Our cayuca taxi.
May 10, 2008 - We have been back up the Rio for two weeks now. After we said our goodbyes to our new friends on "Good Karma" we sailed from New Haven Belize, through Livingston Gautemala, up the Rio Dulce and all the way to Fronteras in one long day. We hope to see Manoel and Andrea in the near future; we had an "awesome" time with them sharing dinners, stories of each of our travels, talking, laughing, diving and snorkeling.
Back in our slip at Tortugal we've been getting "Tashmoo" ready for her rest without us. Cleaning and prepping has been the everyday ritual. We did manage to get away for a day trip to El Boqueron last week. Elder, the bartender at Tortugal, runs tourist trips to places of interest in the Rio Dulce area of Guatemala. Six of us hired Elder for a trip to El Boqueron and Aguas Caliente. We've been told El Boqueron was once a huge cave that collapsed many years ago creating a beautiful canyon. We hired a local Mayan boy named Juan to take us up El Boqueron in his cayuca. The cayuca was about 16 feet long and the eight of us sat one behind each other on the floor of the tippy two foot wide dugout. He rowed us upstream about ½ mile to a small sandbar from where we swam further upstream. Every couple of hundred feet was another bend in the river; our curiosity brought us to an area where there were huge boulders in the river. It was so beautiful! Both sides of the canyon were covered with stalactites and stalagmites and the water was crystal clear. Through the green vegetation the canyon walls raised several hundred feet above us. We floated with the river current back down stream to the sandbar. We each paid Juan Q15 ($2) for the cayuca tour. On the way back from El Boqueron we stopped at Aguas Caliente. It was not as crowed as the first time we had been there but was equally amazing. We drove through the countryside passing through several small villages with traditional Mayan homes of sticks and grass with brightly dressed Mayan women tending their fields. There were many large farms with cattle grazing on the hillsides and Mayan men dressed like cowboys on horseback managing the cattle. We passed a banana farm that was several miles long. Guatemala is just so beautiful.
Aboard "Tashmoo" all the through hulls are closed, the sails are off the spars, the dinghy is stored on deck, the jerry jugs are stored below and most everything else has been stored in giant Ziplocs for our time away. It was strange removing the sails knowing that everyone in New England is in process of putting their sails on.
Tuesday 5/13 - We left the Rio yesterday just past noon on the Tortugal launcha. The launcha dropped us off in town so we could catch the 1:00pm Linea Dorado bus to Guatemala City. The temperature was close to 100 degrees so we couldn't wait to get on a first class bus with "air conditioning". The bus was 20 minutes late but it sure felt good to get onboard. Two hours into the trip the bus stopped for a late lunch. Forty minutes later we pulled out of the restaurant parking lot heading toward the city once again. An hour later it started to rain. We have not seen rain since January. Back in the old US of A rain wouldn't mean that much but here it is so mountainous that mudslides and flooding are common. Not long after the traffic came to a stand still. After an hour the bus finally started moving slowly forward and I've got to tell you the chicken in the women's bag in front of us was getting pretty restless. Several hundred feet down the road a car was blocking a lane of traffic and was all banged up. This is where the trip got a little weird. Prior to the accident the driver was driving normal. While going up hills he would down shift to keep the bus moving at a reasonable speed. After the accident, for no reason, going up hills he would not downshift; we were barely going 10 mph up the hills! Once it was past 7:00pm, he started driving normal again. Cindy thinks that if the driver got back past 7:00 he would not have to make another run; who knows. But our 4 hour first class bus ride turned into a 6 plus hour ride putting us into Guatemala City after dark. Finally at the bus station, we bartered for a taxi and got the driver down to Q60 ($8) for the 20 minute ride to our hotel, Hotel Casablanca. We were pleasantly surprised by the hotel. It was very nice; $49US/night including breakfast and airport shuttle, very clean and modern and a 30 second drive from the airport.
We requested a 5:00am wake up knock-on-the-door to allow time for breakfast before our 8:00am flight. We arrived about one hour late into Dallas and then waited 25 minutes for a gate to become vacant for the pilot to pull in. We cleared Customs, rechecked our bags and went out to search for one of Cindy's old friends, Ken. Cindy has known Ken for many years and has spoken highly of him. He was waiting for us just outside the doors and took us out for a lunch of our choice, which was a "real hamburger". In Guatemala they use a lot of filler in the beef as the meat is so lean and a good burger is impossible to find. Anyway, it was great meeting Ken; Cindy was right he is a really nice guy. Hopefully the next time we pass through Dallas we'll get to meet Ken's wife Cathy.
Back at DFW our next flight to St Louis was 1 ½ hours late to leave. The plane needed a replacement part. Being late was complicating our big surprise. We hadn't mentioned our trip to St. Louis on our blog because we wanted to surprise Cindy's brother Doug and his family. Once we landed in St Louis, Cindy's Mom was waiting for us at our gate. She had flown in from Massachusetts a couple of hours earlier. Mom and Marlo had been keeping our secret from Doug, Lexi and Tori for 6 weeks; who had no idea we were going to be there. After a happy hello with Lois (Cindy's mom), she walked out first, past security and met Doug. Doug gave her a big hug and then started to walk away but stopped to see why she wasn't following him. He turned and saw Cindy and I walking up behind them. He screamed, Cindy screamed and then Lexi and Tori came running around the corner to surprise Grammy, saw Cindy and I, then they screamed... The kids didn't know whom to hug first. It was awesome! Doug's wife Marlo was standing across the way videotaping the entire scene. She had struggled to keep the secret and now could relax. Lots of hugs and kisses later we left the airport after two days of travel to get here. It was important for us to be in St. Louis for May 14 as Doug is being hooded for his PhD. Good job Doug!
Here's some really big news for us.... We need a vacation - only kidding. What would be the total opposite of cruising in the Caribbean? Hint - What mountain is the ultimate? No Jim, not Mount Wachusett! We're going to Everest. Yup Mount Everest, Nepal! NO, we're not going to climb to the top (as far as I know) but we're going on a trek to base camp! Remember our friends Manoel and Andrea from "Good Karma"? They are professional trekkers and have a trip planned with a group in October. They asked us to join them so... You only live once! We've booked our flights to Katmandu and we are so excited! The trek to base camp and back is 3 weeks and base camp is at ~18,000 feet in elevation! We need to get in shape I guess... We'll be walking 4 to 7 hours per day! Mentally the hard part for us is how long we're going to be away from "Tashmoo", our home. We were originally planning to be in Massachusetts for 4 weeks this summer; then Doug's graduation came up, then I got a job consulting for a few months, then the Everest invitation... We will not be back to "Tashmoo" until November! Like I've said though, you only live once. This opportunity to go to Everest with two awesome people like Manoel and Andrea doesn't come around often. Are we crazy? Stay tuned....
Fair Winds
John & Cindy
S/V Tashmoo
sailtashmoo att yahoo dot com
Copyright © 2006-2008
|
Lush vegetated canyon abutting a tiny Mayan settlement. For ~$2 villagers paddle you up though the cayon. It was very beautiful. Notice the height of the canyon walls in the background.
|
Cindy and I with our new friends Andrea and Manoel.
PS: We're back up the Rio Dulce. Everything is fine :-)
|
