I Felt the Earth Move

No we are not talking about great sex here...we are talking EARTHQUAKE! Yes, we felt the earth move up here on the Rio Dulce. We are fine and so is the marina. Marco, Mirna, and Kathy had it the worst as they were on land. The beds were dancing and stuff was trying to jump off the selves in the store. The pool had waves big enough to empty a good foot and a half of water. We were luck no structural damage.

We talked to our friends at Hotel Kangaroo and they live on the third floor.  Their king sized bed was moving and the house was swaying and the stairs moved 4 inches.  Lots of little houses are down or leaning at crazy angles.

Placencia had quite a bit of damage as well.  The photos of Honduras are scary.  Fortunately it appears that there was not a great loss of life.

Once again we are lucky and safe.

Episode Three…Total Immersion

School completed and a day to ourselves and armed with our new command of the language we decide that we will do the tourist thing.  We decide against doing ruins at Yax Ha and will go to the Archeological Museum.  The lady who runs the hotel hears our discussion and promptly offers her services to get us a launcha to the island where the museum is located.  We agree on a price and a time.  Our guide is a young man named Jose, who is enthusiastic and is happy that we speak a little Spanish.  So as we head to a different Island Carole and I are concerned that we are not going where we thought we were going.  Some discussion ensues and yes he is taking us to the Museo de Arqueológico funny it’s not on the island that we thought it was…we get there and it is a ZOO!  Jose insists that it is the right place and he will let us off and we will cross a bridge and he will meet us on the other side.

As we approach the entrance we notice that the price for Nationals is Q10 and Internationals is Q20. We attempt to convince the gatekeeper that we are Nationals.  Guess our Spanish isn’t that good.  The first things that you see are wild boars sleeping under picnic tables in the open.  Please don’t touch them as they are aggressive.  We move along by some Amazon Parrots and a Macaw, more boars and then I see it…an old swinging bridge over the water.  

 The sign says maximum 15 people, no running or jumping.  They don’t need to worry I am not sure that I will even get across it!  I hate planks, but I think that I hate swinging bridges even more.  Carole heads off first.  The boards are old, dry, and have large spaces, but good news…the bridge has floats and right now it is touching the water.  I take a step and making it across happy that Jose will pick us up on the other side.  Yes, there is Jose and he is ready to take us on a tour of the Zoo and explain all the animals.

All is going well until I spy a sign that clearly states that we must cross another bridge.  This swinging bridge is over the tops of the trees.  I inform Carole and Jose that I will wait with the Puma and hope for a picture while they continue on.  Jose tells me that I will miss the monkeys and the jaguar.  I tell Jose that I have seen both and I will be waiting on this side for their return.  I would rather do TEN FOOT SEAS in a 38 Foot boat than do a swing bridge.  Carole did admit later that it was a little scary when crossing the last bridge.

As we are returning to the island of Flores we ask Jose about the other island and the “radio museo”.  Oh yes he can take us there, but we had not negotiated that with the lady at the hotel.  Okay there must be some deal here that we were not aware of…so take us back to the hotel and it is off to lunch.

As we are walking deciding on a restaurant we are approached by several launcha drivers asking if we want to go to the Radio Museo.  Carole is not keen on looking at a bunch of old radios so we ask our waiter if that is all there is…just radios?  No he assures us it has Maya artifacts.  We must go!

We go and boy are we glad that we did.  The gentleman, Luis, who runs the Peten radio stations, runs the museum and boy what a museum.  The size of a bedroom it is chock-a-block full of artifacts and yes old radios.  No touching, No photos.  There is a group of Guatemalan men being toured and we just join in.  How could you not we are only a foot away from them.   But here is the amazing part.  Luis takes a figurine that is a flute made 400 years before Christ and he plays it!  He moves to the large trumpet shells and plays them.  Now he opens a case and takes out a jade figurine and while he is placing it in my hands tells the group that it was carved 2,000 years before Christ was born!  I am terrified that I will drop it.  And so it was as we moved around, touch this, hold that.  How amazing, how fantastic!   Thank you, Luis.

Now it is time to get ready to go back home to the river.  What a great week Carole and I had.  And if you are wondering…NO I am not fluent!  But at least I know what I need to work on.

Episode Two...Que' Susto (What a Fright)

Some of you know that Carole is a teacher. Not just by vocation, but avocation. She is a natural. So after lunch we would sit on the balcony and review what we had covered in the morning. But let’s talk about lunch. In Central America the menus are on a stand outside the restaurant and you can look at the selection and prices. We chose our restaurants by the price of their beer! So two beers each, lunch and then back to studying. We would people watch and make up stories about the people that passed in Spanish and then we would practice the different tenses. By then it was time to think about dinner.
Santa Elena is the town across the bridge from Flores. Santa Elena has a new Pizza Hut. Now this may not be your cup of tea, but after living without for most of the year, Pizza Hut is a treat. As we had arrived on the bus we noted where the Pizza Hut was and it appeared to be close to the bridge not far from Pollo Campero (a great fried chicken place…eat your heart out Colonel Sanders). So after 4 days of típico food off we headed for Pizza Hut on foot. We passed Pollo Campero and walked and walked and walked. We are now in a very seedy part of town and the “working girls” are out. It is starting to get dusk. Carole asks a man where Pizza Hut would be located. The answer was very far. We turn around and walk back to Pollo Campero and have a lovely meal of fried chicken. But they don’t serve beer. We stop on the way home and have our usual two beers and then back to the hotel for sleep.
Not to be discouraged we decide that we will take a Tuc Tuc the next night and get our Pizza fix. What is a Tuc Tuc you ask? Well it is a means of transportation that is a three wheeled motorcycle with a roof. Usually quite safe. We find our Tuc Tuc and off we go around the island to the bridge. This is when we have our near death experience. The road is pure slippery mud, next to the lake with no guardrail. As we slide we keep getting closer to the lake. I am convinced that we are going to go in so I plan in my head how to save my life. I share with Carole that all I have to do is get out the window and push up. Ha, Ha she says…you will have foot prints on your head from me getting out over you! Finally we get to Pizza Hut but it takes us almost 15 minutes to get a hold of ourselves before we can stop talking about out bouncing boobs, rattling teeth and near death experience.
As we are eating we watch the traffic and note that not many of the Tuc Tucs have lights on. Carole informs me that she WILL NOT ride back in the dark in a Tuc Tuc that doesn’t have lights. I ask her if I will need to do an inspection. Finally I see one that has all his lights. So fortified with pizza and beer we leave with our one piece of to go pizza to catch the tuc tuc with lights. When we ask the price we are told it will be double what we paid to come to Pizza Hut. When asked why we are informed that after dark the price doubles. Carole asks if that is for the lights. Ha, Ha… I ask if we can get a discount if we give him the piece of pizza. Okay he says and off we go. We arrive at the malecón and now he wants full price. Of course he doesn’t have change. Nobody has change. Envision this…Carole and I standing in the headlight digging in our purses for Quetzals, centavos, anything to make 20 Quetzals. Okay we let him keep the pizza. We didn’t have a fridge and would have just thrown it away. Now we have a story for class tomorrow were we can use our preterite tense of verbs.
Episode Three Tomorrow.....

Episode One...I Go to Spanish School

Carole on SV Adrosian and I have been studying our Spanish together for almost four years now.  She is much more diligent than I, but we meet for an hour every day and work at learning a little more.  This year Carole decided that she was going to go to a Spanish School for a week and invited me.  I let her do all the planning as I was still out for the cruising season in Belize.

She decided on Flores, a lovely island in the Petén that we both had traveled to before and enjoyed.  The town is so small you can walk it in two hours, the streets are cobbled and the people warm and friendly.  She chose the school, Dos Mundos.  We were to have one - on – one instruction for four hours a day, for one week.  Our bus tickets were purchased and we prepared for departure on a warm Sunday afternoon.  We would arrive at around 6:30 pm and were to report to the owner of the school at his restaurant, Yax Ha Arqueología.

We went to the town of Rio Dulce to catch our bus.  Now there are several bus lines and ours was Linea Dorada.  Linea Dorada has its waiting area on the left side of the street, but the bus would be on the right side of the street.  So we decided we would wait in Fuente del Norte waiting room on the right side of the street.  That was not acceptable to the staff of Fuente del Norte.  We were told to wait across the street for our bus.  So we did and when the bus arrived we ran with our backpacks across the traffic, dodging cattle trucks, people, pick-up trucks and tuc tucs.  We quickly boarded and off we go!

Imagine our horror when we arrived.  It had rained and the lovely streets were gone!  They were torn up to put all the telephone, electric and plumbing underground.  This meant that  most of the streets now had trenches and planks over them so that you could get from side to the other side.  You must remember that OSHA does not exist in Guatemala so when I say planks, these are boards of varying sizes, strength, and durability.  Anyone in the marina will tell you that, I DON’T DO PLANKS!  But this night I had no choice.  If I wanted to get to my hotel I had to not only walk a plank….I had to walk several.  Did I mention that it had rained and everything was muddy and slick?

As we are making our way carefully up the road to find the restaurant to meet with Dieter of the school our eyes are glued to the slick muddy road when Carole asks, “Are you looking for the restaurant?”  Of course I wasn’t but I looked up and there it was just a few steps away.  Lucky she asked!  Now we are asking the staff where Dieter is and no one seems to know where he is or why we are there.  Finally we get them to call him and Carole takes the phone.  I can hear him laughing in the background about us being early… ha, ha, ha and can we meet him at 8:30pm and he will show us where the school is located.  Firmly Carole informs him that we will not be meeting him and we will find the school ourselves in the morning.  We are tired, hungry, and thirsty.  “Okay, then be at the school at a quarter to nine in the morning and we will get you started with your classes”, Says Dieter.

We make it to our hotel which is on what once was a street, but now has two open trenches running the length of the street on either side and more planks than I want to count.  We weave our way across the planks from side to side, working our way around the piles of sand and gravel.  Please can we have something to eat… oh and a beer?  Back out to the nonexistent street to Captain Tortugas.  It had cold beer and a good meal.  On our return to the hotel one of planks has broken and a small thin plank now replaces it.  Carole crosses first and it bends badly in the middle.  I am a big woman and have a backpack so if it is bending with Carole’s weight I am thinking that it won’t hold me.  I hand off my pack across to Carole and a little Guatemalteca helps me put another plank on top of the existing one.  I decide to cross sideways so that I can have my fingers on a one inch ledge on the building for support.  Whew, I make it!  However, I tell Carole that I can’t keep this up as I am sure I will fall and break a leg or my neck.  She agrees that our usual 10 minute walk to school will be at least 40 minutes.  We will move after day two in our current hotel as we had paid in advance.  We at least want a road that we can walk on.  We can search for a new hotel after class.

The next morning we arrive at the school.  Dieter greets us with, “You are early”.  We have a little chat about nothing and then he remembers that we need to pay.  We pay and our teachers arrive and we are introduced.  Patricia and Vivian are delightful young ladies.  They are younger that my youngest child.  They are not allowed to speak any English to us, only Spanish.  About the middle of the morning I hit the WALL!  My brain will not function and fortunately Patricia recognizes this.  She offers me a game of dominos and I beat the pants off her.  Thank God.  One more game which she wins and we are back to the Spanish.

We find a hotel on the same road as the school.  Here there is a road, but no sidewalks.  Guess that you can’t have everything.  We now have a room with 2 double beds, a private balcony with 2 chairs overlooking the malecón and a lovely view of the lake and it is less expensive.

Stay tuned for Episode Two of Our Adventures in Flores…

Deja Vu all over again

We are back at Mario's and settling in is never easy. This time is no different.

We had just pulled in and secured the lines, hugs all around when a huge wake from a mega yacht hit us. Seayeti in front of us started moving all over, up and down, back and forth and we were doing the same. It was like watching two bucking broncos without riders. We hit and we hit again. Our bow pulpit hit Seayeti's dinghy davits and propane bottle. We punctured the propane bottle and fortunately it did not explode, instead it went into the water leaking.

Fortunately no one was injured. I can't say the same for the boats. We have to have a new pulpit manufactured and we needed a new anchor platform. The damage looks just like when we were first hit in San Pedro, Belize almost 5 years ago.

The Guatemalan Navy actually was in the restaurant and saw the boat and the damage caused by the wake. Jim and Marco and 2 of the Navy guys took me over to talk to the owner. He has said that he will take responsibility....we will see

All in all we can get it fixed and we have all our digits. I do wish it hadn't happened though....

And the Question of the Day...

“Do you know where MY Boat is?”

The answer to the question was, “Yes”.    But I get ahead of myself.   We are back in Placencia sitting out some nasty weather.   Squalls and high winds.  Every night you get just a little nervous as you are wondering, will my anchor hold, will the guy next door or better yet in front of you hold?

Two days ago a little Gemini Catamaran came in.  Father and son on board.  The boat is worn and needs some work.  The dinghy davits with the solar panels look like they have been hit and are quite bent and mangled.  The first day they came in they attempted to drop right on top of our anchor.  We asked them to move and they did.  For the next hour we watched each of them jump into the water with the anchor and attempt to set it.  There was yelling and cursing and shouts about coral and slow down the boat you’re going to run me over.  The anchor is only a little danforth, much too small and only rope rode that looks much too short.  In Placencia we tend to anchor in 20 feet on average.  Needless to say we were concerned.  Their outboard doesn’t work so they swam to the bar next to them and got a ride into town with the shuttle launcha.

The next morning they were gone.  We thought they had gone in closer to town to get repaired and may-be provision. Last night they returned.  The wind is 16 knots to 20 knots with the occasional gust of 25 knots.  The anchorage is rolly and squalls are predicted.  Not a star in sight, just thick black clouds.  Sitting in the cockpit and watching the other boats to make sure that all is well and besides the bar, Tranquillos has live music that is keeping us up.  Finally around 9pm I head downstairs to go to bed when….a large bump and horrible sound stops me on the top stair.  Yes, the Gemini has drug into us and is on the move….We see that the interior lights are on and start yelling, flashing lights, and hailing them on the VHF Radio.  NO response!  They are now headed to the boat behind us.  We are hailing him on the radio and soon most of the people on our side of the anchorage are flashing lights and blowing horns, anything to get their attention.  NO RESPONSE!  We try and hail the bar, but the music is so loud that no one hears us.  Finally after making sure that we don’t have a hole in us and that we are not taking on water.  We sit down and hail the other boats to make sure everyone is okay.  We can see the Gemini about quarter of a mile off in the distance headed for Big Creek.  It looks like they got in shallow water or re-set the anchor because they appear to be stopped.

Finally the shuttle launcha comes by our boat and the son yells, “Do you know where our boat is?”  “Yes, it hit us and barely missed the boat behind us and is back there near Big Creek.”  I will spare you specific quotes of some of the more colorful language.  Fill in the blanks.  His reply to us is, “Well it just got loose.”  Not a sorry are you okay.  At least they were smart enough to tie up to the bar’s dock last night.   Hopefully they will stay tied to the dock as the weather doesn’t look good for tonight either.  Stay tuned…

Should Cruisers Race????

Eileen Quinn has a song, “Gotta, Gotta, Regatta” that sums up the events of the Regatta in Placencia. Tom and Kim on SV Miramar invited us to crew in the race. Michael wasn’t too sure and I couldn’t wait. They also invited friends of theirs, Nick and Kim.
Tom, Nick, and I went to the Captain’s Meeting. At the meeting it was decided that the race would be postponed for an hour so that we could have more wind. This put a crimp in Nick and Kim’s plans as they had to navigate the mangrove swamp to get home by launcha and they didn’t want to do that in the dark. Tom decided to call the race committee and ask if we could start an hour earlier and they could adjust our time. Not a problem.

Everything is set and we are heading to the committee boat to cross the starting line. Things are going really well right up until we catch the anchor line of the committee boat! We are also trying to avoid T-boning the small ketch that is parked by the committee boat. Tom has line cutters on his prop shaft and sure enough they work! So now the committee boat is free and alongside us. Kim and I are holding the boat off Miramar and we realize that we don’t have much left of the anchor rode to hang on to. Just as we are about to set the boat free I see a bow line and grab it. We are able to tie the boat to us though it wants to lay alongside of us. Once we get it hanging off the back of Miramar things start to calm down. Don’t think that Tom is just standing around. As we are securing the committee boat he and Kim are dropping the anchor and the sails.
All is all it wasn’t too bad. No digits were lost, no one got hurt and it only cost us the race and Tom the price of a new anchor.
So here is to Tom… the first to start and the first to finish…quickest race in history.