Going Places Where Most People Don't

Our friends on Alecia Angelina are also on their way to the Panama Canal and off to cross the Pacific. Since we had no word on our anchor yet we decided to take a trip with them to the Bay Islands of Honduras. On our trip into Lago Izabel we met a young french man, Julienne, who was living in San Francisco till he decided to ride his bicycle from SF south. He obviously has made it as far as Guatemala, (yes riding all the way!) but ready to try something else. He heard about great SCUBA class prices in Utila and asked for a ride. (or we offered. I don’t remember which) We now had our first official crew for an Ocean Passage. Sorry Tim and Matthew, that little trip we took out into the Atlantic didn’t quite count.

On March 14^th we loaded his bicycle, trailer and all his gear and headed back down the Rio Dulce. We picked up our sails in Cayo Quemaddo. (Stray Catz with sails again!) Another 24 hours later we were anchoring in Utila harbor Honduras.

Ah back in clear beautiful salt water.

Utila is a pretty cool town. SCUBA is obviously the main source of business. That and all the bars and discos the divers hang out in.

After a couple of nights in Utila harbor listening to the all night discos, we said good-bye to Julienne and in the company of Alecia Angelina headed around to a different part of the island where we found a nice little area that had a beach and some good snorkeling. Two nights there then we were off to West End, Roatan. This too was a cute little small town where SCUBA and bars and restaurants rule. I spotted a couple of sea turtles in the harbor and would have loved to stay longer, but due to some boat troubles, (our anchor dragged) we said good-bye for now to our friends on Alecia Angelina and took off early the next morning for Guatemala.

The trip back to the Rio Dulce was not uneventful. We sailed most of the day, but to do so we were about 30 degrees off course. All the time thinking the wind was going to come around the right direction and we would be back on course. This did not happen. As the evening wore on the winds built and before we knew it, it was blowing 30+ knots and the seas built to somewhere around 10 feet.

We ended up blowing out a seam on the main sail and had to motor the rest of the way. After dealing with the strong winds and heavy seas all night and into the morning we made the decision to change direction and head to Puerto Cortes, Honduras to duck out of the weather. After an afternoon and night in Puerto Cortes, we took off early the next morning to a beautiful blue sky, calm seas and no wind.

After another night at anchor in Livingston, Guatemala we dropped the main sail off at the sail repair shop again and continued on into the Fronteras area to find out that our anchor shaft was waiting for us in Guatemala City. We put Stray Catz back at Nana Juana Marina, made arrangements to get the prop and rudder repaired and a bus ticket for Anna and I to Guate City. Kylan thought he would have more fun with internet every night instead of a couple of 5 hour bus rides, so he stayed on Stray Catz.

In Guate City we met up with David and Arely who chauffeured us around for the next 24 hours.

Guatemala City is a large city about the size of San Francisco. It’s divided up into zones. Like any big city, some zones you don’t want to wander into. David and Arely were great hosts and did a great job of showing us around and some of the highlights of the city.

The next morning we went into the Postal Customs building where we were told how much we still had to pay to get our warranty item in our hands, and to find out that the other part we ordered wasn’t there, and that basically no one knew where it was. So it was back to the bus station for the 5 hour ride back to the boat.

 

After Antigua we took a shuttle up to the Lake Atitlan area. It’s a large beautiful lake surrounded by mountains reminiscent of Lake Tahoe, but without the snow. The history of this area is remarkable. The Spaniards made quite an impression on the area. Changing the names of numerous cities colonizing the natives and making the Catholic religion quite popular. What I thought was amazing was that the lake has no way for the water to leave. About four years ago it was a very wet year and the lake level rose about 15 feet. All along the shore line are submerged and partially submerged houses and buildings. When the lake level rises like that there is no choice but to back up the hill and rebuild on higher ground. The shuttle dropped us at Panahachel where we then took a boat to the other side of the lake to San Pedro. This is in the heart of Mayan country. There are multiple dialects of the Mayan language spoken around the lake along with Spanish, so I’m not sure why the language schools are so popular here, but they are. This time we had no idea what school we were going to, but we knew a few to check out. We stopped in to talk to several schools and hear about their programs. We ended up deciding on a school called The Language Hub and it was a good decision. Again we did the total immersion option were placed with local Mayan families. This time Anna and I stayed together, but so as not to hold Kylan back, he stayed with another family. Kylan’s host family had many kids, but he hit it off the most with the 18-year-old daughter named Lupe. Anna and I’s family had actually three generations of the family living there. The mother and father Maria and Pablo. Their son Juan, and one of their daughters, her husband and two kids. Juan was our guide, host, translator and just about everything else. He spoke some English which turned out to be quite helpful when we ran out of our limited Spanish vocabulary. I think Anna’s favorite part of the stay was the 6-year-old granddaughter named Maria. She was very cute and friendly and always made us feel like part of the family.

The living conditions here are not like anything you will find in the US. First off the house is not completely walled in. There are open pathways from the dining room to the outside walls of the next house. The only running water consisted of two spigots. One that poured into a large open sink sort of thing that you would dip a bucket in for water to flush the toilet or a small bowl in for water to wash your hands or brush your teeth. The other faucet was for the shower. But hot showers consisted mostly of dumping water over your head from the pail filled with water heated on the wood stove. Don;t get me wrong, we both really enjoyed our stay there and Juan and the host family were awesome. But I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t ready to get back to the type of living I’m more accustomed to.

One morning while in San Pedro, our host family took us for a hike up Indian Nose mountain to watch the sunrise. That meant catching whats called a chicken bus (never found out why) at 4:30 am. The chicken bus is one of the restored blue bird school buses that now look like they won an episode of Pimp My Ride. Lots of chrome, pretty colors and loud horns. It took us to another town up the side of the mountain. The road was so steep and the switchbacks so sharp that the bus had to back up on a couple of them to make the corner. This might not have been so bad had it not been on the edge of a cliff. It was a beautiful sunrise, but watching the fog roll in over the entire valley and surround the mountain we were on before rolling right on by and disappearing again as fast as it showed up was super spectacular. I think Anna secretly liked the hike up the side of the mountain in the pitch dark.

At the end of our week we made the all day journey back to Stray Catz to find her in desperate need of some open windows. No word yet on our anchor parts so we made a few repairs and took a buddy boat trip with our friends on Alecia Angelina up to Lago Izabel. At one of the anchorages we could see and hear the howler monkeys playing in the trees. At another one we took a short trip to see the hot springs waterfall. You swim in this cool stream over to where the 90 degree hot springs pours down over your head and body. Beautiful spot. We saw bats in a cave a huge toad and blue Morpho butterfly. A quick three-day trip into the lake which is huge 20 miles by 12. When we returned there was still no word on our anchor part, so we readied Stray Catz for a trip to Utilla, Honduras.

We left Stray Catz securely tied to the dock at Nana Juana Marina and jumped on a bus to Antigua.  Kylan met two other cruising kids about his age and had a great time for the couple of days before we left. The marina is part of a hotel and resort so it has a nice pool and grounds. Other marinas in this area have special events on certain nights of the week like movies, games and potlucks. Some even provide a launcha service ( small boat transportation) to and from the event. Quite a community of cruisers here.

In our sense of continuing adventure, we headed inland to what everyone here calls the real Guatemala. (?) It seems very similar only the mountains are bigger.  This area seems just as real. Based on our experiences so far, we felt it was prudent to start with at least a week of Spanish language lessons.  We found a school online to go to, but as it turns out there are over 50 language schools in Antigua and probably another 30 up the road in the Lake Atitlan area. The schools offer a total immersion option where they place you with a local family. We opted to all be placed in separate families in hopes of faster learning. It didn’t really work like that though, because there were other English-speaking students in the same house.  Still it was a good experience.

Antigua is a very old and beautiful city. It is preserved well. The streets are all cobblestone and quite a challenge to walk on. (walking on any street in Guatemala is a challenge because of the driving) There are many churches dating way back. A few were destroyed in earth quakes in the 17 and 1800’s, but the ruins are still kept for history’s sake. There are three volcanoes surrounding the town. One of which is still very active and erupted while we were there.  It sounded like a sonic boom, thunder and fireworks all in one. The houses and buildings are up against each other and there is a central park which has activities almost nightly. It is a very popular tourist destination which was nice because you never felt threatened or in danger in the more popular areas. The homes in which Anna, Kylan and I (originally) were within walking distance to the downtown and all the activities. And yes we got together every day probably also not helping our Spanish. All of the old school buses that we used to ride come here to Guatemala to gain new life. They have never looked so good. Plenty of chrome and colors and horns that can be heard a mile away.

We were in Antigua for the last week in February. Leaving on March 1st headed to San Pedro in the Lake Atitlan area for another week of language school. I’ll share more on that in a later post.