January 10, 2002. Evan, Blaine Wright, Greg and Dick drove over to Halifax early, things to do and sails to drop off to North Sails, things to pick up at Binnacle and a look see at the C&C33 "Mischief" at the Royal Nova Scotia YC, recently purchased by daughter Cindy and husband Evan Sullivan in halves with Greg and Donna Bowles. Nice boat guys, going to give the J36 a run with all the sails they have.... North Sails sold the J36 Spinnaker we were hoping to acquire, ah well, must be another one out there... Picked up Donna for dinner, she is in Halifax for 6 months on a work project, then the boys headed home dropping Dick off at the Airport Hotel for yet another dinner with Mary who arrived in the afternoon. Flight time is 06:15 so that means be at the airport for 04:00. Ug Ug.

January 11, 2002 Friday 04:10. Waiting for the shuttle bus, the first one of many for the next few days, we each have a carry on, Dick carrying his old much modified North Sails "phirtex" net bag, now with an added sunbrella top extension and zipper closure, inside, with all the overnight needs including tooth glue, is the old Whitecap strap canvas bag with new zipper top which has lately become the laptop bag of choice because of the many pockets for peripherals and the added safety of being waterproof up to a point.... now since Christmas, we have a plastic bag from MEC inside which holds the laptop making it even safer. Mary has her new North "kevlar" briefcase, one box 4 ft long by 4 x 4 inches, containing shrink wrap in various sizes and new plastic window materiel for the dodger, which ended up being also a "carry on". And then we have checked luggage consisting of a large box containing amongst other things, a new Nexus wind transducer for the mast top, 80 ft of 6 mm dyform wire to replace the main shrouds, a new 6 disc CD player for our stereo system, and 200 toothbrushes donated by David and Nan Perry for the Casa Guatemala orphanage. Another kevlar bag and a second red Whitecap bag with clothing for ourselves, giveaway hats and tee-shirts, and then another red Whitecap bag with enough groceries and canned goods, (sauce, soup, cheese mixes) for the next 6 months, all things we cannot easily find in the Carribean. In all we had over 400 pounds, and we thought the 500 pounds we carried home at Christmas would make the boat lighter!!!! At least, everything was checked through to Belize City, so we did not have to worry about carrying all this stuff at each flight change...

07:30 Arrived in Newark, big rush to get the customs thing done and get ourselves to the next gate for the flight to Houston.

09:30 Problem with the Houston flight, looks like a bit of a wait. Turns out to be a 2 hour delay, and we only have 1hr 25 minutes to make our 13:25 Belize City flight from Houston... Ah well, to make our delay easier to swallow, we each were given a "Customer Care Kit" containing: 1 free drink ticket, one prepaid air phone call to anywhere in the US, and... US$100 off our next flight valued over $400 . Guess that makes up for the inconveniences. To Gordon Bethune, the CEO of Continental our ultimate: Me father thanks ya, me mother thanks ya, and we thanks ya too...

13:25 Arrive in Houston, guess we missed the flight... it just left... and we are in another terminal. The nice lady at the service desk switches us to Groupo Taca Airlines, but they have a potential landing problem in Belize because the Airbus requires an external engine start gismo which is not available at Belize City, so when they shut down to unload, they will not be able to start up again!!! for the trip top San Salvador. At the gate, our new tickets lack a "PFI" sticker, required for inter airline payment, Dick runs back through the "out" security gate, gets the required paper, goes through "in" security again, runs back to the gate only to find that the Taco plane is already backing out of the stall, with a bunch of irate passengers. Back through security "out" again, (they know Dick by now...) the nice lady at the service desk asks what the problem is, and when we explain she promptly gives us a voucher for a room at the Sheraton Airport Inn, plus 2 US$30 dinner and 2 US$8 breakfast vouchers, and new tickets for the 09:05 flight in the morning. Again we thank you Gordon Bethune.... Soon you will be paying us to fly your airline....

January 12, 2002 Saturday. 07:50 we oversleep, late morning, rush to the shuttle and make the airport one hour before flight time for an International flight, definitely a "no no" these days. We find a nice Continental Red Coat who processes our boarding pass, confirms our checked luggage will be on the same flight, and we are off on the 2.5 hr flight to Belize. Lesson learned, do not stand in line and wait, look for a "Red Coat" and tell him your problem, he can fix you up quick.

12:05 Arr Golding airport, sure enough our baggage comes off the turnstile as promised. Then Belize Customs.... The young keen "must be new" lady decides she wants to look in all our bags and boxes. On opening the large computer monitor box she wants to know what is in the inside smaller brown box, we tell her only "toothbrushes", she insists, we open the box and out come 200 toothbrushes, all over her desk. She does not bother with the rest of the bags....

Lisa, , (cell 0166005, home 45578 we recommended for anyone coming to Belize) our favorite taxi driver is there to pick us up, Mary gets her whole history on the way to town, we stop at the Haulover Bridge to arrange a 10:00 shuttle to Tikal tomorrow and then drive to the Chateau Carribean, US$68 dble for the night. We settle in, have a drink at the bar while the air-conditioner cools the room down and then take a $1 bus to Moho Cay for dinner. Moho Caye was just like we left it in November, the same bartenders Celia and Shannon on duty, and the same customers even sitting in the same stools as when we left in November!!! Keith, Francis, Phil, Sandy and Al Martin on a visit from Panama. The missionary couple even came for supper.

January 13, 2002. Sunday Lisa picked us up for the short trip to the Tikal shuttle bus depot, not far but too far to carry all this stuff...

Arriving at the Belize-Guatemala border we each have to pay BLZ $ 7.50 environment tax and another BLZ $20 exit tax. The Guatemala Immigration charges us another 20 Q each and gave us a 19 day visa which was OK, since they thought we were only going to Tikal for a day trip and did not bother with any luggage inspection. We lucked in to the last room at the Jungle Inn (US$48), but later found out the Tikal Inn next door has rooms for US $30, and walked up the mountain trail to the ruins. Did the sunset thing on the temple of the Jaguars, Tikal definitely deserves more than one day, the name itself invokes thoughts of vine draped ruins, but really is the grandest most awe inspiring of all the Mayan ruins. It teems with wildlife, over 280 species of birds have been seen, there are jaguar, ocelot, tiny deer, truncated turkeys and of course snakes and spider monkeys. The mature trees, Spanish cedar, ceibas, mahogany and zapotes (where chewing gum comes from) tower 150 ft over the jungle trails, flocks of Toucans and parrots compete for our attention. On the site, there are literally hundreds of major ruins and thousands of smaller ones, the names alone are enchanting, Plaza of the Seven Temples, Central Acropolis, the Bat Palace, Plaza of the Lost World, and on and on. Temple 1, at a height of 145 ft, dominates the Great Plaza. We did not awake early enough for the sunrise view, because the walk is about 3/4 hr in the dark, (forgot the flashlight on the kitchen window) up a mountain trail with all kinds of wild animals making noises in the jungle, not the normal jaunt for a 66 yr old Canadian Grandmother who wonders if her grandchildren will ever see her again... Tikal is a magical place, and we definitely will be going back, next time for several days.

January 14, 2002 Monday. The electricity is shut of in the whole park at 20:00, and when that happens it is dark, in fact pitch black, but they supply a candle in each room, you lay in your bed and listen to the animals all around outside, dawn is 05:30 here all year round in the morning there is a different animal sound. We have a choice, stay here another day or find a shuttle to the Rio, the Inn has a satellite phone @Q4 per minute, our friend Carlos does not have a van up here today but we make a deal with a driver for the 4hr+ trip through the Peten Department (Province) to the Rio with a short tour around Flores the town on an island in the lake where we stayed in December. Flores has a carnival going on, glad we decided to drive right through.

14:35. Arrive at El Relleno where Whitecap is tied up to Lube’s dock, Everything is fine here, all the same crowd. We have dinner at Ranchon Mary’s and turn in early. Ray told us we now have mosquitoes, and we did, must put the screens on...

January 15, 2002 Tuesday. a busy time showing Mary all the places and things to do that we had 3 weeks to do before Christmas.
Did the grand tour in the dink, she thought I was trying to drown her... The same crowd hangs around the CrowBar as before, but yesterday we went to Chiqui's Tienda for some groceries and they were all there, and looked like they had
been for awhile... just so Jerry A. would know. And now I am limited to shrimp once a week!!!
January 16,2002 Wednesday. Installed the new 6 disc CD player and re-wired the windmill panel, took most of the day... but the results are astounding, now we will have Beethoven with our morning coffee, and "Jar o Comfort" for lunch, with a remote control yet, imagine the decadence.

January 17, 2002 Thursday Today, with Pat from "Shang" and Ray from "Fleurs des Isles" we took the 08:00 chicken bus to Morales, a 30 mile run (23 stops) for Q5 (about 65 cents) only ran out of gas once, tried to figure how far a 48 passenger bus will run on 5 gallons... Bet the driver will chew out his kid brother for taking the bus for a joy ride last night and not putting fuel in... Morales is a town built on the "Del Monte" company lands, and 60% of the population here work for the company. The highlight of the day was a run on the "push cars" on the old "abandoned" narrow gauge RR, which actually goes all the way from the Carribean to the Pacific side of Guatemala and was built to transport bananas to both coasts. For Q10, a young man (aged 20 already 3 children) sat the 4 of us on his cart (they use a 6" ball bearing for wheels on the track), and push polled us at about 10 mph + for an hour through the valley towards Guate City, this valley is the banana belt for the country. We walked for a half hour towards a ruin but found out it was too far away so we turned back and he polled us back to Morales. The only problem with this system since there is only one pair of tracks, is when two cars meet... one car has to disembark, lift off the tracks and let the other pass... the major problem is which one will lift off first, it appears to be a "chicken" type resolution and sometimes they are only a few feet apart when they get stopped!!! at 10+ mph and with Mary and I sitting on the front, at times it looked like a head on collision. We then walked up to the hospital (and Summerside is getting a new one???), to get the results from Pat's PSA tests last month. The Doctor says high, 7.8. We walk back to the market Pat thinks he will head back to Miami for more tests. All the staff have "Del Monte" logo’s on their uniforms, this is a company owned hospital which also serves the community, We catch the 15:30 chicken bus back to the Rio Dulce. Dinner tonight is pizza at Backpackers, and an attempt to get our mail out, did not work, will try again tomorrow.

January 18, 2002. Friday. Put the instrument pod back together today, wind still does not work, will have to go up the mast to replace the wind transducer. We had planned to go over to Casa Guatgemala to paint beds today, but on the Rio Dulce VHF net this AM someone announced that George and Mecca from "Sailabout" (who are heading up the bunk bed project) were gone to Yucatan, no painting today. Instead we did the Internet café at Backpackers and were able to get through on their network.

January 19, 2002. Saturday. 09:00 Hitched up the dinghy this morning and headed over to Mario’s Cayuca Club for the yachters weekly "swap meet". Mecca and George were there, they did not go to Yucatan, but to another area up in the mountains called Jacatan near the Honduran border where there are several Mayan tribes facing starvation from three years of drought and ruined crops. Rumors are that at least 250 have died from malnourishment. They delivered a truckload of food supplies and brought back many pictures of the natives and their children. We promise to go help with the bunk painting on Monday. Mary bent back a thumb nail climbing out of the dink, she is going to be sore all over by April....

January 20, 2002 Sunday. Lazy day today, did some boat maintenance, checked out the wind instrument with Ray’s digital meter, looks like the problem is up top, the manual reads: "measure with a voltmeter, at the screw terminal pin 1 and ground, and between pin 2 and ground. If the meter shows 1.5 to 4 V (minimum wind speed 3 m/s) at both measuring points, the transducer and the connections are OK. If the meter shows 0 or 5 V DC at both measuring points, the transducer or the connections are defect." It took a half hour just to figure out the instructions.... because there is no pin 1 and 2, there is ground plus a green (+), a yellow and a white terminals, so any dummy can hook them up. We are showing a reading higher than 5 V. between the - pin and the yellow and white, and 13.45 when we check the green (+) pin. Anyway I have now concluded that the problem is at the top of the mast.

January 21, 2002, Monday. 09:00 Dinghy down to Casa Guatemala, the new girls dorm is finished??? and painted a salmon pastel colour with a burgundy trim, looks pretty nice, the open windows are all covered with mosquito screen and a chain link wire. Mecca is into the final decorations in one of the 2^nd floor dorms, she sets us up with paint brushes , paint and 5 sets of bunks which require a second coat. At 12:00 we break for lunch at the dining hall; lunch consisted of white rice, a mixture of tomato, potato and carrot all mashed together and some cooked sliced beets with onion, certainly not Canadian fare by any means!!! We took a walk over to the "farm", all the leftovers are fed to the pigs and chickens, produce which supplies eggs and meat to the children, the surplus, or visa versa, is sold to the public at the shop in Fronteres, vertical integration at its finest... By 15:30 we have paint all over our arms and legs and tee shirts but we have 5 finished; we promise to return again tomorrow or next day for more. George is back at the shop making doors for the closets at the end of the bunks. Each child gets a bunk and a closet of their own, a novelty around here.

16:00 A quick stop at Hacienda Tijax (tee hash), just opposite Bruno’s Marina for a cold beer before we dink off to Whitecap. Tijax has a marina, restaurant, bar, bungalows and a rubber tree plantation. They also have a fairly large teak plantation which they hope will be ready to harvest in about 25 years. An ambitious project. The workers are paid daily and must sign for their pay, most sign using an inkpad and their thumb print on the cheque stub.

January 22, 2002 Tuesday 07:30 Lube is getting some welding done on ADIOS, she is a steel hull and while replacing some bad plywood deck found rusted out deck beams, all this happening just outside our window, time to get up. Decide to "Equalize" our batteries this morning, each cell on one of the house bank batteries tests around 1.245 Specific Gravity which is on the boarder between "good" and "fair", not good enough but better than when we were at Moho Caye, where they must have been dead all last summer. We notice that the second house battery did not "bubble" during the equalize process, the two engine batteries also bubbled properly. The "Equalizing process" returns the sulphate (caused from repeated discharging and recharging) from the battery plates back into the electrolyte, thereby raising the SG and fully exposing the original plate face. Only problem is with the batteries bubbling away we are creating gas, causing the propane gas sensor to continually go off, so we had to place a fan to circulate air around the sensor in the bilge.

There is a new boat anchored in our little bay, a 40 ft FG Crusader, an American yachter called "Las Vegas Bob" bought it yesterday for US$ 100!!!! We heard he has plans to abandon his old wood boat and refurbish this one, which has been completely cleaned out by termites. The old wooden ketch has aluminum masts suitable for Shang, Pat is looking to try a deal.

January 23, 2002. Wednesday Up and at it right after the morning VHF net was over, quick breakfast and do some cleanup.

09:10 Head down to Casa Guatemala to do some painting, finally coming to a close down there, all the beds are painted and Mecca is applying the decorative designs to each one. We paint the last coats on the last three beds, and help with the design painting Mary gets to paint the red border around the yellow stars. Over lunch we get a chance to talk to George about our battery problem, he confirms it has to be a connection. After lunch Dick gets to paint purple trim around orange polka dots.

14:30 We head back to town before the bank closes, and today we make it in time. Convinced the nice lady we needed 2000 Quetzales today, exchange rate is US$ 1 = Q8.10 a good rate for the yanks, and we guess if it is good for them it should be good for us if our dollar is up... Stop at the Crow Bar, the place is packed, turns out Cookie from "Yankee Girl" is the bartender today, Jeff is off to the city, all the old sailors are hanging around. Her husband Lou tells Dick the name of one of the yachters at his dock who is an expert in boats and electricity, in case we cannot solve our problem. Mary has finally taken to accepting that everywhere we go around here is by dink, at first she thought Dick was trying to drown her by going so fast, but he had to explain that if we do not go fast the water comes in over the front and we do not go anywhere.... Today, Dick put an extension on the throttle handle, and found that when we get the dinghy on a plane, and we both sit forward, the boat goes faster and is dryer!!! except when we go over someone else’s wake... then we bounce, bad.... and Dick is trying to drown Mary again...

January 24, 2002 Thursday. After breakfast Mary does laundry, she does it on the deck in a bucket, would not go in the river like all the local ladies around here, doubt she will carry a basket on her head either.... Spent the whole day in the battery compartment removing each terminal cleaning all and replaced one. Know that bin at Cdn Tire, full of battery terminal cleaners for $1.49, well there is no such useful toy around here, should have bought a bucketful when we were home!!!. Topped up all the batteries, took 12 oz of distilled water after the "cooking" process the other day, should be good for a while, all battery cells are now testing in the Green (good) range. Shower will feel good tonight it is hot down here in the bilge and Dick’s hip fell asleep of all things....

A new boat anchored in our small bay, Canadian flag looks like about a 41 footer, I think we saw her anchored in Isla Mujeres last year. Two others "Expectations" a catamaran carrying a mast on deck which was left at Big Creek after hurricane Iris, and behind her was "Miss Lou" a green schooner to whom the mast belongs. "Miss Lou" belongs to the Nancy from Toronto we have periodically been meeting, the schooner was on a slip in Livingston having repairs and painting since November, this is "Miss Lou’s" first trip up the river, they sound pretty happy with themselves on the radio. Unplugged from shore power at 18:00 just to check how the batteries will handle the load. Ran all lights, fridge, watched TV and used the new CD player, and even flicked on the windmill switch.

19:00 Walked to Backpackers for the Internet but Tomas was already gone.

January 25, 2001. Friday 07:30 Battery voltage down to 12.25, guess that is presentable. Busy day today, up the mast first thing in the AM before it got too hot, Pat and Lube did the cranking. Got to the top, unfastened the wind transducer and sent it down on a line. Had a good chance to check the rigging up there while Pat transferred the tail fin from the old transducer to the new one and sent it back up. Found a chafe in the wire taped it up but wonder if that is the problem???. Get everything re-installed, but before Dick could come down, the main halliard wire had jumped the sheave and jammed between the pulley and the mast, this is a first... they cannot let him back down. Not really a big problem, nice view from 49 ft up, but have to make plans to come down eventually.... Had to rig up a temp line over the top of the mast and hoist higher using that line down to the spinnaker winch below to take the load, which meant no wire halliard lift and no safety line, just a 30 yr old bronze shackle on the end of a similar aged old spinnaker sheet holding up 160 lbs of rhum and coke while Dick disconnects the lift wire halliard shackle with a vice grip and hangs there while he undoes the jamb with a screw driver... Finally got back down, but by then the sun was getting pretty hot, and to top it off, when we turned on the instruments switch the damn thing did not give us a wind speed reading.... again. Walked to Backpackers, did our e-mail thing, 39 messages, only 6 not junk mail, who wants to see Brittany Spears nude anyway???. Hawnalea is still in the Bahamas, and Peter is taking a diving course, (poor instructor). Made a new pair of wire leaders for the trolling gear, using a home made nicopress on our vice grips and had a nap before going to Rosita’s for early supper. Big problem at Rosita’s telling the young senorita what a vodka tonic was (Tonic water here is called Quinac and is made by Canada Dry and has the distinctive yellow label as back home) and we had an even bigger problem explaining that Dick wanted a "Chicken steak" for dinner... but we were served what we asked for after Dick went behind the bar and picked out the ingredients for Vodka and Tonic, and then to the kitchen to pick out the meat. Dinghy back home in the dark, Mary would not stop anywhere even though we had the big yellow searchlight, so we passed by Mario’s Cayuga Club, Monkey bay Marina, Hacienda Tijax, Bruno’s and Backpackers on the way home, she still thinks Dick is trying to drown her...

January 26, 2002. Saturday 07:30 VHF net Radio reports two sailboats ashore in the last two days, an anchored off Punta Sal in Honduras which was towed off by the Honduran navy, holed but OK. They did not have any chain on their rode and the anchor line chewed off on coral (Whitecap has 2 all chain rodes total 458 ft). Another one in Mexican waters somewhere near Xcalak, was on her way from the Rio to Isla Mujeres, did not get the full story yet but the people are on the shore and OK, but it sounds like they are trying to salvage what they can.

Spent the morning trying to install the new engine shut off choke cable, covered the outside with vaseline and then a 6 ft piece of shrink wrap to keep moisture out, now that’s a smart idea, but it turns out that the threaded part is not long enough to go through the bulkhead and put the nut on, got one of those hollow threaded pieces from a lamp Pat had stripped and tried to install but cannot find a way to hold the threaded piece in place.... should have bought the $22 one instead of the $7.50 one at Cdn Tire!!!! Dick is just getting dirtier and dirtier and pissed offer and pissed offer.... After much difficulty and aggravation and I can only get one arm in between the exhaust manifold and the bulkhead, when I need to hold two wrenches at the same time...., Finally, accidently knocked over the propane torch and Dick said to Dick: "Dick, wonder if it will solder on?" tried it and it did... problem solved. nice hot shower felt refreshing after the job was done. Supper and a movie finished off the day.

January 27, 2002. Sunday. Out to breakfast, head to Tortugal Marina with a quick stop at Backpackers to find out what time Tomas opens the Internet café. Angie is back for the day but going to the city tonight, have a short chat, thought she was around, saw her bodyguard yesterday. No one at Tortugal, head over to Susanna’s Marina, no one there either but we have scrambled egg and fruit plate breakfast anyway. Head over towards the Castillo, decide to walk the grounds, met Carlos, who is the superintendent of the park. He tells us the fort has just been through a restoration project, after being closed for three years, it was originally built in 1651, which predates St Augustine Florida, and, at one point, had been abandoned for almost 300 years. Carlos gave us a grand 2hr tour, even the dungeon under the small chapel, where captured pirates were chained to the walls, the shackles are still there, and had to sometimes sit in 2 feet of water if the lake level was up. There were several soldier uprisings against officer cruelty, one occasion after an officer ordered 7 soldiers to clean the moat, and they were all killed by the resident crocodiles.... There are 15 cannon on the site facing the river, 10 on the round tower

and five on land, together they created a cross-fire able to cripple any vessel that did not stop and pay taxes. The river here is only 300 yds wide. There are 6 cannon protecting the Castillo from the land attack, the garrison was maned by 187 soldiers.

After a dink ride around the area, we stopped at Mansion del Rio for lunch, the armed guard wanted us to sign in, could have written anything, next time Dick says he will sign for Mickey Mouse... Lunch was each half a hamburger and a shared order of "buffalo wings". When it was time to leave, the winds came up and the rain started, we had to wait almost 2 hours before we could dinghy across the river to Backpackers for the Internet, the plastic bag we got for Christmas was worth it’s weight in gold, because we carry the laptop in it then inside the canvas Whitecap bag, everything was dry.

January 28, 2002. Monday. Dick and Pat dink to town, stopped at the Shop to nicopress the new wire for the dinghy hoist bridle and repair the old wire painter. Walked over to Clem’s used parts shop next door looking for a new mainsail Francis at Moho Caye is missing lately, rumor has it there is one on the river that may fit the description of the one we are looking for. Walk to the bank cannot get any Q’s today, Dick forgot the passport, PEI driver’s license will not work. Dink back to Backpackers for the Internet, send message to Francis, no sign of the sail yet. We hear the dinghy from Star Treck a Carolina skiff with a 25 HP Merc went missing last night, and a US$14 thousand boat and motor rig up on Lago Isabel also went missing last night, and on a Sunday yet...

Back to Whitecap, do the final fitting for the dinghy bridle, and tear down the poor little Honda generator , lots of rust over the last 3 years, Lube says we can fix it, the pull cord was seized was the primary reason. Also dig out the spare transmission, Lube knows a mechanic who can rebuild it, we have the parts and gaskets on board. Quit at 17:30 time for a hot shower, a walk to Chiqui’s Tienda for potatoes, (he had none), walk back to Whitecap with Cookie and Lou, from the next dock, who tells us he may be able to broker a deal for Pat on those aluminum masts on Las Vegas Bob’s old, soon to be junked, ketch, now anchored out front of us. We give Pat the word, go see Lou on "Yankee Girl" soonest, quick like tomorrow AM.... right after the daily 07:30 Rio Dulce VHF net. After supper we watch a movie, outside it rained and rained, hard...... back home they say "cats and dogs", like what a way to fill the fresh water tank...

January 29, 2002. Tuesday 02:09 woke up to more rain, well the cats and dogs are all gone, but during the night the "chickens and hens", and right now the "horses and cows" are coming down also. No wonder this place is a jungle!!! happy to report we have no deck leaks, imagine!!!

07:30 VHF Net woke us up this AM, bright sunny day already. This morning the plan is to take of the wheel, dismantle and clean the Autohelm 4000, check the belt and all that stuff. Sounds easy, but it took until noon to finish, and the belt was ready to break so Dick replaced it. This was one of a pair of belts Dick cell phone ordered when on the Illinois River in 1999. They had not arrived at the West Marine store in St Charles, Missouri by the time Whitecap arrived, so West marine was to ship them to Summerside, and we would take them down after Christmas. The parcel arrived at our house, addressed to "Rick Wedge" with a customs and sales tax charge of $29, Mary figured the parcel was for someone else, refused it and it was sent back. When home at Christmas, Dick wondered about the new belts, phoned West Marine in St Charles, and was told they had been refused and returned, although already paid for by credit card, and what did Dick want now??? The new directions were to ship the parcel to Whitecap, c/o the marina in Aberdeen Mississippi, which they did, but we incurred extra charges in shipping, handling, restocking and shipping and handling again... so Whitecap’s spare autohelm 4000 belts, are a more expensive version of the regular run of the mill US$59 each ones, in fact they came out after all was said and done, at CDN $ 119 each, so they are very precious, but we did save the GST. We now only have one expensive spare.

Over lunch of Cream of Mushroom soup and coconut biscuits, delivered fresh this AM by a native lady paddling her cayuga from boat to boat and selling for 1Q each (8 cents), we finalized plans to spend part of Semina Sancta (March 27 to Apr 1), in Antigua. Dick phoned the Poseda Don Rodrigo, where we had hoped to stay, but they were full that week. Dinghy to the Castillo to talk to Carlos our tour guide from last Sunday, his home is Antigua, and he gave Dick a list of the equivalent hotels near the Centro area. Dinghy over to Fronteres, pick up some brochures with phone numbers at Marlena’s Internet café, walk back to the dinghy, toss down the book, untie, jump down, missed the boat and fell straight in. Definitely not a useful everyday occurrence, but a dilemma nevertheless. Dick said to himself: "self, better get back in that boat quick, you are drifting out into the bay". Nice feature to have oversize tubes on the inflatable for a better ride, but much harder to scramble over from deep water swim mode..., self had to swim over to a neighboring panga, tie our painter to theirs , get between the two boats and swing self up and over; in fact it took about 10 minutes, and no one was around to help. When Dick arrived back at Whitecap, Lube, Emi, Pat, Mary and Ray got a good laugh at the wet dude’s expense. Decide to phone the other hotels tomorrow. To make a phone call here, we have to walk up to the small "store", tell the Chinese lady we wish the telephono, she passes us a pocket calculator, we punch in the phone #, pass the calculator back, she dials the number and when it answers, she hands you the receiver, all for 1Q per minute....

During the afternoon, we had a visit from 3 young CDN backpacker ladies, who expressed interest to sail with us to Utila. Dick and Pat met them in the lineup at the bank yesterday. They are staying in a room over the bar at Hacienda Tijax (tee-hash) for US$ 5 ea, they are coming back for another visit on Thursday. Be nice to have extra crew for the overnight sail.

18:00 walk to Backpackers for e-mail and pizza. We do not get much mail these days.... no one loves us anymore... or they are too busy digging out of a snowbank.

January 30, 2002. Wednesday. Pat and Ray ask us to go to El Estor (the store) for the day, this is a small village at the far end of Lago Isabel, we will go by chicken bus from the Fronteres side of the bridge. Phone Antigua first, confirm a room at the Posada San Sabestian #1, at 3a Av Norte #4 ph 832-2621, two beds, private HW bath and kitchen facility, located near the centro for March 27 through April 1 for Semina Sancta. Will confirm by fax and e-mail tonight.

10:00. Catch the bus, for a wild 35 mile ride to El Estor. Guatemalan bus drivers are something else, just stick a steering wheel between their legs and they become the Central American equivalent of Evil Knevil. During the bus ride, a young man was standing in the isle with a bible in his hand preaching, this lasted all of 30 minutes (about half the ride), while we were careening around corners and over hills, Dick looked back and only Ray and Pat were sitting back there in the dust, and they understand very little Spanish, it was like preaching to the deaf but he was going at it like a fervent radical. The lady in the seat in front of us kept looking back smiling, showing off her gold teeth, when it came time for her to get off, she stood up, motioned for Dick to get up also, then she reached under Mary’s seat and pulled out a large rooster, it’s feet tied together, gathered her young boy and walked off the bus; once alighted, she stuffed the poor bird into a bag and headed up the hill, we wondered "was it supper or just improving the stock?". We all got a good laugh at Mary’ expense. El Estor was once a company town, when the nickel mines were open in the mountains, the company built schools, parks and a beautiful band shell in the centro for the people, some streets paved with cement bricks, and some are wide "boulevards"; all the large buckets and rails and equipment for moving the ore are stored on a waterfront property. There is a large market, El Estor means "the store", but alas Saturday is the best day, oranges here are 10 for 1Q, in Fronteres you can only get 3 or 4 at that price... You can buy raw cacao beans, but a sign warns the purchaser that eating the resulting chocolate after noon hour, results in a sleepless night... we had lunch at a small cantina and caught the 15:00 bus back, this driver was more Knevil than the last one. The ride is through ranch and banana plantations with a fleeting view of the lake in the distance. From Fronteres we walked back over the bridge, Lube’s hot shower will feel good tonight...