We have such a good time visiting fellow cruisers in Fronteras aka Rio Dulce – primarily at Tortugal Marina – and down river in Cayo Quemado that we really need to spend a few weeks in the area at the beginning of each season. We always need to do some banking and get phone chips and provision – and that means negotiating the busy main street and little alleyways of town as well as dinghying to other places on the river. This is a “Just the facts ma’am” kind of a posting.

We have had good luck with the Ban Rural bank – both in using the ATM and at the teller’s desk inside the main bank. It is small, but clean and modern. An armed guard manages the flow of traffic and everyone is very polite. Take your passport if you are changing money. This year, Jan, 2015, $1.00 US equaled 7.5 Q, and of course the value is less than that in Canadian funds since our dollar is doing so badly right now. The ATM will let you withdraw 2000Q per day, and there is a limit on exchanges too but I can’t remember it right now!

We have an unlocked phone that we get a new TiGo chip for every year. Unfortunately we can’t keep the same chip from year to year so our phone number keeps changing, but it is relatively inexpensive and is so convenient to have. Someone recommended the Red Digital store where Dennis and Edder do business, so that is the one we visit. There are half a dozen such storefronts but Edder speaks English, which is helpful. Once we buy the initial chip and a few Quetzales worth of time, we try to buy more time on Triplo days (once a week) when 100 Q will get us 300 Q worth of minutes. We paid 145 Q for the chip and 70Q worth of time. We use the phone to call businesses and friends and to check in with my Dad in Nova Scotia. When we go to Belize or Honduras, we simply switch chips in the same phone.

Provisioning is done all over town – and once we get into it, I consider it great fun. Basic grocery items come from the Dispencia Familiar (the closest thing to a supermarket here) and from Ingrid’s (a little tienda that is near the dinghy dock at Bruno’s and has good prices. I buy produce from several of the stands that line the street – pineapples here, papayas there, and the peppers and carrots might be nicer at yet another stand. Both Ingrid’s and Miriam’s have Clos wine at 37Q per litre box. Laugh here! We are not into fine wine drinking while we cruise. At least it keeps our drinking down – one glass is usually enough! For propane, we drop the 10 pound container off at El Dragon or Tienda Read, pay 70 Q and pick it up again a couple of days later. Jim the meat man has fine meats (mostly frozen) at his shop near Bruno’s; the little store on the corner before you go up the stairs to the main street has a variety of North American type foods (although the shelves are sparsely stocked – one tier deep) and we can find bulk beans and rice and seeds at any of the dozen little shops along the street. There are always women making tortillas on smoking hot griddles, and stacking them in baskets lines with tea towels. 5Q buys a pile of nice warm ones. I used to buy wonderful fresh nuts from the nut man who wanders from place to place but he tried to cheat me (and actually did twice!) too many times, so now I just buy peanuts from a friendly lady on a corner. I like to duck in and out of several of the little shops to see what is there – shoes, underwear, loads of plastic everything, saddles, young fluffy chicks, machetes, bags of beans, and Rosa de Jamaica for making tea, rolls of plastic tablecloths, CD’s, pens, notebooks, beer.

For excellent yogurt, cheese and meat, we cross the river to the tiny store behind Backpackers Restaurant – almost under the bridge. It is associated with Casa Guatemala – the orphanage and school down the river – another reason I like to support it. They sometimes have good granola and whole wheat bread. And on Tuesdays, Esmerelda takes the boat loaded with produce, bread, wine, beer to all the marinas so it’s a good chance to buy without having to carry. Tienda Read (also called Chiqui’s)– same side of the river/other side of the bridge – is another regular stop – for “boatish” things as well as some foods and drinks. We buy fuel for the outboard and diesel for the boat at the Puma pumps at RAM Marine, and visit the small West Marine Store on the second level of RAM. The Buccanero store up the hill behind the Shell station has North American and specialty items at outrageous prices – but they are there: rice pasta, quinoa, gluten free foods, turkey sausages etc, organic this and that. When we are down river at Cayo Quemado, we are thrilled to see Nando’s boat come by every Tuesday loaded with wonderful goodies.

After all that, there is the fixing of things that must be done at the beginning of every season. The cruisers net – on the VHF radio on 69 every morning at 7:30 - is a good place to find out who offers what service, and to ask for what help or information anyone might need. And there are both businesses and transient cruisers who offer almost any service needed. We shipped batteries and a new toilet and other odds and sods in from the US this year, and used Trans Cargo from Miami to Guatemala, and Cargo Espresso from Puerto Barrios to Rio Dulce (Fronteras).

While we eat most of our meals onboard, we treat ourselves once in a while at various places around town and at Burnt Key Marina down the river. And this week we have been privileged to enjoy a couple of fine dinners with friends. Martin and Karen cooked up a fish fry in true British fashion - luscious chunks of robalo (a firm white fish fresh from the river) in a light batter, and potato wedges hot and crispy from the pot, followed by fresh fruit drizzled with custard and caramel sauce. On another night, Jennifer’s visiting daughter, Jessica, prepared a memorable meal. Robalo – baked this time with crunchy garlicky bits on top, a Waldorf salad made with both regular apples and the rose-apples that grow in Jennifer’s garden, rice and a to-die-for lemon pie with rosettes of coconut cream for dessert. Oh our tingling tastebuds!

And then after all this practical information … it is time to go exploring. We do live on a boat after all.