FRONTERAS, QUATEMALA TO TIKAL AND BACK 10/10 - 10/24/2018

I see the last blog I sent covered the first week of last October. That's over nine months ago. Man, has time flown. We spent the remainder of October and all of November at the marina in Guatemala, which included several inland trips; December in the Bay Islands of Honduras (i.e., Utila, Roatan, Cayos Cochinos and Guanaja); January and the first half of February in Belize; mid-February to mid-May in the Bay Islands again; and from mid-May to mid-June back in Guatemala. Since then we've been in Aix-En-Provence, France, which has included a visit from daughter Grace, a couple day trips to the Mediterranean, and a few days in Paris. At the end of July we head to the States, mostly Minnesota and Wisconsin, along with visits to South Dakota, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Then on October 2nd we go back to Guatemala and the boat.

Other Stuff:

1. As far as blogging goes, I may not be cut out for this. I probably take too many photos, which I think all tell pretty good stories, so it takes me a lot of time to decide which photos/stories to cut. Plus, while on the boat, as well as here in France, we seldom have good internet access which is needed to put a blog together. And probably the biggest factor is that there is just too many fun/interesting ways to spend my time. However, while we are a little more stationary here in France, and then the States, I'm going to try to catch up the best I can. Out of the nearly 1,100 photos I took in Guatemala during October and November, I've reduced the number I'll be sending in blogs to 150. Below are the first 30. And of course, if any of you just as soon not receive future blogs, just let me know. It's not your fault and my feelings won't be hurt.

2. I continue to be pleasantly surprised by how honest and helpful the locals are. They have been patient with our Spanish, have helped us with directions and returned change when they wouldn't have had to. I even left a check card in an ATM in Fronteras and it was turned in to the bank. We have never felt unsafe, and I'd say that the only people who have ripped us off, were the taxi drivers in Roatan, and we have that figured out now. 

3. The only real disappointment I have regarding this past season is not having the self discipline to manage my time better. Not only did it prevent me from blogging, but it also stopped me from studying Spanish, working out and getting small boat projects done. With that said, we met a lot of great people, saw a lot of cool places and had many fantastic experiences. However, next season I'll try to use my time more efficiently.

4. We did have some "oh shit" moments too. We were really hard on our electronics. I went through two laptops, a phone and two cameras, while Delana wrecked her brand new MacBook. We left hatches open during rain storms more times then I can count. And then, of course, there was the eyebrow wax incident.

This is the Catamaran Hotel and Marina where the boat (circled in red) is currently docked and where it was during last hurricane season as well. The hotel part includes 30+/- one-room air conditioned cabins which are seldom occupied,  a nice pool, tennis court, beautiful landscaping, a couple bars/restaurants, wifi (though not always reliable), and water taxi service to and from town.

Starship II is the middle boat. The marina can dock about 30 boats, which currently include six catamarans and around 25 monohulls. Though there are probably a dozen other marinas on the river, ranging in size from just a few boats to maybe 50, we really like it here. We like the management, staff and other boaters, most of whom we met over a year ago and have run into off and on in both Belize and Honduras. There's always something going on (i.e., movie nights, poker, dominoes, volleyball, yoga, happy hours, booze cruises, etc.).

Being back at the marina, means buying from the grocery boat, which comes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The selection is pretty limited at best, and if you're near the end of their delivery route, things can really be picked over. However, all proceeds go to Casa Guatemala, which is an orphanage on the river. So we buy what we can from them and dinghy into town for the rest.

We went zip lining, which included what I consider a pretty tough obstacle course. It runs through the jungle 50' above the ground. Boaters organize other trips as well, including to where a hot river flows over a cool river; inner tubing through a canyon; the Mayan ruins in Coba, Honduras; shopping trips to larger cities, etc. 

After the zip-line and obstacle courses we kayaked down a stream to the Rio Dulce. On the way we went by this typical thatched roof hut. Most Guatemalan families in the area live VERY simply and inexpensively, while at the same time and on the same river there are large modern Guatemalan owned estates, with multiple power yachts at their docks.

Fishing from the river with handlines, plastic bottle bobbers and dugout canoes is really how many families put food on the table. This photo was taken from the back of the boat while docked at the marina.

Besides the marina's boat which makes regular runs to and from town, several of the other marinas, as well as some of the restaurants, will send launches to pick you up and drop you off. This launcha is taking Delana, Melissa and others to a jungle restaurant for a Women Who Sail meeting.   

This is the only bridge that crosses the Rio Dulce (Sweet River). It's source is Lake Izabel, which can be seen at the top. The town of Fronteras is bottom right.

And this is Fronteras.

I still really get a kick out of Fronteras. It's colorful, noisy, busy, interesting and you never know what you'll see.

This area, as well as much of Guatemala, has a large Mayan population. The traditional women are always colorfully dressed.

I'm really surprised someone isn't hit on a daily basis. It's like this on both sides of the main street, though there is usually much more pedestrian traffic than in this photo. There are few tourists here, other than back packers and boaters, which may be one reason for the surprisingly low body count.

Guatemala is pretty much a cash society, so frequent visits to ATMs are necessary. I think there are five ATMs in Fronteras. Most have a 2,000 Quetzel limit per withdrawal and the fee is around 40Q per withdrawal. When we left, 7.7 Quetzals were equal to one US dollar. In Mexico is was 19 pesos per dollar. Two Belizean dollars are always equal to one US dollar. In Honduras, 24 Lempira equals a dollar and in France a dollar is worth 1.12 Euro. As we leave each county, we put any left over money away in a baggie and then pull out the baggie of currency for the country we're entering. 

Nothing in Fronteras surprises me. This barbershop has a small pharmacy in the front, and of course this caged chicken in the back.

Our French Canadian neighbor is going over Delana's new, used Sailrite sewing machine. It's the standard in the sailing community. It's heavy enough for sewing/repairing sails and flexible enough for more traditional sewing.

You'd think we'd learn. No matter how cloudless the sky in Guatemala looks, it will rain, especially if we leave our hatches open, which we continue to do. Here we're using our neighbors boat as a clothes line.

Once you get away from the bridge there isn't a road to the marina, or hardly anywhere along the river, so we have to dinghy to and from town. In this case, we're hauling a chest we had a local carpenter build. It replaced a large table in our "living room" area, which was nice, but also very big and tended to continually collect the stuff we didn't feel like putting away. Carlos "the Carpenter", not to be confused with Carlos "the welder" or Carlos "the waxer", didn't know English at all, so in our best broken Spanish, as well as through a rough drawing, we tried to convey what we wanted, including that once he finished the "box" part of the chest, we would like to meet again to talk about the doors, dividers, trim and feet. About four days later he asked us to come look at the chest. To our surprise it was totally finished, including all those things we thought we needed to give our two cents on, and it was perfect. 

Delana then stained the chest, made a cushion to put on top and sewed some matching pillow cases. Plus, since there's a good place to store the table on-board, so we can set it up when needed and use the chest for seating.

To give you an idea of prices, this meal for two was 50Q ($6.50). Guatemalan beer at bars/restaurants run between $.75 and $1.00 a can/bottle; while beer from the US, Mexico and Europe costs $1.50; mixed drinks are $3.00 - $4.00 each; fuel is less than $3.00 per gallon; rum is $10-12/liter; a liter box of Clos wine from Argentina is $4-5; a general grocery list is probably 25% less than the States, but availability is limited; marinas are very inexpensive; and boat work is really priced low compared to the US, or elsewhere in the Caribbean. The people who clean, wax and paint boats make 100Q to 150Q per day. That's $13 to $20. So low prices, the services offered, along with the fact that the Rio Dulce is a hurricane hole, has created a pretty strong sailing community, which is why so many old sailors and boats from all over the world have been here for years. Some will never leave.

Since there are few tourists, few of the locals speak English, plus it would be helpful to know more Spanish elsewhere too. So we took Spanish lessons for three days a week for about a month. Jos, the woman on the left, was our instructor and charged about $8/hour for the two of us. We were making pretty good progress and planned to work on our lessons after we left the Rio, but never did. Hopefully we'll make some time while in the States. Anyway, when we come back in October we want to go to the colonial city of Antiqua for a one or two week Spanish emersion class. We would have several hours of lessons every day, plus live with a Spanish speaking family in a Spanish speaking community. As far as Jos goes, she's Belgian, speaks five languages, her partner of 30 plus years is English and they have been here for 10 years. They came to buy a boat, which they've been working on ever since.

Just like every place I've been, including the US, the Rio Dulce has dozens of boats that will most likely never sail again. 

This is our view from where we're docked at the marina. Not bad.

Our first trip into Guatemala's interior was to Tikal. We went with a Norwegian couple who had their boat on the same dock as ours. Tikal is located in northern Guatemala and was perhaps the largest of the Mayan cities. When we got on the bus in Fronteras there was standing room only, but we figured people would be getting off at the coming stops. However, instead of getting off, more just kept coming on, while everyone in the aisle was just pushed farther back. As it turned out, we stood 3.5 of the four hours it took to get to the island village of Flores.

I just liked the color and textures is this photo. It was taken in Flores.

After a night in Flores we took a taxi to Tikal which was about an hour and a half drive. We stayed at the Jungle Hotel for two nights. It was VERY nice and is located just a short walk from Tikal.

The hotel grounds were carved right out of the jungle, which includes jaguars, pumas, spider and howler monkeys, parrots, toucans, turkeys, tarantulas, etc. 

This photo of a spider monkey was taken at the hotel. There are plenty of howler monkeys around too, but they are much less visible. However, they make a VERY loud lion-like roar in the evenings and mornings.  As a matter of fact, when at the marina we can hear them from all the way across the river. I can't imagine what the first Europeans thought when they heard them. Both monkeys can grow to 36" tall and weigh in the low 20's.

We left the hotel in the dark so we could see and hear the jungle wake up. It was too foggy to see the sunrise but the noises were amazing, especially the howler monkeys.

Tikal was occupied from 200 BC to 900 AC. It was the dominant Mayan city for much of that time. Tikal and the surrounding area was home to over 400,000 people and had 3000 structures, including 70 royal palaces. As I recall, only about 15% have been excavated, with much less restored, and out of the that,we really only saw a small portion. 

The Mayan kingdoms collapsed around 900 AD, most likely from a combination of diminishing  resources, droughts and over population. It's still very impressive and interesting.

The bus ride there was a real education, so we upgraded on the way home and took a bus that had reserve seating and no standing. It was really nice.

Once back at the Rio there was more rain. I think during October it rained at least once every day. And when I say rain, it really came down. Six inches at a shot wasn't unusual. And sometimes they thunder and lightning shows were fantastic.