Rio Dulce, Guatemala

April 23, 2022

Clear and 88 degrees

I can not believe our sailing season has vanished!  

We are still captive in Guatemala due to government failure to help cruisers overcome their overdue boat permits due to Covid, closure of boarders and personal issues that made it impossible to return to Guatemala.....which is the bracket we fall into.   We have filed a petition to SAT (the governing body in charge of vehicles and boats in the country that are foreign) 3 weeks ago.  We have heard nothing except that we should begin proceedings to "import our boat".  To import your boat, first a value is put on your boat and then you pay 12% of that value plus other fees that are pretty expensive.  We are looking at around 17K+ to do that, which we can not afford.  So we are at a stalemate. 

Several weeks ago a large group of cruisers located here in Rio Dulce met to discuss the issues with Rita, a woman who owns a shipping company here, and whose husband is the mayor of this area was in attendance.  She tried to explain what is happening with SAT and listened to the concerns of the cruisers so she could report back to her husband.  Her husband was traveling to Guatemala City the following day to meet with a Congress woman who is trying to rewrite the laws to help both the cruisers and the local economy here that depends on our currencies. { At present, you can have a one year permit for your boat in Guatemala, but then must leave the country with your boat for 3 months before returning to Guatemala.  Then you are able to apply for another years permit.}  We were told that at that meeting the Congress woman told SAT to have a fine schedule ready for cruisers so we could then reapply for a permit, and that needed to be presented to her on the Monday after Easter.  Well, last Monday we found out that the meeting was postponed until this coming Monday, April 25th.  

So, here we sit. We have corrected all the systems on our boat that failed due to being hit with lightening.  And, fortunately the electric toilets still work....yeah!  And, at this point we COULD go to Belize if we were able to pay our fines and renew our permits. You must have an exit permit to enter another country....so this is the permit we do not have.   But now the hurricane season is approaching, putting us at risk of being in a vulnerable area without protection.  Hopefully I will have some good news at my next post, but this season is a wash.  

On the brighter side, we are here with the best group of cruisers, Canadians, English, French. The cruisers congregate at the marina palapa bar by the pool for happy hour everyday. Steve our dock manager is wonderful and he is an amazing man doing so many humanitarian works for the people in the community.*  The staff here at Catamaran Mariana is awesome.  They are the friendliest people we have met during all our years of sailing.  The marina is immaculately kept and is a tropical paradise.  We couldn't be sequestered in a more beautiful place. Charlie and I are both recovering form a bout of parasite infestation now that we have gotten the correct meds....is this TMI?  Oh well, just part of being in a 3rd world country....LOL.  OK, friends I will keep you in the loop as to our future.  Hope you are all well at home.  We are still praying for Ukraine and our country as well.....what a crazy time it has been so far this year.  Take care!

* In another post I will tell you more about Steve's work here in the area.  Specifically helping families who have a disabled person by getting wheelchairs or whatever is necessary.  He is also helping with new stoves (at the cost of $250.00 US) that funnel smoke out of the homes and into the outside air.  Many children and adults are ill with major respiratory disease due to cooking smoke inhalation....so more on that later.