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| From Guatemala Oct Nov 09 |
Russ and I in front of the Guatemalan Presidential Palace.
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| From Guatemala Oct Nov 09 |
Did you ever want to wack Hello Kitty in the head? Here's your chance with a Piñata!
Yesterday Cindy set up to give me a haircut. We usually sit on the edge of the dock and she uses the electric shears. The local mechanic had just stopped by to look at a couple of boats that needed work. Two kids with him came walking by us and stopped to watch. One boy was a teenager, the other about 8 years old. After a few minutes the teenager took the clippers from Cindy and started cutting my hair. He gave me a great cut. Cindy was talking to the younger boy in Spanish and they were laughing that he should become a barber. When he was finished he got in his boat and left. No one really had any idea who he was; no one had ever seen him before. He must have been the lone ranger of the hair-cutting world...
Last Tuesday Janet, Russ, Cindy, Daphne and I headed back to Guatemala City. Daphne (The owner of Tortugal) needed to catch a flight back to the States and Russ and I both had doctor appointments scheduled. Russ was having a check-up and I was going to have my stint removed. We arrived in the City and checked into our home away from home, the Crown Plaza. Not long after, Cindy and I headed to the hospital for my appointment. We walked into radiology and asked for an x-ray of my kidneys. The technician remembered me and two minutes later I was lying on the x-ray table while Cindy paid the $15 fee for the x-ray. We were supposed to get the x-ray and bring it next door to my doctor's office. When the technician brought the x-ray out I asked, "how's it look?" She shrugged. Oh no... I asked, "stones"? She shook her head yes. Oh no... I looked at the x-ray and sure enough there was a small stone or piece of a stone in plain sight. Argh...
We walked to the doctor's office not knowing exactly what this meant. Back in the States I was told it could take three lithotripsy procedures to completely break up the kidney stones. Here they keep you on the machine longer than in the States (no FDA regulations) so we were really hoping that one cycle would take care of everything. The doctor reviewed the x-ray and called us into his office. He said there was a fragment still there from one of the previous stones. I could leave it there but he suggested another round of lithotripsy. Honestly, this was the last thing either one of us wanted to hear. I was in so much pain after the last procedure I did not want to do this again. But... I did.
The following morning we were admitted once again into the hospital and went through everything again. One thing that was very cool this time; Cindy came into the procedure room and watched while I was on the machine. There I was unconscious, tubes in my arms and down my throat, on a very loud machine. Cindy said everyone in the room was wearing hearing protection. I guess it kind of freaked her our a little seeing my lifeless body lying there.
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| From Guatemala Oct Nov 09 |
Feeling better in my hospital room.
Our friend Andrea stopped by and visited us in the hospital. We haven't seen her since Everest. It was an awesome visit! We miss Andrea and Manoel very much; they are great friends and amazing people. They're both working hard to achieve their goal of summiting Everest next year.
After this procedure I felt a thousand times better than I did the first time. This was such good news. We spent the night in the hospital and left the next morning to head back to "Tashmoo". Russ was sore; I was sore; Janet and Cindy were fine.
Life on the river is good. The weather has been awesome! Low 80's by day, low 60's at night, no rain. Last night, Friday the 13th, we had an Alfred Hitchcock double feature for movie night. Lots of fun. Although I will say only 30 people came last night. The Friday before, "I picked the movie" and 55 people showed up :-) Tonight we're going to Casa Parico for their all-you-can-eat meat special with the crews from Polaris and Rock-and-Roll. Tomorrow we're having a huge Sunday brunch here at Tortugal. We are definitely keeping busy.
I forgot to mention this but; Tortugal has a nice boardwalk about 2.5 feet wide from the marina through the jungle wetlands to a small private parking lot. It takes about 5 minutes to walk to the parking area. Just before the parking area is a small thatch covered bridge 20 feet long. If you don't go over the bridge you can walk 10 feet further down the walkway to a dead-end. Several days ago I walked past the bridge to the dead-end to look for crocodiles. You have to duck under the palm fawn hanging from the corner of the bridge roof to get there. I didn't see any crocs so I turned to head back. Hanging down from the top of the bridge about six inches above where my head had been 20 seconds earlier was a very large snake's head! It was just staring at me, tasting the air with its tongue! I was now about six feet from it! Oh my god! I just walked inches from this! I looked for an escape route but unless I wanted to wade through the water and mud, there was no other way out other except back from where I had come. I found a long stick and moved it toward the snake's head. I picked up its head and moved it further up the roof. It started moving away. This was the longest snake I've ever seen, easily 10 feet long but only maybe 2" wide. I ran like a little girl under the hanging palms to the other side and watched as the serpent went from the roof into a nearby tree. Several days later one of the other boaters saw the snake and said it was 15 feet long. Not sure it was the same snake but yikes! No idea what kind of snake it was, other than a scary one...
Last night was Saturday night and we went to the all-you-can-eat meat special at Casa Parico. We all had a great meal. Casa Parico is a back packer type place up a creek a few miles down river from Tortugal. The whole place is built over wetlands so there is a huge deck with many tables, a bar and several four foot wide wooden walk ways leading through the property and to the backpacker bungalows. After dinner I went for a walk to check the place out. There are low power lights every 40 feet or so down the walkways at foot level that cast a dim light so you can follow the walkway. I walked along past a small screened in kitchen and then past several small lodgings. I was looking back at one of the lodging when I turned and looked down at the dock. It was a dark section where the lights barely illuminated anything. About three feet ahead of me was a long, windy shape laying directly in front of me on the walkway. I stopped, looked down, moved my face closer, it was hard to tell if it was a stick or a snake, but it looked more like a snake so I slowly backed up. I couldn't tell for sure but it sure resembled a snake, and a big one at that! I walked back to the restaurant and got our flashlight and said, "anyone want to see a big snake? "At lease I think it was a big snake". Several people followed. I shined the light on what looked like a large rattlesnake. Ken quickly walked back and got the manager. He came down, took one look and said "Oh, very bad snake, the worst". He asked me to keep the light on it as he went to get help. A guard came back with a huge machete but as the guard walked toward it he was stamping his feet. You could tell he didn't want to get close to it at all. It very quickly, almost jumping of the walk way took off as he approached. Wow, it was fast! It was about six feet long. The owner said it was a Barba Amarilla or Fer-de-lance, very poisonous. I was one step away from stepping on it... Pardon my language but "holy shit"! Paradise has its dangers, that's for sure. As I think back I'm amazed it didn't bite me. I was just a couple feet from it and one more step I would have stepped right on it. I am so lucky I looked down when I did. Here's some info on the snake:
Species: Bothrops asper
Family: Viperidae
Common name: Ik'bolay, barba amarilla, devanador, cantil cola de hueso, fer-de-lance.
Distribution: Low and moderate elevations from Mexico to northern South America
Habitat: Humid areas. 0-1,150 m.
Microhabitat: Terrestrial
Activity: Nocturnal.
Food: Vertebrates, primarily rodents.. Juveniles may consume insects and other invertebrates.
Reproduction: Viviparous, up to 90 young per parturition.
Comments: The snake that causes more envenomation accidents in Central America and northern South America. In Guatemala it is involved in more than one thousand serious bites inflicted to humans, many of them fatal. It is extremely abundant in palm plantations and rice paddies. It can reach more than 2.5 m long.
Extremely venomous
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| From Guatemala Oct Nov 09 |
Killer snake.
Monday 11/16 - This morning while Cindy applied her 7'th coat of varnish on "Tashmoo's" toe rail I built a shrimp trap to try and catch some dinner. I needed fresh coconut for bait. I walked out to the back of the Tortugal property to see if I could find a coconut. I walked past what is known as Casa de Mike. While I was passing the house I figured I'd look inside (it's vacant) to see what shape it was in. There are glass doors that go from the front patio to the living room. As I was looking in I notice something walking across the floor. There was a 5" long scorpion moving along. I opened the door and thwaped it with the side of my machete to stun it. Between the snakes and scorpions of late it's a wonder I'm not having nightmares!
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| From Guatemala Oct Nov 09 |
Scorpion.
Fair Winds
John & Cindy
S/V Tashmoo
sailtashmoo att yahoo dot com
Copyright © 2006-2010
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Comments [1]
For the past week I've been sweating my butt off installing our two watermakers. First I had to remove the old Katadyn 40E watermaker because the best place for the new Katadyn 160E unit was in the old 40E location. It's been in the mid 90's here and I've been installing the two units in cabinets in the front head. The new 160E is now over the sink, the old 40E below. The front head is not very big, maybe the size of an airplane lavatory. Have you ever seen the movie Tommy Boy with Chris Farley? There's one scene where he is changing clothes in the airplane lavatory and it's pretty comical. This is exactly what it's like for me working in the forward head. I've never sweat so much in my life! One day I walked out from working in the head and Cindy had thought I had gone swimming. My shorts, shirt, everything was soaked! After 7 days of trying to make mounting brackets, contorting myself, trying to find the right size wire and hoses I was finally ready to flip the power switches. Both units work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a difference in the output of the two units. It's such a great feeling when a big project works! Here's a word of advice for people thinking about adding a watermaker. Cindy and I can be very frugal with fresh water but the 40E just does not provide enough water. Yes we catch rainwater but there have been times when it does not rain for a month plus. "Spend the extra money", get the 160E! Ahhh, time to sit back and enjoy a cold Carta Blanca...
While I was crammed in the forward head, Cindy has managed to do some repair work on both of our sails, make new sheets for our bunk, and begin varnishing the toe rail. The marine varnish made in Central America is very good and costs less than $10 a quart...go figure. I believe that the lack of environmental regulations allows them to produce products with a longer life expectancy; our bottom paint is another good example.
We have also started to learn to dance Salsa! A group of us is taking dance lessons two days a week. Maybe after a few more lessons we will be able to dance together without stepping on each other's toes. It has been fun. Tori would be proud!
On Friday nights at Tortugal we have "movie night". We gather on the large outside deck under the stars and enjoy homemade pizza while we watch a movie on the giant screen with surround sound. People come from other marinas to join us as well. Before the movie we typically show a music video and of late that has been the videos of the two Crossroads concerts that Eric Clapton sponsored. With the surround sound and large screen you almost feel like you are at the concert. Cindy and Janet sewed a new screen and Russ and I are making an enclosure for it to protect it from the elements; it is a sweet setup. Last week we watched a great movie that left everyone talking, "The Ultimate Gift". This week, "The Hangover", very funny movie!
It was too good to be true. After the windless rebuild, galley faucet install and watermaker installs I thought I was done with the big projects... I had decided to clean out our heat exchanger to be ready to go whenever we wanted. I looked into the cooling storage tank and the antifreeze was very low. Hmmm.... I added new antifreeze and then removed the end cap to the heat exchanger. This is the raw water section where there is no antifreeze, or at lest there shouldn't be... Sure enough the raw water had a very green tint to it and the antifreeze level was dropping! Crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I need a new heat exchanger! I'm sure this will be a huge project. Many things have to come off before I can get toe the exchanger. I'm sure getting a new heat exchanger to me will be a challenging task also. As far as I can tell the manifold and exchanger have not been off of the engine, ever. This means 28 years of expansion and contraction, not to mention the salt environment. This should be interesting? I'm going to spend the next several days spraying PB Blaster on all the bolts I can see.
On Thursday (10/22) Russ and Janet asked if we would like to go to Guatemala City with them. They had to do some Tortugal shopping and could use some help and company. We said sure, we could use some things from the city and we'd be glad to help. We also had a hidden agenda...
Several years ago when we started our sailing (?) adventure I had an issue with a kidney stone. At that time I was told I also had three smaller stones in my right kidney but the doctors would only work on one kidney at a time. I'd have to wait to have the right kidney taken care of at another time. I was told the stones on the right might not cause any problems ever, or they could be a problem the next day. Well... toward the end of this past summer they started moving around... My plan was to come back from Australia and have lithotripsy to finally remove them. That was my plan; unfortunately the stones had their own plans. The symptoms were getting worse. So while we were in Guatamala City I made a call to Dr. Karen who many cruisers have used. I asked her for a recommendation for a urologist. She suggested I contact Dr Amenabar. After several interesting phone calls, since I do not speak Spanish, I finally contacted Dr Amenabar on Tuesday.
The doctor asked if I could come to his office at 5:00 the same day! Very cool. He talked to me for 20 minutes, reviewed my CT Scan report from the States and took me to his examination room for an ultra sound. He could see the problem and then said, "how's tomorrow sound" for lithotripsy? I could not get this done in the States before we left because 6 weeks was not enough time... Here I can get it done the next day? Getting medical treatment in a third worldish country was obviously a concern. Anyway, the next day Cindy and I walked into the hospital, had x-rays and CT Scans done with and without dye. They were very thorough and wanted to make sure they knew exactly what they were up against. Very impressive actually. They also ran all types of blood tests. After the tests we walked next door to the doctor's office. Dr Amenabar had us wait while he walked to the hospital to review the x-rays and scan. After looking at the results, he suggested performing the procedure that afternoon. I was checked into a private room where they brought a second bed in for Cindy. The hospital room for Cindy and I with food and the nurse was $85 per night. This is the best hospital in Guatemala. At 4:00pm several nurses arrived with a gurney. Did I mention the people here are small? I climbed onto the gurney and bumped my head on the top rail since I was so tall, and my arms fell off the side. It was like laying on a 2x4... The gurneys are too long, if you can believe it, to fit in the elevators so they have built ramps to move gurneys from floor to floor. So four nurses (none of whom spoke English) got a "running" start with me on the gurney and got me up the first ramp. They were all out of breath and still had one more ramp to go and this ramp didn't have any running room to get a head start! I could see them getting my 200 pound body half way up and me slipping away. I was just about to hop off the gurney when a big male nurse came to the rescue. They wheeled me into the operating room and had me slide over onto the Lithotripsy table. This table was so short my legs hung over from the knees down on one side and my head hung down on the other. They moved a cart over with a pillow for my head. Ten minutes later they knocked me out and performed the lithotripsy. I'm glad I don't remember the trip to my room down the ramps...
This was Cindy's first overnighter in a hospital, ever; we both slept ok. The next morning I had a light breakfast, which was awesome since I hadn't had anything to eat or drink for 36 hours. Later in the day my doctor stopped by and asked if I would rather stay in the hospital for a couple more days or if I wanted to go to a hotel. Even though we had no complaints about the hospital I opted for the hotel.
Cindy went to pay our bill so we could leave. They wouldn't give her the bill until she returned the remote for the TV. She finally convinced them she would indeed return the remote and they gave her the bill... We were told that the hospital would accept US dollars for payment but...they suggested that she go to the bank and exchange the $3000 US into Quetzals. So off to the bank to learn that they would only exchange $500 at a time. Back to the hospital to inform them of the situation. They decided to accept the US dollars at an exchange rate a bit less than the bank was offering that day; no big deal. (They would also have accepted a credit card but Mastercard imposes a 3% foreign transaction fee on all charges outside of the US). The whole process took her hours. Oh and trying to get an "itemized" bill was also a challenge. It is a good thing that Cindy speaks the small amount of Spanish she does. I think it improved with her "forced immersion" in the hospital! We finally got to our hotel around 5:00pm. Between the nurses and Cindy I was well taken care of. We spent several nights at the hotel before heading back to "Tashmoo" via a 4½ hour bus ride on Sunday. I'm still very sore but I am recovering. We can now travel without worrying about these stones. I'm not sure what caused the stones. I haven't made anymore since we found these three years ago. I can't wait to get back to normal. Thank you Cindy.
All in all, the entire experience was very good. The care I received was exceptional, the hospital's equipment was modern and the facility was very clean. I had the same nurse for the 20 hours of my hospital stay, she never left. I was surprised to see her in the morning. And the total bill was a surprising $3500 US.
Fair Winds
John & Cindy
S/V Tashmoo
sailtashmoo att yahoo dot com
Copyright © 2006-2010
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Happy Birthday "Tori"!!!
We caught the 6:50am flight from BOS to GUA on Tuesday, 9/22. Cindy's mom dropped us and our 200 lbs of bags off at the airport and luckily we were able to check-in curbside. I was not looking forward to carrying our four large duffle bags at 49 lbs each and 4 smaller bags though the airport. It was good flight with only one plane change in Miami.
We have been nervous about getting through Customs in Guatemala City for several weeks now. We had heard from several people that they had cracked down on bringing goods into Guatemala. Up until now you could bring things in without a problem, just sign the forms saying you have nothing to declare. If you declare anything you have to pay a duty. Sometimes duty fees can be 50% of the item value! We were carrying a $5000 watermaker and ~$1000 of other goods! We picked up our bags at the carrousel and proceeded toward the exit. Sure enough there was a large x-ray machine that was not there previously and all bags were going through it! There was a security officer sending people with bags to the x-ray machine. If they had no bags he would step aside and let them pass to the "Nothing to Declare" Exit. We had a huge pile; two carts carrying 8 bags total... There were two people walking about 40 feet in front of us carrying bags. When they got to the security officer they asked him something and he briefly walked away with them, giving them directions, pointing down to a hallway (sometimes you just get lucky). He wasn't looking back while he was helping the other people. Hmmmm, somehow we must have taken a wrong turn because we accidentally walked right out the "Nothing to Declare" Exit! It was awesome! I kept on expecting to hear someone yell to us but there was nothing. Awesome!
Once we left the building our friends Russ and Janet were suppose to pick us up. We exited into a huge crowd of people most of whom were taxi drivers trying to make a fare. Russ and Janet were nowhere to be found. There we were standing just outside the building in a fenced in area with all our bags while many people on the other side of the fence were trying to gain our attention. I was still waiting for security to grab us. I was nervous! Five minutes later Russ and Janet pulled up, we threw our bags in the truck and made our getaway! Very cool...
We spent that night at the Crown Plaza, a very nice hotel in Guatemala City with a beautiful view of a volcano from our window. We met up with another couple from the Rio and had dinner at A Fuego Lento, a wonderful restaurant serving slow grilled meats and lots of sides in a buffet. The next morning we picked up a truckload of provisions for the restaurant at Tortugal and started our five-hour journey back to the land of the turtles, "Tortugal" and our home, "Tashmoo". The roads are "very" windy with a steep down grade for a couple hours leaving the city. We had a large tarp covering the stores in the back of the truck, which was piled several feet high. About one hour after leaving the city as we were going around a corner I heard a bang! A case of beer that I had bought slipped out, hit the road and "every" can was now spraying and bouncing wildly down the road! Russ stopped, I ran back but I was too late, they were "all" goners... We retied the tarp and continued on. Twenty minutes later, a case of milk had the same fate as the beer. Russ and Janet had made this trip dozens of times in the past and had never lost anything. Once we got to a safe place to stop we retied everything and finished the trip. It was a treat not having to ride the bus for the journey back to the Rio - thanks for the ride amigos!
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| From Tortugal |
El Tortugal
It sure is great to be back on "Tashmoo"! She's clean and mold free!!!
We have less than a week before we need to leave Tortugal, catch a bus to La Ceiba Honduras, hop on a ferry and get to Mango Creek on Roatan. Terry and Patrice are heading home for two months and we're going to manage the resort while they're gone.
9/26 - Things have gotten worse in Honduras. A couple months ago the Honduran people had thrown their president out of the country. He basically was trying to change the government from a democracy to a dictatorship so he could stay in office. The people didn't like this idea so they exiled him from the country. Other countries were okay with this and some were not. Unfortunately, the ex-president snuck back into the country and is now hiding out in the Brazilian embassy. The country is in total disarray. There are curfews and the borders are open and closed at will. Their elections are scheduled for November but again, some countries say they will honor the outcome, some will not. The bottom line is we can't get to Mango Creek! If we do get there we might not be able to leave the country when we want too! Unfortunately we've had to change our plans and we are not going to Mango Creek. We are going to stay in Guatemala. This is a real bummer as we were both looking forward to seeing Patrice and Terry and trying something new.
Russ made me an offer to work on some Tortugal electrical issues and some boat electronic issues. So at least I'm be making a little money toward our New Zealand trip. I also have the new watermaker to install in Tashmoo. I'm sure the two months we now have here will fly by. We did hire a young local man to strip our toe and cap-rails. He charges 100Q/day, or ~$12 US/day. After two days the rails were completely free of varnish and sanded smooth. I did give the guy a good 30Q tip along with the two days pay, he way very happy. Cindy's going to start varnishing in the mornings when it's cooler. It looks so much better already!
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| From Tortugal |
Children of the river.
It sure is beautiful here on the river. I took a dinghy ride up river this morning to cool off. As I skimmed across the smooth water with the reflections of palm trees, air plants, flowers and mountains around me I passed a floating flock of pelicans floating quietly. The shore was dotted with dozens of grass roof homes with small stick docks. Shirtless fisherman in their dugout canoes paddled to and fro checking their lines for fish. There was a Myan woman dressed in colorful clothing washing clothes on a rock, on the side of the river, while children played nearby. A half-mile up river there is a stone fort on a beautiful peninsula protruding into the river, separating the river from lake Isabel. Once in the lake the view for as far as you can see are farm plots that look like patch worked mountains with different shades of green. Truly majestic.
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| From Tortugal |
Reflections.
I hate to sound down but I am. Just before we left Massachusetts to come back down here our close friends son's girlfriend was murdered. We were with her the night before we left to come back here. She was young and so full of life. It was so sad to hear what had happened to her. Tonight, we received a picture of one of my close childhood friends. He's dieing of cancer. Both Cindy and I grew up together in a very small town. This is a very close friend with cancer. I've lost touch with him but the connection is still there. Life is so fragile. Don't let it pass by without living your dreams. Make the most of what you have today. Tomorrow may not be there.
Remember you can click on pictures to see more. Once the Picasa window opens click the blue title below "Belongs to".
Fair Winds
John & Cindy
S/V Tashmoo
sailtashmoo att yahoo dot com
Copyright © 2006-2010
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