Sailing into Livingston, Guatemala and hoping they see our little Q flag.
Livingston, Guatemala, the mouth of the Rio Dulce.
Livingston's northern shore.
Ginny looking weird by a cool sailing canoe.
Little buildings at the entrance of the canyon.
Mayan houses on the river.
Hiding under a massive mangrove for a little afternoon shade.
The half-burned pile of garbage with chickens rooting through it which I told you about. Tying up by this resulted in us getting things stolen. Shocking, isn't it?
Thurston waits for us under the bridge
A new view.
Ladies do their laundry in the river under the watchful eye of the guy hugging a fish statue.
We spot our friend Kirk from the bridge! He escaped the clutches of the Belize Port Authority and is now relaxing in the Rio until the hurricane season ends.
Welcome!
The hectic main street of Fronteras.
Captain Loonsworth poses with some crocodiles.
We have to walk through here to get between our marina and town. It saves us a really long row in Hugs and a 5Q fee from the neighbor who has a plank bridge.
Steve climbs to the top of the hot-spring fed waterfall at Finca Paraiso.
Too scary!
Our friend Kirk!
Mutant banana!
Castillo San Felipe on Lago Izabel
Exploring with our Pirate buddy Portside Tom.
The school we have to walk right through to get to town. Note: There are almost never kids there!
Awesome picnic spot among the not-so-awesome sawgrass.
Mud hike!
Hiding out under a random porch on the rainiest day ever.
Captain Loonsworth mauls Steve because of insubordination!
Peering through the fence at a man making a kayuka.
Independence Day celebration.
Weird bird on the “toll bridge” over the swamp by our marina.
bus fish
Steve is passenger #16 on a 12 person bus
Yay for borrowed bicycles!
Finally a peaceful day out of the chaos of Rio Dulce.
The chaos of Rio Dulce!
A hike to a nearby lookout tower yielded this view of the town of Rio Dulce from the NE.
Weirdos at the lookout tower
Rubber tree rubber! (It feels very strange)
Steve and Roberto ham it up for a sunset shot.
This pretty much summarizes our trip in Guatemala City. Unfortunately we forgot our camera charger! So this is the best you're going to get. We went all over the city on these buses. You can go anywhere for 1Q (about 12 cents), it's amazing!
El Estor
In the town of El Estor we ran into an artist friend named Marco from Rio Dulce who was there decorating a store front.
We chased this Bimbo bread truck all over El Estor hoping for whole wheat bread. We caught up with him here at his house where he kindly informed us the name of the store in which we could find the bread. Sometimes people are very tolerant of us.
Steve checks out a tortilleria which is black with the smoke of their wood-burning stoves.
In El Estor we camped at the navy dock by this big scary boat with guns on it.
Cowboy-fisherman
The people who work at the property on the left use a little rowboat attached to a circular line to get to the other side of the rivermouth to town. We camped near here and when we woke in the morning the ferry had sunk and this man is trying to pull it up out of the water.
The further down the lake you go the less motorboats you have to listen to.
These trees are full of crazy howling Howler monkeys. We happened upon a Howler monkey fiasco which involved lots of scary hooting and roaring as well as much energetic swinging. There were probably 10 or 12 monkeys within this tree and the one next to it.
Sailing back to Rio Dulce and past Castillo de San Felipe.
Super cool deadend camping spot. These trees were also full of Howler monkeys. They roared until sunset, then started back up at sunrise.
Our amazing lake trip has made us eager to break out of our Rio Dulce Rut!
Another sunset sail. The wind never came up until the afternoon during our 10 days out, so we spent the hot mornings rowing.
Lago Izabel is surrounded by mountains on all sides.
We stopped in a little mayan village called Guaritas, these scratchy spheres in the crooks of the palm branches are the town crop. What are they?
We discovered this guy on our rudder while we were sailing. He appears to be eating a dragon fly!
Steve sits in a pasture working on our mass email. We were stuck here for an afternoon when the winds were particularly strong so we set up the tent and made it our home. The ranchers never came around and the few cows there didn't seem to mind us too much.
Celebrated the return to “civilization” with a dinner out. Note the hotdog on Steve's shiscabob. We only patronize the finest establishments.
Making tortillas in the scorching sun.
No comment.
Left on the dock!
Towing Thurston halfway down the Rio Dulce towards Livingston with some friends we met on our way out of town.
A classic Rio Dulce scene.
The Canyon walls.
We rowed through the canyon to Livingston. It's a lot more enjoyable going with the current.
That little white spot is a motorboat.
Steve washes his hat in the community laundry facility of Livingston. Only after he finished did we learn that you are definitely NOT supposed to stand in the water. Guess we were wrong about how those places work!
But at least the hat is clean.
Yet another way one can nap under sail.
