our blog
May 12
Time is sure flying for us. We only have about 6 weeks to travel through Guatemala, Belize, Mexico and make it all the way back to eastern Florida. So, we must move on from the islands of Honduras. We will make a short hop on Saturday to the next island inline - Utila. Then an overnight passage to the Rio Dulce of Guatemala. There we hope to find a safe place for the boat for a few days to travel inland.
May 14
Today we set sail for the Rio Dulce of Guatemala. This is one of the famed cruising destinations we have heard about from many other cruisers. It will be another 112 mile overnight passage, hopefully putting us in to the customs dock at Livingston, Guatemala by 10am on Tuesday. From there we will make our way up the river before finding an anchorage for the night.
May 15
We had an easy overnight sail in tandem with Happy Times. We used an agent for checking-in but still the various forms and logistics took us half the day. We learned that the black residents of Livingston were having a festival that evening so we decided to stay.
A boatload of officials - navy, port captain, health inspector, customs, immigration. They all came aboard to "inspect" which means something like drink iced-tea and collect a lot of money. Guatemala is the 2nd most expensive country we have checked into. Over $200 for the first month. [Bahamas was the most for us at $300, but most European yachts will point out that the US costs them even more because of Visa fees…]
This "boat boy" on the docks in Livingston marched proudly with his new rod and reel that we gave him.
Public laundry facilities.
SARITA! It's good, all over Guatemala, and cheap. The Banana Split was a bit over $2.
We arrived in Livingston on a festival day for the black inhabitants (several people made that clear to us that the indian/hispanic residents wouldn't be participating, although they ran most of the food stands)
Street cotton candy.
Street chicken.
Geoff had to hang on in the 3-knot current to swim under the boat and cut loose a thick line that wrapped the port prop.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Guatemala - Livingston