talked incessantly.  He finally jumped into the water to get away from Gloria.  She followed...whistling all the while.  Carmen, Inez and Fito assure me that even though Armando appears not to like Gloria and pecks her on the chest in a not to friendly manner that given time he will come around.  Just like we humans according to Inez.

They do appear to be getting on better now.  I must report though that the little green heron is distraught.  He now sits on the bow pulpit of MiraMar and watches Gloria and Armando.  He has lost his friend.  I don't think that Gloria likes him much.  May-be she is jealous of that previous relationship.  How could he think it would last...they all be fowl but there are differences.

I wonder if Gloria and Armando will mate?  Stay tuned!