We stayed last night at Tres Puntas - tucked behind a little point in Guatemala and ready to officially enter the country the next day.

For the first time in weeks, there was no wind, so we had to motor-sail down from Placencia, but it gave our batteries a nice charge. For a boat with a 6 ft draft (as Madcap has) it is necessary to time the entrance to Livingston to coincide with a high tide. A shallow bar (we have read that it's 5.5 ft at Mean Low Water) crosses the entrance to the harbour. We knew the tide Thursday was at 11:18 (from the tide tables available on line and in book form) and we had a 10 nm run from Tres Puntas. We also figured we wanted to be in there before all the officials went on their lunch break. So we aimed for 10:45.

I'm really glad we staged it this way - arriving in Tres Puntas about 4pm and allowing time to relax and contemplate the next part of our journey. We anchored off a dense, jungly shoreline, with thatched or corrugated tin roofs peeking out here and there. Small fishing boats crisscrossed through the water and we could see families walking along the beach.

Looking across toward Livingston, and the entrance to the Rio gave us pause. We could see the mountains, shrouded in haze, rising up behind, and we knew we were going there. We were amazed at ourselves when we reached Belize, and we are amazed again that we have made it to Guatemala.

We set off about 8:30 toward Livingston and it was a bit of an odd feeling to look across at clear water but know that there was something hidden there that would not allow us to just go straight there whenever we wanted. Kind of a metaphor for life maybe! Even if we are lucky enough to see where we want to go, we sometimes have to wait for the right time to get there.

But I digress ... We made it safely across the bar although the depth sounder showed 0.1 for most of it. We could feel a couple of bumps but the bottom must be soft because we just kept plowing through. I'd never try it any further off high tide, but we know boats with 7 ft draft who have gotten through it! It makes me picture a traffic jam in there next week when there are good morning tides and many of the cruisers start heading back up the Rio.

We anchored off Livingston and called Raul on the VHF. Jim had sent our boat info ahead by email, (raul.morales@servamar.com) so we just waited for him and the officials to arrive at the boat. Five of them piled into the cockpit - Immigration, Customs, the Port Captain, the Doctor's assistant, and Raul himself (pic above). The Immigration lady took down our passport numbers but the others sat there and smiled (and nibbled at some kind of white food in little plastic bags) while Raul explained how much it would cost for 3 months (1200 Quetzales; divide by 7.6 for $US) and that we could show up in his office in 40 minutes to get our passports back and all the official papers. That was it! Not a single question. Not a single locker door opened. No one even went into the cabin. When Raul asked if we had questions, I said, "Si, Que es?" and pointed to the little white bags. They all laughed and Raul said it's a sugar/coconut icy snack - available at stands on the street. I never did get any.

We took down the Q flag, climbed into the dinghy, handed over responsibility for it to the genial Lucio at the dock (tipped him 15 Q later), went up the hill to the bank for some local currency and reported to Raul's office where a group of men, including the Port Captain, were enthusiastically watching the soccer game between Barcelona and Milan. He handed us our papers, gave us a couple of maps of the Rio Dulce, welcomed us again to his country and thanked us for using his services. We asked about getting a Guatemalan sim card for our phone. "No problema! I send my nephew to the store to get one for you." This he did, and two minutes later he installed it, checked to see if it was working, and gave us our new phone number complete with a few free minutes. He divied up the money to the various departments, paid himself a little, gave us official receipts for every penny, and made our life so easy. We highly recommend him. (www.servamar.com)

With the entrance to Guatemala taken care of, we set off through the most spectacular bit of scenery the good ship Madcap has ever been in.