Rio Dulce, Guatemala
95 degrees and sunny
Hello everyone, Charlie and I have now been on the Rio for 2 weeks. Our flight was really nice, Charlie brought 4 little bottles of vodka and we bought 2 cans of Mrs. T's and took off into the friendly skies. We chatted with 2 women behind us with 2 dogs and a Honduran "singing Dentist" in the aisle across from us. The steward on the plane talked to us at length about Roatan as he was going on a cruise the next day and that was one of his destinations. All of this made for a quick flight. Giovanni, our driver/friend picked us up in La Ceba, Honduras and after cramming all of our bags into his Toyota we started off for Guatemala. This turned out to be a 4 hr. trip with several stops by military police to check the trunk and our passports, a stop at the border with immigration and then finally arriving at 7:00 pm. Here Luvi and his son Rodrigo (owner of the maria) picked up us in his launcha and took us to our floating home, Island Sol. It was a long day and we were exhausted, but Charlie got the AC up and running before we finally fell into bed around 11:00.
Life on the river has not changed much. On our trip into town the next day for some food and provisions we ran into several old sailing friends. The expat community here is big and well, it was like a reunion. The town is still busy with people and trucks and cars up and down the streets. Things are still stinky and dirty and you have to be really careful as the 18 wheelers are only inches from you as you walk the street.
Life in the marina is much slower and definitely cleaner. Luvi, the owner of our marina was and his wife Amy were making coconut milk for soup. No can opening here, this is the real thing. Very interesting. After shredding the coconut meat from the shell, they place it in a blender and add a little water ....then coconut milk.
