Tuesday 5/01/2007
A final smoothie for breakfast at The Shack. The
owner of the tiny shop, Murial, is very nice. She also owns
the bootleg DVD shop across the street(there's one on every
island). I ask her about the use of papaya leaf tea as an
anti-malarial. She does not know, but runs back to her
garden and plucks a lovely handfull of papaya leaves for me
anyway. She reccomends Serosa (sp?) vine leaves to cleanse
the blood and papaya seeds to rid the sysyem of parasites.
I hope I will never need this information, but make a
mental note just in case. After stocking up on fruits and
veggies, we wish farewell to this wonderful little village.
It was such a pleasure that we even stayed and extra day,
and now it is definately time to be on our way. A couple
hours of sailing brings us to Monkey River Town. We anchor
up at the mouth of the river, hop in the dinghy and make
our way up the river. The foliage on either bank is
unbelievable! Giant palms ,mango trees ripe with fruit, and
groves of bamboo six stories tall! Beautiful birds with
yellow tail feathers fly overhead to their nests which
resemble large seed pods hanging from a paricularly tall
palm tree. About 1 1/2 miles in we find what looks like
steps carved into the bank. Without a second thought we
pull up and tie the dinghy off. There is a little trail
leading into the forest. Good size spiders make their
webbed homes on either side of the path. It is not long
before we come upon a sign that warns us not to proceed any
further without the presence of a guide. We proceed a
little further but turn back when Joanne is bit by the
member of a small swarm of insects. Perhaps we'll venture
into the rainforest when we are a little more prepared- not
in shorts and flip-flops! We tromp back to the dinghy and
motor slowly back to the town at the mouth of the river.
Entire families laugh and play together in the brackish
water. A large sign on the beach reads "Welcome to Monkey
River Town". We walk around the village, which is slightly
larger than a neighborhood. It is so small and simple, and
the locals certainly seem to like it that way. They are for
the most part less than friendly to us outsiders. With
complete understanding we finish our sprites, which we
bought at the one tiny drink stand, and head back to the
boats to continue our way to the little island near New
Haven. The river tour was definately worth the stop, even
though the monkeys stayed out of sight. Joanne said that
they must have taken the day off because it's Labor Day! We
arrive at our destination two hours later and anchor up
close to the tiny, uninhabited shore. Jaonne and Travis
come over and we all sip coconut rum and coke while Jeremy
fixes our dinghy outboard (it sucked up some silt from the
river and needed to be unclogged). The water is still
around us, the shore line at our bow is the perfect jungle
scene, and as we chat and sip on our rums in the cockpit
the enormous full moon rises to starboard.
Wednesday 5/02/07
Today we sail to our very last Belizean port, Punta
Gorda. The Maya Mountains on our right are a very welcome
addition to the beautiful coastal view. Punta Gorda itself
is framed with a backdrop of rolling hills in the distance.
This is a very sleepy town indeed, so much that Belizeans
don't even bother calling it by it's full name. It is known
simply as P.G.. We seem to have arrived during siesta, for
most of the shops are closed. We head straight to the Port
Captain's office after lunch- which wouldn't have been
complete without a last Belikin stout: Belize's excellent
dark beer. It will be missed, but of course we do plan on
finding many more fine beers and other such beverages along
the way! Anyway, we had planned on staying the night here
and leaving around 4:00am to arrive at and enter the Rio
Dulce at 8:00am for high tide, but just to stay those few
extra hours in Belizean waters will cost us another $70
Belize (thats about $35 U.S.). We decide to push it through
the night even though the weather is not very pleasant. We
say goodbye to Belize and continue on our way to Guatemala.
When we finally reach the mouth of the Rio Dulce and
attempt to anchor outside, it is so rough and windy that
the anchor will not stay put. After ten minutes of watching
our boat stray on the GPS, we finally break out our "Oh
sh**!" anchor. It is a trick to haul it to the bow and
heave it overboard in these conditions, but once it is down
we know we aren't going anywhere. Now we can finally sleep,
or at least we could if we weren't being tossed out of our
bed by the waves!
Thursday 5/03/07
We awake at 7:00am and our grumpiness over the
previous night is melted away in moments as we look around
and take in our surroundings. We pull anchor and make our
way slowly to where the panorama of dense mountains haults
to form the Rio Dulce (Sweet River). Small spinner dolphins
dart bodily out of the water around us as we inch
forward. The sea floor at the mouth of the Rio Dulce is
made of very fine mud which frequently shifts with waves
and current. This and the fact that at high tide the depth
is still only 6-7 ft. makes it a pretty tricky entrance. We
are about half way through the mouth when Max gently comes
to a stop. This sort of soft mud grounding is not nearly as
alarming as running into hard rock or coral, but it's still
quite unnerving. Holding our breath, we decide to try
pushing through it. Jeremy throttles up the engine and we
inch our way through the silt, hoping that we are just
over a small 5 1/2ft. hump. Disappointed locals in cayucas
(small wooden dugout canoes) watch as we finally make it to
good water after digging a 20 ft. trench! We anchor just
inside the river at the small town of Livingston. In a
couple of hours a boat pulls up with five smiling men on
board. We invite the Port Captain, Customs, Immigration, &
Health officials and the driver aboard. "Welcome to
Guatemala" says the Port Captain as we shake hands. They
check our papers and are on their way to the next boat in
less than ten minutes. If only every country could be so
easy, and friendly. In town we check in officially at the
Customs and Immigration offices, exchange American and
Belizean dollars for Guatemalan Quetzales, and buy a hand
made Guatemalan flag (these courtesy flags are required,
and we forgot to pick one up before we left Key West) from
Phillip the Flag Man who sells his sewn crafts on the
street. Anxious to be on our way into the Rio Dulce, we
promptly give 20 quetzales (about $3 U.S.) to the kid who
kept an eye on our dinghy for us and head back to the
boats, 3 month tourist visas in hand. As we motor up the
river we are engulfed on either side by 300 ft. cliffs that
are completly covered in growth. As I stand silently on the
bow looking way up at the giant walls of dense jungle, the
buzz of life is borderline intimidating. This is the scene
for several hours until we come to El Golfete lake and
anchor up for the night. For dinner we find the one nearby
restaurant. Well, it's kind of a restarant... We walk in
and put in our order to be ready in a couple of hours. The
establishment is basically a woman's house with seating on
a large waterfront patio. Joanne and I order a local
Garifuna (AKA: Black Caribs of South American and African
descent) dish which I believe is called alabundinga. It is
a stew of coconut cream, boiled potatos and spices served
with rice, a large plate of seafood (a whole fried river
perch, blue crab, and shrimp), and fried plantains. You
peel and pick apart the seafood and add it with the
plantains and rice to the broth. It was one of the best
meals I have had. We later found out that the Rio Dulce is
the best place to have this rare dish, if you can find it.
We noticed while we were eating that the chicken that had
been running around earlier was no where to be seen (Travis
said that his spiced chicken was delicious!).
Friday 5/04/2007
This morning we go straight to a nearby wildlife
refuge to walk the looped nature trail and take a couple of
cayucas up a stream that leads into the forest. Jaguars and
lots of other notable wildlife are in the area, but the
main thing we see aside from beautiful dense jungle are
some basilisk lizards (the ones that can run on
water) and bright orange crabs. After getting a good
walking and paddling exercise we head back to the boats to
motor up to the town of Rio Dulce and La Jolla Del Rio
marina... Back in Placencia I sent an e-mail to a friend
from Guatamala City who I met in Key West but had been out
of touch with for over three years. I thought that it was a
slim chance that he still had the same address, and still
remembered me! "Of course I remember you guys!" he wrote
back almost immediately. I couldn't believe it! Needless to
say we will be hooking up!- We travel into town to research
busses from here to Guatamela City. Along the way we find
some delicious home made corn tortillas (much thicker than
mexican tortillas). This little town has a very wild west
feel to is with lots of trucks driving down the dusty dirt
roads weighed down with cattle, rope and saddles sold at
many of the little stores and many of the locals wearing
cowboy boots and hats. Back at the marina, which is across
the river and only accessable by boat, we relax and watch
the large bats darting around overhead. The marina is in a
big lagoon with plenty of birds, bugs and lizards. Needless
to say I pull out the bug screens for all of the hatches
before we retire to bed!
Saturday 5/05/2007
We spent today lounging around, cleaning the boat
and packing for our 10:00am bus ride to Guatemala City
tomorrow. Sunday 5/06/2007 I am a bit reluctant to
leave our boat for several
days, but visiting our friend Luis and his family in the
city is an opportunity that we cannot pass up. We say
goodbye to Max and catch a 4-5 hour bus ride through the
Highlands to Guatemala City. The bus ride was more pleasant
than I had expected, even for 100 quetzales (about $12
U.S.). It had air conditioning (wow!) and we got a tour of
the beautiful rolling hills of the Highlands, where most of
the Mayans live. Along the roads were Mayan women and
children dressed in beautiful brightly colored embroidered
blouses and long skirts carrying baskets perfectly balanced
on top of their heads, full to the brim with clothes, food,
firewood etc. Many of the men wore cowboy hats and boots
and could be seen riding horses with firewood strapped on
either side or pulling carts loaded with building or
farming materials. Much of the farmland we pass is dotted
with large Brahma cattle, or growing corn and vegetables.
Everywhere are wild mango, papaya and banana trees heavy
with fruit. We exit the bus and our friend Luis Pedro and
his mother Sonia are waiting for us. It is so good to see
Luis again (and not to mention the relief of having a local
friend in this neighborhood!) He and his lovely mother
invite all four of us to stay in their home. Sonia hugs me
and says "Mi casa es su casa" and I am almost in tears over
her warmth. We stop briefly at their home in the City to
clean up and then the four of us along with Luis and his
good friend Julian head straight to their other home in
Antigua (a city we had really wanted to see on this trip)
to stay for the night. The house is beautiful and rustic,
typical of this city. We eat the best nachos in the world
at Mono Loco (Crazy Monkey) and spend much of the evening
catching up at the local hot spot Reilly's, Guatemala's
only Irish pub.
Monday 5/07/2007
Today Luis takes us all over Antigua. We visit the
markets selling local Mayan handicrafts, tour two of the
town's beautiful hotels and check out some of the ruins of
a convent. The feel and style of Antigua reminds me of New
Mexico's Santa Fe- on a larger scale and with two huge
volcanos in the background! We drive 1/2 hour back to the
City and Sonia has dinner all planned. Joanne and I cannot
believe our luck when she invites us into her kitchen to
help her and Florentina (the family's Mayan helper who has
been in the family since Luis was a child). We watch
intently as they make mayan lasagna (something you won't
find in any restaurant!), a huge salad with apples,
mangoes, olives, tomatos etc., and reyenitos for dessert (a
plantain dough made into tortillas, stuffed with refried
beans carmelized with sugar and cinnamon, and
fried.).Another friend from years ago in Key West- Carlos,
Luis' brother (also Carlos), and his wife Andrea came over
and we all ate dinner together. We can already tell it is
going to be hard to leave this place!
Tuesday 5/08/2007
Bevore leaving for work Sonia make us breakfast of
homemade tortillas, scrambled eggs, refried beans and fresh
apple pancakes with honey. To drink she has made a pitcher
of fresh squeezed mango juice (from their mango orchard)
and a pitcher of hamaica (local rose tea served cold). Yum!
After breakfast we Luis drives us three hours to the town
of Panajachel, on Lago (Lake) De Atitlan. This is a cool
laid back bohemian town. We check into a room ($12 U.S.)
and wander down the main dirt road lined with stands
selling mayan crafts, to the lake. Three huge volcanos can
be seen directly across the lake in the distance, and two
more across to the east. The rest of the lake is trimmed
with shadowed hills that sprawl across the highlands. What
a sight. It is no wonder this is a place sought out by
travelers from across the globe.
Wednesday 5/09/2007
Jeremy is ill this morning and insists that I go
with our friends on a tour of the lake while he stays in
the room and sleeps. It is nonthing serious, but he
definately needs rest. Sad that it is only the four of us,
we hop on a little boat and zip east to the tiny Mayan town
of Santa Catarina. It is very small and even Luis can
hardly understand the locals as they speak mostly Mayan (a
language with over 20 dialects)! Children dressed in
beautiful Mayan attire do know some spanish- specifically
"Une quetzal?". This they say to tourists with out
stretched arms and open hands as they skip barefoot in the
streets. A beautiful little girl no more than three years
old is skipping along side us not trying to sell the
fistfull of colorful bracelets in her hand, but rather
twirling them around in the air. As she is dancing around
giggling she looks up at me with my camera in hand and says
"Una Photo!". I cannot resist and end up taking several
photos of her and her brother and mom. In the end I place
two quetzales (about $.30 U.S.) and a jolly rancher in her
tiny hand and she is extatic. On our way to San Antonio the
driver pulls into a tiny cove. Steam rises from the water
and nearby rocks. We reach overboard and are not surprised
to find the water hot to the touch. If only we had brought
swim suites- next time! On to San Antonio, a town built
into the side of a mountain. Walking up the steep streets
you can look out on a great view of the volcanos across the
lake! The last town is slightly larger- Santiago Atitlan.
Here a child leads us to Maximon (mah-shee-mohn), a sort of
saint carved from an extinct tree. He is paraded around
during Semana Santa (around Easter time), and spends the
rest of the year in a chosen home, recieving offerings of liquer, cigars, clothing, and money. We
hiked up the steep streets (Santiago is also built into a
mountain) until we finally reached the present home of
Maximon. We ducked inside and the eldest son told us the
history of Maximon (translated by Luis!) and answered our
questions. It was an extremely intimate experience. I gave
Maximon an offering of 10 Q for a photo and we were on our
way back to the boat. As soon as we were back in Panajachel
we checked on Jeremy, who was feeling much better. We drove
back to the City and Sonia made us enchiladas (tostadas
piled high with beets, beef, spicy vegetables, sauce, and
boiled egg. We all felt really bad for Jeremy who couldn't
eat the amazing meal (still feeling pretty low) until we
saw that Sonia had "whipped up" some homemade chicken soup
for him (she is really amazing!). He could not have been
better taken care of than with Sonia.
Thursday 5/10/2007
For breakfast Floren makes pancakes, eggs, refried
beans, a pitcher of fresh squeezed watermelon juice and a
pitcher of fresh mango juice (we are trying to talk her
into coming back with us!). Afterwards Luis and his mom
take us on a tour of Guatemala City. It is very cool! The
city is broken into zones (1-14 I think). They are great
tour guides with tons of information. For dinner we insist
on treating the family to dinner at Sonia's restaurant of
choice for Guatemalan Mother's Day. It is a blast!
Friday 5/11/2007
It is time for us to head back to our boat and the
Rio Dulce. We have had such an amazing time here and met so
many wonderful people. We hope to come back some day, and
have been invited to do so any time. Luis gets us to the
bus station and we hope he can take us up on our invitation
to visit us in Rio Dulce. The bus ride back is long and
Jeremy is still not feeling good. Back on the boat we
decide to stay down for the night for him to hopefully
recover.
Saturday 5/12/2007
Luis arrives with his good friends Diego (from
Peru) and Lisa. Jeremy is feeling better and we all spend
the night eating and drinking around town- especially at
hang this great bar called Sun Dog- before crashing out on
the boats.
Sunday 5/13/2007 HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!
After calling to wish our moms a happy Mother's Day
we take Max out for a cruise on the river with Luis, Diego
and Lisa (Joanne is down with what is probably the same
thing Jeremy had). We have a great time swimming and
fishing. We all have lunch together at Backpackers before
wishing them farewell (sadly they all have to work on
Monday). Luis is an incredibly fun and unique person. We
have never met anyone quite like him and will miss him a
great deal after this last week; and this time I won't let
three years pass by without keeping in touch- promise!
Monday 5/14/2007
It is time to start planning for the next leg of
our journey. We pull out the charts for the Bay Islands of
Honduras before I disappear below to type up this last
entry (we finally found a decent internet cafe here!). We
anticipate being out of touch for a while again in
Honduras, but I'll do my best to keep you all updated! Miss
you all- wish us fair weather for our crossing (probably on
Wednesday or Thursday)!!
