Life On the Rio Dulce
18 November 2014 | Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Susan /mostly sunny, 86 degrees F
We’ve been back a month now. Lots of other cruisers have returned to their boats for the season; the community activity level is rising. Starting soon, when projects and haul-outs are complete there will be a migration out with the high tides and favorable weather windows. We’re making good progress on our must-do lists but it’ll be early December before we’re actively waiting for our window to Belize.
There’s a morning net hosted by a collection of long-time Rio residents and businesses. It’s early, 7:30am, yet worth the effort to rise, make coffee, and tune the radio to ch 69. Sometimes quarrels among the active participants are aired but for the most part it is a good time to learn where to find needed boat maintenance services and repair supplies, and hear about daily restaurant specials and cruiser community activities. With soo many cruisers and marinas in one area it’s expected that there are plenty of social events. The regularly scheduled mulit-marina social activities include: Thursday night trivia (rotates), Friday night movie (Tortugal), Wednesday & Saturday night movies (Mar), Sunday American football (Catamaran), Mexican Train Dominos (Catamaran), Bible studies (Catamaran), and swap meets on the 1st & 3rd Sundays (Brunos & Mar). Each marina also hosts it’s own events; Tortugal is a quieter community with no additional regularly scheduled gatherings, which fits us fine.
Frontaras is a small town that grows on you. The main street is busy with a constant stream of semis barely squeezing pass each other as they travel in opposite directions, mixing it up with collectivo buses and tuk-tuks, personal cars, pick-ups, and pedestrians. I’ve not even tried to count the number of small tiendas that line both sides of this road. We’ve been in several now and have been able to find needed items except for food & beverage supplies from a months-away-from-stores cruising-provisioning perspective. On Tuesday & Saturday fresh produce is delivered. Everyday there is a good supply of dried corn (lots & lots of huge bags of corn; just what do they do with it all?), black beans and various seeds in the market stalls, but no lentils. With Jerry eschewing rice, pasta, couscous, bread & related items, potatoes, and whatever else that is is white in color except popcorn, meats and beverages, I’m happy we can routinely purchase a three or four day supply of local fresh fruits and veggies along with chicken pieces. Decent cheese is very hard to find and expensive so cheese-less meals has been an additional adjustment to my menu planning and shopping. We have yet to go to Morales, the larger town an hour or so away, to shop even though we’ve been told the Despensa (grocery store) there is larger and better stocked. The reason? The only way there & back is to ride the overpacked small mini-buses which unlike the brightly painted & decorated ex-USA school buses that serve as local buses in Panama there is absolutely no room for groceries on your lap or at your feet.
The weather has been nice; high 80’s, not too humid, some rain but no squalls and very little wind this far up the river. We’re told the weather since we’ve been back has been great, much better than the very hot & humid summer months here.
Cash is king; no one wants to take a bank check or credit card or even US $ even if paying for a high-cost job. There is only one bank in town that will change UD$ to Q and they will change only US $200 every 8 days so when we have to pay for work we have to plan ahead and use each passport at a different interval. Soon we will start to purchase larger quantities of provisions so will need a fair number of Q for that as well.
All in all, we’re enjoying our time here.