January 2, 2023
Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Hello again friends. We have now been on the Rio for 26 days. Things (as in projects) were rolling along until everything stopped on Dec. 22 for the holidays. NO ONE WORKS! But today, Chris, our electrician came back to go over our check list of electrical things still needing to be done. He says it can be done in 2 days…well we will see about that! Below are pics of a school several of the cruisers went to in order to put new seats and backs on the metal desk frames. There were 6 of us so we made short work of it. The principal (she is in the blue shirt) and 3 of her teachers came to help. They were so thankful, which of course made us all feel really good.
On December 23, the cruisers threw a Christmas Party for all the staff at Catamaran Marina. The generosity of these Guatemalans are amazing. They learn our names and are always greeting us with smiles. Truly a wonderful group of people. Tamales were made in town by Mavie’s mother…Mavie is the Hotel manager here. They came in a large tub covered with banana leaves. The cruisers provides cake and ice cream. We also all pitched in buying gift cards to the local grocery store as well as $$ for our Christmas game. As nice as it was to make tamales for this large group, let me try to describe them. They are NOT like our Texas tamales. There is some type of gelatinous goo with chicken, olives and prunes in them. Sounds yummy, right? NOT…the Guatemalans loved them and ate them up, but not so much for the foreigners. We all sat next to a staff member, which became hilarious as we were all using our translators on our phone to try and communicate. Next came the Poke Game…made by yours truly!
So each staff member came up, poked a cup and got what was inside. Some things were pretty good and then some, well just some candy and a small trinket. But we made sure that all staff went home with a gift card to the grocery store or the clothing store. Next came…The Grinch.
Steve, our dock manager dressed up along with Chee, his girlfriend. Mavie is in the middle of the pic and Sharon (a cruiser) is holding, Alan.
Alan is an orphan that Steve is fostering for a month. He is 18 months old and just the cutest little guy in the world. He has Cerebral Palsy, can not walk, and only blabbers back and forth with you. With being a retired Early Childhood Teacher of Children with Disabilities I was all over this kiddo. He became part of the crowd here and we all just loved this child. Steve through a “going away” party for him yesterday as today he had to take him back to the orphanage. A very sad day for us all and I can only imagine for him too as he has been the center of a lot of attention. There are no schools for children with disabilities here, unless in large cities. So it is rather heart breaking to know how many children go without learning experiences here. These people are just trying to survive.
On Christmas Day there were no staff here except 2 security guys. We cruisers took over the kitchen and Charlie (the chef) prepared 3 turkeys and made corn bread stuffing from scratch. It was funny to us that many of the foreign cruisers had never had corn bread stuffing. As well as we had never had Yorkshire Pudding. Everyone brought either a vegetable side dish or a dessert. The wine was flowing and we took over the whole restaurant. (Yes the security guards joined us, too). It was a great evening and Charlie and I spent the whole next day practically in bed.
Next came New Years. We enjoyed dinner with Jo and Andrew, our Canadian friends on s/v Sierra Hotel, their catamaran. (Pic of Jo and I below at a Ladies Luncheon)
At midnight there were fireworks all around the River, it was a great night bringing in the New Year.
