Notes and Remarks:

10:35 Left Moho at stopped at the Radisson dock for fuel, took on diesel + 3 x 5 gal 5 gal outboard and 1 gal Honda gas. Headed out buddy boating with our friend Pat Burdine and the young Guatemalan boy Guillermo (Lube’s 15 yr old brother). The mahogany lumber for "Shang’s" new masts in 16 ft lengths on deck (Blz $2.50 per board ft)

12:49 abeam container ship the "Guatemala" registered Kollmar Wonder where that is???

13:39 abeam burned out hulk of oil tanker anchored. Looks like two young lads living aboard, they have laundry out!!!

14:18 can see a white sail out there. We are now at Lat 17 17.26

14:46 The sail turns out to be a TMN charter Catamaran out of San Pedro, the owner of TMN, Paul, told us last week he had 12 boats out on charter before Christmas.

15:23 dropped anchored behind Bluefield Range in 13.1 ft with CQR and 40 ft chain. Already 1 sailboat anchored just west of us, no flag. Pat jumped in for a swim to check the anchors, comes over with someone’s lost anchor light all covered in slime and growth, but it has a nice fresnel lens and a two prong brass plug... we start to clean it up, turns out to be a Davis Mega light, bet the guy who lost it is cursing out his wife yet!!! Speed boat comes over real fast, two guys Allen and his brother Darrel, they are young fishermen from the camp at the north tip of Bluefield Range fish camp at the east end, we passed by earlier, they have lobster tails to sell or trade, we make a hard deal, 3 Belikin Beer and US$10 for seventeen tails, we give them hell because there are no bodies, but they compensate by telling us they are so fresh they are not cold yet!!! We forgot to get drinking water for cooking, cannot make rice, so we decide to just eat the tails, cooked comme ca. Pat called, inviting us to supper, we cook the lobster tails.

Dingyed over to Shang, Pat cooked spaghetti using 2 cut up lobster tails in the sauce, plus, we each had two tails on our plates, and we have 5 tails left over ..

At dusk a TMN catamaran comes into basin and behind him a Belizean work boat

Turned in at 18:58. Maybe tomorrow Placentia...

Notes and Remarks:

08:00 hauled anchor after unwinding the broken loose pig stick hailliard out of the wind generator blades... Motored out between Finn’s bright blue huts on the shore, keeping east of a small mangrove caye, 12 to 15 ft depth. Finn, a Swede, who lived here in these huts for years and was a raconteur extra ordinaire of his 75 + years of exploits, was found drowned here last spring. Apparently a young couple has moved into his huts.

08:54 pulled out jib and broad reached , shut the motor off speed down to 3.9, at this rate we will not make Placentia tonight. That’s OK, there are lots more cayes around here, but we do need food. A TMN cat passed by heading north on a broad reach, and we can see another a few miles behind, and yet another behind that, they are to far away to see a name, all heading north. To the west we see the Cockburn mountains more clearly, the shoreline is approx 11 miles away . Stann Creek / Dangriga is the next village on the point we barely see up ahead, at 1 o’clock. Dangriga has not been getting a very good reputation lately, a few murders and robberies, will stay away from there...

10:51 Stann Creek /Dangriga abeam at 5.6 miles west, depth 76 ft Garbutt Caye is abeam 1.8 miles east

11:11 2 sails to stbd, heading north, hear them on the radio "Obsession" calling "Street Legal", must be coming out of the Rio. Later "Briana" a Cal 42 ketch passed and called us, saying he is relocating from San Diego to Florida, and together with "Antheres", they are heading for San Pedro and then north to Isla Mujeres. Had nice chat. See two large shrimpers in the distance.

13:35 Placentia is 2 hr 24 min away, we decide to head there, reason being, in our rush to leave Moho we did not have a chance to stock up, we are out of beer, water, bread etc... have not heard from Shang in a while, not having any masts, his antenna is too low and we can only talk when close. The alternative stop is Pelican Cays, but we really need beer, bread, rum, water, beer, Absolute Vodka, beer, rum, orange juice, crackers, beer, cheese and a bunch of other staples!!!! Gerry takes the wheel LeRoy has steered all day, Dick took apart and cleaned the anchor light we found on the bottom at last nights anchorage.. Battery V 14.05.

15:30 we can see into the Placentia anchorage, certainly looks like Iris did her thing here, the tops are gone on the palms, there are two charter cats anchored and our friend Marcia’s boat is moored over behind the mangrove island.

16:04 dropped Bruce anchor with 60 ft chain in 16 ft just off the Moorings pier, cleaned up and headed to shore. The real effects of the storm are evident everywhere, houses demolished and askew, trees down everywhere, we met a lady off one of the cats and she directed us to the store, "the green building just over there" she said; she must have been colour blind because only the roof was green, the rest has not seen paint since I was a kid in arms... We bought a 24 of Belikin from the back of a transport truck, and in the store two litres carribbean rum, cokes, crackers. There was no bread, the village bakery was wiped out in the storm, the lady told us to go to another small store they may have bread, we did and they did. On the way back to the boat, we met two ladies from Colorado, they steered us to the beach front bar "J Byrds" the only one open in town, ah! the Belikin was cold so we each had two... The internet café is not open yet, and the phones do not work for long distance, so we cannot call home.. Oh oh it has been 5 days now...

Notes and Remarks:

08:00 Shang comes in the harbour, they stopped at Pelican Cays last night, want to head off immediately to "Wild Cane Cay" one of the Bedford Cays, just around the corner from "New Haven" where Hard Luck Charlie (rest his soul) had his small marine haulout, and now reclaimed by the jungle after only a year or so. We still had things to do here so told them we would be at Wild Cane before nightfall. We dinghy back to shore, walk the long narrow cement sidewalk that is Placentia’s trademark. Even the sidewalk is badly damaged, parts of it are upside down and some crushed by the bulldozer made available to the community after Iris for 2 weeks only. They were told, it was a matter of clean it up now, or you will have to do it by hand later... we passed one askew house, only to be informed by a lady salvaging bed parts that it was once the second storey of her house, located on the beach about 600 ft away. There were trees with steel roofing imbeded right in. People were picking up and sorting lumber all over the place. Stopped for a beer (only 10:00hrs) at "J Byrds", then walk over to our friend Marcia’s house, she was not home, the neighbour Fred told me she went to Guatemala on her friend Tina’s boat, we may meet them on the Rio.

10:40 haul anchor and head into Big Creek, 5 miles away to look at the damaged boats in there. We follow the well marked 27 ft channel, all the way in to the Banana dock, "Wave Dancer"is in the mangroves very badly damaged. Even the roof of the upper wheelhouse was bashed in. Further up the creek we saw the errant tugboat that broke loose and floated through the fleet of eight yachts, which were all tied off from shore to shore, and the Lady Alexandra with her side bashed in and half sunk because someone forgot to purchase gas for the pumps that were keeping her afloat!!!

12:00 Headed out the river, following the coastline in 35 - 45 ft. Ponte Negra 15 miles away.

14:30 abeam Monkey River Town, also badly damaged by Iris (all ten houses). SOG 6.3kts Heard someone calling "Rema" on VHF, when they finished, we called "Rema" to say hello, as soon as I said it was "Whitecap", he again thanked me for the PVF-K and 282 MEP tablets I gave him last March for his toothache in San Pedro... He tells us the latest word from Grumpy, they are back in Yucalpeten/Progresso and will be returning to Isla Mujeres in January.

15:40 rounded Icacos Point and headed west, Wild Cane cay is 2 miles away, but we have to turn back out to avoid the shoals. "Shang" calls, he can see our sails over the mangroves where he is anchored.

16:00 we turn into the channel between two mangrove islands and drop the Bruce in 16 ft. about 40 ft from "Shang" Time for a rum, air temp 90deg F. From here we can clearly see the Mayan mountains in Guatemala to the west and the even higher ones over in Honduras to the south east. We dinghy over to Shang, make plans to head for Stuart Cay , 8 miles away from here, tomorrow Sunday and then early Monday the final 4 miles to Punta Gorda where we will check out of Belize, this way we will avoid having to pay overtime to the Customs and Immigration people, and we can easily make the 20 miles to Livingston, Guatemala at the mouth of the Rio before they close for the day. We plan to spend the night at "La Marina" where the first night is free, (these people could learn from Vogue optical, where the second pair is free) before heading up river in daylight Tuesday. We proceed to eat all of Pat’s peanuts and popcorn, washing everything down with rhum before we turn in at 20:30 for the night.

Notes and Remarks:

Rain and thunder during the night, the winds were shifting around, and the windmill was turning like crazy keeping the voltage up to 12.15.

08:30 heavy rain again, Dick took the bucket and soap and showered on the deck in full view of the flora and fauna, which wouldn’t give a damm anyway. At least he smells good....

09:15 Pat, Guillemero and Gerry head over to the shore souvenir hunting at Wild Cane Cay. This was once a Mayan camp and there are many artifacts there, cannot take anything over 150 yrs old. there is also remnants of a private plantation, with orange, mango and other fruit trees everywhere.

12:45 hauled anchor, headed to Stuart Cay.

13:00 excitement of the day, we were trailing our fishing lure on 108 lb test line 150 ft behind us and a big fish jumped up and snapped it off!!! leader and all, Heard the rubber band snap, LeRoy looked back and said it had to be a 110 pounder, Gerry thought it was bigger than that, he held out his hands 3 ft apart, and said "and that was between the eyes!!!", Pat on "Shang" behind us did not see a thing!!! anyway we are now out a US$ 20 lure and this was only the second time we used it... This fishing thing is fun????

13:15 Moho Cayes abeam, seems to be some boating activity at So. Moho Caye, there are 5 boats anchored there.

14:51 rounded the north side of Stuart Cay, dropped Bruce in 10 ft, days run 8.52 miles, does not sound like much, but this puts us within 4 miles of Punta Gorda, which is an open roadstead anchorage, not safe to stay overnight if a blow comes.

A catamaran comes in behind the next island just at dusk. We had beans and wieners for dinner, while outside it is raining hard and blowing 20+. The wind generator shows 5 amp charge, the first time we have noticed it.

We can see the lights of Punta Gorda behind us, there are about 4000 souls there of mixed ancestry, Creoles, myans, garafunos, Spanish English, French US and whatever else may have run away from home....

Notes and Remarks:

06:15 Rained hard and blew most of the night, but this AM the sun is out with a vengeance, air temp 80F, winds light 3 - 5 kt from the NW

06:58 hauled anchor, and tried to wend our way out between the shoals, had to turn back several times and eventually take the inside channel along the shore, 15 - 20 ft all the way to the 3ft shoal at PG.

08:25 Anchored south of the wharf, and dinghied ashore to check out of Belize. Lady in a small cantena at head of dock charges BLZ $7.50 to type up 7 copies of our crew list, then we go to across the street to immigration, pay BLZ $7 exit fee, then to Customs across the hall to get our Zarpe.

We walk along the main street, find a resturant "Titanic" upstairs above the market, scrambled eggs and bacon and coffee Americano negra, try the internet café, no luck.., then we head back to the boat, in the rain.

10:30 Hauled anchor, just as another sailboat came in to anchor, "Reverie II" a steel hulled ketch out of Montreal, we circle and chat for a while, then open out our jib and head for the Sarstoon Hills to the west.

12:00 Rain stopped, winds up to 15 from SE, should have loosed the main, ah well only another hour and we will be in Livingston

12:30 See a sail off to port, too far to recognise, looks like a catamaran heading to the reef. Cabos Tres Puntas is clearly visible at 11 o’clock.

13:15 Trying to spot the channel green buoy, suppose someone moved it, again??? finally there it is on the nose. We have to go right up to it, (right up to a green???) keep it to port and turn for the river mouth, and then head for the "red roofed buildings" on the hill..., except someone forgot about the trees which now hide the red roofs, this course will take us over the famous "Livingston Bar".

14:00 Someone called on the VHF, not sure if they were calling us, all we could make out sounded like "do you need help", we didn’t, so we did not answer back, thought maybe they were calling someone else.... There is a shallow bar, called the "Livingston bar", which goes right across the mouth of the bay off the town, there is only 6 ft depth or so, and the port Captain places a marker buoy, the one we are approaching, and the local tow boat operators set it adrift whenever they get a chance, apparently towing yachts across the bar is a thriving business in this area... it happens so often, you can even negociate the price!!!

14:23 we "bellied up to the bar" and crossed in 5.9 ft water, did not even stir up a bit of blood behind us and entered into the anchorage off the town at the mouth of the river. "Shang" was anchored off the Texaco dock so we did the same in 7 ft, mud bottom. Pat said the Port Captain had not come out yet, so we decide to go to him instead.

15:00 We dinghy ashore, walk up the steep hill and do the customs thing. Julio speaks good English and took care of us promptly, Then off to the Port Captains compound. Wow, what a view of the bay and the bar, he can see everything moving in or out the river. In broken English, the port Captain gave us old hell for not answering his radio call, says all boats have to call him on VHF Ch 16 before they enter the river.... We apologized, he accepted and for Q 125 each boat he processed our Zarpe. We then proceeded back over to the main street to the Immigration Office, where they do not speak any english period... Another Q 100 and we are cleared in to Guatemala, walk back down the hill looking for an Internet café, met a young student from Kitchener Ont at the café. On the way back to the Texaco dock and the dinghy, met Nancy from Toronto, who saw our Canadian flag, she says the boat just "looks Canadian" with the red sail covers and dodger!!!

There are many shops with a good selection of souvenirs and goods and many tavernas here, but the prices seem high, we walked through the main hotel, pretty fancy, rates are US$ 98 per night. The people are diverse, a mix of everything, nobody seems out of place here, except one lady we passed on the street, about 7 ft tall head and shoulders over everyone, with a skin tight leopard skin shift affair, hardly anything, and laces for shoes, wow!!! Everyone looks back... Pat says he figures it/she was a man..... Should have done a "Crocodile Dundee" on him... but it was still daylight.

Livingston is like living on an Island everything comes and goes by boat and barge, there are no roads in or out to this town.

18:16 we tied up at La Marina days run 20.23 miles. Have to take the river current into account, we used a stern anchor and went bow in to the small pier, There was a large charter trimaran at the head of the pier. The diverse crew was at the Palapa for supper and drinks

Meet Phil and Coleen from Calgary at La Marina bar, they delivered an ambulance down here from Alberta and are on the trimaran "THAT" heading out to the Sappodilla Cays for a snorkeling charter, Gerry lived only blocks away from Phil in Calgary. Supper (shrimp) and drinks (many many rum) cost US$10. Guillermo and Leroy played ping pong all evening. Guillermo is only one day from home and his mama now.... he is getting excited.

Notes and Remarks:

07:00 eggs over lightly (really, first time since home) at the restaurant, Nice chat with Pam and Dave, who are managing the place trying to build up their cruising kitty, price Q9 about US$1.25 each

09:30 left dock and headed up the river. Losing 1 kt to the river current, Our Nexus boat speed 6.19Kt., GPS over the bottom shows 5.15 Kt. There are many expensive homes with large palm roofs facing Livingston on the west shore, they belong to rich Guatemalans from the city 5 hours inland by bus, but these people fly in by helicopter for weekends.

We enter the Rio Dulce canyon, it goes for the next 5 miles up river, the sides are vertical, in some places away over 400 ft. There are parrots, egrets, monkeys, iguanas, orchids, bromeliads... everything grows in this lush jungle climate. It is said that there were Tarzan movies made along here, there are vines hanging everywhere, but we won’t try them out!!!. There is a lot of small boat traffic, motorized panga ferries and cayugas everywhere. Recently on the river, a large power cruiser ran over a cayuga and went back to see if the young man was hurt. They offered him US$100 bill for his inconvenience, he replied it was not enough, so they gave him 5 x US$ 20, and he paddled away, happy as a clam... We pass alongside a fleet of cayugas, about 50 people all fishing on our starboard side, men, women, children, whole famlies out doing their thing.

10:25 abeam the Rio Taitin, the locals go up this river and use this water to fill up their jugs, on the opposite side is AC Tenamit, a health clinic, womens co-op and school. The local Indian women come here to have their babies and for medical treatment, volunteer yachters are always welcome, there also hand made paper products for sale, and a school.

10:35 entered El Golfete, the first lake, and changed course to 228M heading to Fronteres.

11:40 catamaran approaching, turns out to be Aubisque, Cliff Sr. and Sherry Wilson (who came with us on Animo two weeks ago) and their son Cliff Jr. heading out river returning to Moho Cay, Belize City, no answer, their radio must be off.

11:52 made turn at marker near end of Cuatro Cayos (Island), a lonely hungry pelican watched us closely making the turn.

Passed Mario’s marina on the left, then Animo’s boathouse, then on the next point the Catamaran Hotel, and on port Rosita’s restaurant on the hill, then Monkey Bay , sometimes called "Drag Anchor Bay",(there really are monkeys there). There are no roads around the river to speak of, everything around here is accomplished by boat.

Days run from Livingston to Lube’s wharf 20.26 miles. Guillermo was blowing the conch horn as we rounded the point to the bay... so his mom could hear him coming home. Lube, Guillermo’s older brother has a private wharf which can accommodate 5 boats side to, he has plans to expand. It is situated on the left, in the last bay before the bridge just before you get to Backpackers. Lube and his wife Emi have a small 1 yr old boy Diego, that is the centre of their lives. Emi welcomed us with a large pitcher of iced sweetened watermelon juice, within minutes, Lube hooked us up to power and cable TV. Lube built an overhanging roof over his patio, and we now have a patio table and chairs since we were here two weeks ago, and ... the new shower stall is up and running with instant hot water.

Fronteres can best be described as a real Guatemalan wild west frontier town, with an ultra modern concrete single span highway bridge built by the US Corps of Engineers, right through the middle. The river is actually situated on a geological fault, one side moves up while the other moves down. They are presently reinforcing the west end of the span on the bridge and are running new pre-tension wire, just like our bridge, so the single span will not fall down. Found a sail repair guy, Stuart on Misto Listo to repair our bimini, Q80. Looks good, glad we brought extra materiel...

Wednesday, November 28, 2001, Gave Lube our laundry, he says mama would do it for us. Dinghied over to the east side walked to the bank, got Q1000, that is all they allow per customer per day... Tried the internet café, Marlena, with a smile to charm your socks off, is the manager and speaks English (enough). Thought my stuff was going through, but when we retrieved mail, everything came back "Mail Administrator reject".... damm. Back to the drawing board. Little did we know that just around the corner on the main drag, there was a bank robbery taking place, as a matter of fact, not just one bank but two banks across the street from each other at the same time!!!, an English lady getting money on the Banco Commerciale got caught up in the middle and related her experience over the VHF Net the next AM, says she had to lie on the floor, and stay until the police came from Guatemala City. Moral of the story: before going into the bank, make sure the floors are clean in case you have to lie on them for 5 hours waiting for the police....

Thursday November 29, 2001 Dick’s birthday!!! Mama (we figure she has to be all of 45 years old) is doing laundry, hip deep in the river, on a well worn slab of broken cement, every time we walk by she gives us a smile, I guess happy to get some income. As we watched, she would scrub a shirt on the rock, lift it for inspection, and if not satisfied go at it again, more soap and a brush!!!. All the women do their laundry in the river, gives them a chance to catch up on all the local gossip and latest news... Leroy and Dick dink back to Marlena’s internet café, still no satisfactory results. Tried Captain Nemo’s at Bruno’s Marina, young lad there got us hooked up in minutes, at a cost of Q50, internet time there is Q1 per minute, twice the price of Marlena’s. Got some stuff back, apparently we have a bad e-mail address for Boilys, Paul Doran and a few others, but still no mail "in". Jerry went over to Shang, Dick not feeling well, stomach cramps, slept 2 hours during the afternoon, at dusk Dick and Leroy dinghy off down river to Mario’s Cayuga club for supper, Sirloin Tips, mashed potato for Q24, and then up to Hacienda Tijax for a late night (20:00hr) rhum, then back to Whitecap and bed. Got our laundry back.... Mr. Maytag has been put to shame!!!, the whites were white, and all our grimy tee shirt necks were white again like new, folded and ironed!!! all for Q90, Really do not know if I want my silk shirts done this way...

Friday, November 30, 2001 02:00 The stomach cramps have finally turned into diarrhoea!!! Dick climbs out of the quarter berth, into the cockpit, over the deck, up to the dock, runs to the small closet toilet on the walkway by the house, squeezing his rear cheeks all the way.... open the door, back in and relief!!! wow that was close... After 15 minutes, still holding the door open because there in no light he hears something, turns out to be Lube’s young 20 year old sister, she has her panties around her knees and is backing in to the small cubicle... Dick coughs... A scream... Never saw her again.... During the night two more trips to the head, same thing, except no young ladies.... could not go anywhere all day, slept all afternoon, had a beer and a piece of chicken for supper, back to bed slept the whole night through.....

Saturday, December 1, 2001 Went to Mar Marine, looking for new fishing lure, had a problem getting by the guard at the gate, seems to think the only people allowed to do business here have to come by water not the street. Still have cramps but diarrhoea gone. Make plans to move Shang’s new mast materiel tomorrow early and then head up Lago Izabel to the hot falls. Loud noise on next dock... turns out the lady of the house has two turkeys, tethered to, of all things, an old car battery, she is hosing them down and they are just standing there under the hose cackling away loudly...

Sunday, December 2, 2001, Early start, but have to wait for the "lumber police" approval before we can carry the wood across the street.... Lube had to show Police the receipt where Pat had purchased the mahogany in Belize. In Guatemala no individuals are allowed to cut wood, except on their own property, permits are only passed out to certain people.... All the lumber trucks going over the bridge are stopped and their papers inspected!!! We finally got permission, and carried all the pieces across the road under the bridge to a small empty house Pat rented to store and dry the mahogany.

10:30 We pack up lunch and head out on Shang for the 12 mile run around the Castillo San Filipe to Finca Paraiso, or Heavenly Farm, where the hot water falls are located. We arrive after a 3 hour run up wind, and for Q85 we contracted a ride in a trailer towed by a farm tractor (no one laugh, the seats were made of 2 x 8 teak!!!) for the 2 miles inland trip to the falls, a short walk brought us to a pool with a cool river flowing through and hot waterfall from above. The waterfall was so hot you could not stand under, but standing in different spots in the river stream, anyone could find a comfortable place. Arrived back to Lube’s wharf after dark, Emi had a spaghetti and meat sauce dinner all ready for us, complete with birthday cake for Dick’s and Lube’s birthdays...

Monday, December 3, 2001 Wake up to rain, On this AM’s 07:30 VHF Net Frank and Denise have returned to their Morgan 41 OI "Cursail" at Susanna’s Marina. We met them in Moho Caye last spring and had a great discussion about Canada taking on two more provinces. Must go over and say Hi, and explain that her "new provinces" are the new Territories, Ikaluit and..... ?????? the other one.... when goverment decided to split up the North West Territories.

Leroy and Gerry head out in the dink to the bank, they come back frustrated, the line up is 2 hrs long and they only let 2 people inside at a time now. Dick heads out to Backpackers to try their network internet café, in the rain. Forgot the network cable!!! had to walk all the way back. Met Ray the skipper off "Fleur des Isles II", says he is coming into Lube’s wharf, as soon as Poala (Chaos) leaves, he is from Montreal and has been out for 8 years.

Spend the evening on Lube’s patio, showing PEI digital computer pictures to Lube and Emi. Emi makes two large dishes of popcorn.

19:00 Time to think about supper... 10:15 still thinking about supper, call Backpackers on the VHF, they have tortilla pizzas, finally decide to walk there, the rain has let up. Ordered our food, met up a young couple Chris and Jeannie from Dublin, who started their two year trip in Peru, and did the Pacific coast to Mexico, and are now heading back south on the Atlantic side, eventually they are to end up in Brasil where they will fly to Australia for year 2. They are doing all this with their backpacks on "chicken Busses".... We finally walk back to the boat and turn in at 23:30.

Tuesday December 4, 2001, Finally got "mail in", we were right, all the mail was going to the home machine, thanks Bill. Price of cervesa went up today from Q8 to Q 12, at Backpackers, they say government tax.... It’s the talk of the town.... A lady on one of the anchored yachts in the bay, the one with the two big dogs that they take swimming daily, was badly burned today when an aerosol can exploded in a burning trash barrel on a small island in the river where they have been getting rid of their garbage, she stayed on board all day waiting for her husband to come back, he rushed her to the hospital in Morales 30 miles away.

Wednesday, December 5, 2001 Banco day, Dick and Gerry dinghy to town, stop at Backpackers to check mail-in, then across the river to Bruno’s dock, walk to the bank, got Q1000, that should do until we leave for home, have to pay Lube $US90 for the month, walk down to the market, meet Cookie and Lou from "Yankee Girl" they tell us the cheapest place to buy cervesa by the case, buy some nice tomatoes, and a knock off tape of Selena, now we have a third tape!!! adding to the "Sound of Music" and "Rita MacNeill", find lady selling fresh shrimp, buy 4lbs middle finger size for Q70 (US$9.), starts to rain again, duck into to the "Crow Bar", apparently, this is where the "been everywhere" yachties sort of hang out, it is owned by Jeff a v big salt and pepper bearded American psychologist, who cooks real North American style hamburgers on a barbeque. Cookie and Lou come in and intro us around, we have each a beer and listen hard. Rain lets up, we walk as far as Bruno’s, all of 500 ft, rain again, have a beer and wait it out. Finally head across the river, decide to try Suzanna’s Lagoona look for Frank and Denise on Cursail, no luck they are in town. Met Gerry Brukman the owner at the bar, and his sister Elaine a lawyer from San Francisco, raining very heavy, so we have a of rhum and coke, and it is not even noon yet!!! Finally the rain lets up and we head over to Chichi’s tienda on the way home, pick up beer and bread in that order, now we have the technology to make BLT sandwiches... Finally get back to Whitecap, Leroy wondered where we got to, he was waiting for us to have a noon beer!!!. Cooked, and put 2 packs shrimp in our freezer for later. Watched the labour intensive pile driving process next door, only 3 left to put down, watch movie, and head out to Backpackers for a pizza at 20:00.

Thursday, December 6, 2001 Busy day again today, after breakfast Dick walked to Backpackers to send e-mails, sitting in the next chair is Nancy from Toronto, who we met in Livingston, she is on a boat "Talisman" at Suzanna’s they were dismasted in Big Creek in the hurricane and are looking for a way to get their mast pieces up here. Met up with Beryl and Darrick on "Rotuma", an English couple trying to start their outboard, just would not go, too wet. Dick volunteered to go get our dinghy and tow them to Mario’s Marina. Walked back to Whitecap, got the dink, back to Backpackers hooked on and towed their dinghy behind, they could not believe our 4.2 HP could tow them so fast.... Half way over, the rain came down, down heavy..... By the time we got to Marios everything and everyone was wet wet, said good byes, and headed over to Animo’s dock around the point, Shad just arrived back from Costa Rica recognized our dinghy and invited Dick aboard Animo.... cold wet, cold wet, turned cold cold... she is air conditioned... needed rhum to warm up, again only noon hour!!! Two days in a row. Shad has his cruiser "Fasher" for sale Dick tells him Sandy MacPherson knows a potential buyer, called Moho Caye on Shad’s cel, talked to Linda and Sandy told them Whitecap would not be back for Christmas,. Called home no answer, then Summerside Yacht Club on Animo’s new sat phone, wow!! maybe someday.... Back to Whitecap, change to dry clothes, type up the sales brochure, dinghy to Bruno’s, scan in the pictures, back to Backpackers send out the info to Sandy by e-mail, dinghy down to Rosita’s for supper, "Chicken steak" hum hum good, then back to "Animo" with hamburgers for the security guards, then back to Whitecap for a nightcap, Shad gets a call has to go, will meet tomorrow....

Humor of the day, compliments of Shad: An American guy Jim was deeply in love, decided his love was so great he had her name tattooed on his private part. When it was aroused you could read "Wendy", when not, you could only see "WY". One day Jim was standing at a urinal in Belize, he noticed the man next had "WY" also tattooed on his privates. Jim said: "you must have a girlfriend named Wendy". The Belizean answered: "hell no",mine says: "Welcome to Belize mon, have a nice day".

Friday, December 7, 2001. Start the day right today, coffee and Kahlua, Paid Lube US$ 100for 5 weeks, will fix up any balance in January when we come back.. Today is "Devil’s Day" they burn effigies and set off firecrackers everywhere, each house tries to "out jones" the neighbors. Well "Devils day" turned out to be the real thing. Shad called from Animo around 17:30 and came over, gave him the e-mail from Belize expressing interest in his sportfisher. The excitement started in the roadway just above us at 18:00, first one effigy stuffed with sawdust and loaded with firecrackers was set afire, attracting a crowd of people and animals, then up the hill the next one started, then all along the highway, then over on the other side of the river, it was all over in half hour except for small bonfires all over the place. On Dec 12, Guatemalans celebrate "Virgin’s Day" , I wonder what they do that night!!

Off we went in Animo’s launch to Rio Bravo Resturante for beer and pizza, then up the alley to the Crow Bar for a beer, but he was sold out of beer, did rhum instead.... then back across the river to Backpackers, where it appears everyone ends up on Friday night until closing. Said our good byes to Shad, as he is off to Miami at 07:00, will not see him again until January or February, probably at Moho Caye.

Saturday, December 8, 2001. Meet Al Perry, a friend of Lube’s from Los Angeles, Leroy and Gerry head out to town for a bank run, forget t o tell them to pick up lettuce for our BLT’s this aft. Everyone slept the night through, it seems cooler at night now that the rain has stopped. Yachter’s Swap meet at Mario’s this AM, dinghy over, then over to Monkey Bay but no monkeys today... What to do tonight?? Lots of choices, according to this AM VHF net, Chicken drop at Suzanna’s, steak night at Mario’s, everyone has something going on Saturday. Ended up staying on board, watched movies Titanic and Angela’s Ashes instead.

Sunday, December 9, 2001. Cleaned and re-greased the port Lewmar 30, still a little stiff but better. Lube working on his new boat, got stuck in the slip hauling it out with Al’s truck. Lazy day today, read, sleep, read sleep.... then sleep read..... Rained v hard during night, had to close hatches and put towel over laptop just in case.

Monday, December 9, 2001. Sun trying to peek through, heard Carlos on the Net this AM sounded like "Soggy Paws" was going to use his van US$ 160 to Belize City, sounds high but we should check with him anyway. Turns out this amount is the total for the van no matter how many passengers up to 10. Perhaps it will save us an overnight in Flores... checked it out, will not work out for us, "Soggy Paws" crew wish to go on Wednesday, we prefer Sat or Sunday... for our Monday flight, but perhaps we can find someone else that may wish to go.

Tuesday December 10, 2001. Rained again during the night, seems this is a regular event here, but the river is still 1 ft lower than normal. Still misty rainey in the morning, stayed in the bunk until 09:30 reading LeCarre’s "The Constant Gardener", am half way through, Tessa has been murdered and the investigation is in full swing.... Every now and then we think of some item to add to our bring back list, this AM it was an "in line" switch for the 12 volt fan... Checked with Carlos at Aitilan Shuttle, he now has 6 passengers including us for 07:00 Saturday for Belize City, brings the costs down to under US$30 pp not bad for a direct comfortable run.

Wednesday, December 11, 2001, Well well no rain last night, and a bright sunny day today; 08:30 and the air temp is already 87F. Not much happening on the VHF net this AM. Pat is leaving today, off to Belize City for his Saturday flight to Miami, has his boxes all wrapped in plastic with rope handles, hope the customs do not want anything opened... We started to put things in the big black hockey bag this AM for home. This afternoon, Gerry and Dick head over to Tortugal Marina for lunch, then Suzanna’s, then Backpackers, call Leroy on the VHF, he wondered where we got to. Meet Angie, who appears to have something to do with the place. The staff keep come over asking questions. Over the next few hours and several rhums, Angie enlightened us. Turns out she is the "Mother Theresa" of "Casa Guatemala"the orphanage just down the river, and "Backpackers" which is a hotel of sorts, internet café, restaurant and bar, is a money making work in progress, the profits from which helps support the orphanage. Backpackers is staffed by a few locals and any number of "volunteers" who pay a fee to live and work here; actually a good deal for them as most are students getting university credits for Spanish and also for the social services training they are getting. There seemed to be a lot of hands in the till, but Angie claims by 06:00 she has the daily sales report and inventory sheets and they are never "short"...., hope they are never "over" a sure sign of something.... After her husband passed away 30 years ago in Honduras, she set her sons up to manage the family foundry, and she took off traveling through Europe. In Italy, she traded her suitcases for a new invention, which you could use to carry your belongings on your back, (hence the name backpackers???) and kept traveling. she returned to Central America and 26 years ago in the city started "Casa Guatemala", there were all kinds of orphan kids in the streets and she started to take them in. The operation grew and grew without any government funding, existing on donations, gifts and what they could beg or borrow only. About 10 years ago she moved her operation to the Rio Dulce and settled on a piece of land donated by one of the small villages but claimed by a rich Guatemalan. She won her fight for the land, but her rich opponent came in with a small army of armed guards and workers, and took all the soil away, so the Casa is situated on a river front piece of swamp land... The "Casa" school now also teaches the neighboring village children up to grade six. The "Casa" also has a farm where they raise chickens for eggs and food and pigs for meat, the surplus is sold in their "meat market" in the marketplace in Fronteres, the manager there is a young Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia volunteer named Heather. We had heard on the VHF net that they were looking for volunteers to paint newly being constructed bunk beds, and we volunteered our day tomorrow to help. Angie tells us to be at Backpackers at 09:00.

Thursday December 13, 2001. 09:30 Leroy holds down the fort, Gerry, Dick and Angie leave from the dock in the "Casa Guatemala" panga, a ferry boat used to transport goods and people back and forth, Angie translates us a newspaper article in todays "Prensa Libre" telling the story of a container load of supplies donated from England destined for the orphanage. Apparently, it has been held up by government bureaucracy since mid October as successions of various departments wish to see the contents (read loot???) and blaming the problems on improper paperwork... Angie has stirred some animosity trying to get it released, the newspaper article may stir up more... she figures she should lay low for a few days. There has already been 3 attempts on her life over the years and she usually has an armed guard at her side. We get the personalized grand tour of the under construction new girls dorm, this is where the 100 new bunk beds are going. An older building stood in this spot and was badly damaged by an earthquake. The building was unusable and a hazzard to the children, several years ago a group of visiting British SAS decided to tear it down, they chain sawed all the pilings underneath. After several fruitless days, the building was still up and the SAS were gone.... Then a group of US Marines came along, they wanted to blow the place up but could not get permission..., after several days and many futile attempts, they also left and the hazzard was still standing, kind of hard to believe, and these are the same guys that are presently on the ground in Afghanistan... Recently a group of yachters from Monkey Bay Marina, came over with "come-alongs" and rope, and in 19 minutes everything was on the ground... The property was cleaned up, and now a new 100 x 100 ft 2 storey building with tiled showers and all the latest is almost complete except for the roof,. The first floor is for the 2 to 11 year olds and second floor is for the 12 to 18 year old girls. There is only one main door, no fire escape, Angie says after lights out they have trouble with the older boys trying to get to the older girls dorm.... We continue on to the "bunk factory", a roofed over soccer court and play area, the small kids play while we paint... and we meet Mecca and George from "Sailabout" who are volunteering their services (five days week 09:00 to 16:00 and free lunch) to the bunk bed project, as a matter of fact, so far, they have done all the work themselves from cutting the pieces, side assembly and now to painting and final assembly and finishing. Mecca gives us each a brush and a half gallon of paint, mixing some blue with some red and a touch of white ended up being mauve. Well, the donated oil based paint for some reason has water in it.... and is terrible stuff, it just will not stick, we soon find that you put it on thick and do not overbrush it or it comes off!!! By noon we each have one bunk frame finished. Break for lunch in the cafeteria, George tells us they serve 600 meals daily, 7 days a week here. There are two ladies in the kitchen, that do nothing except make taco shells. Dinner was served on a war assets pressed stainless steel tray and consisted of two taco shells, a spoonful of rice and some string beans, Mecca brought along a bottle of habanero sauce which made the whole thing go down easier... to drink we had sweetened water with oatmeal, not my favorite.... Next time we will bring our own water. On the floor in the cafeteria a young German volunteer was cutting material to cover the foam mattress for all the new beds. Dinner over in 15 minutes, and we head back to the paint project, we pass by Angie with a flock of kids sitting on a doorstep, Dick asks her where her paintbrush is and she answered "no paintbrush, I carry a wip". The young Dutch boy walking with us mumbles something about how true that is....

By 16:00 Gerry and Dick have painted 5 complete bunk beds, two green, one blue, one mauve and one peach and have the colours on their tees to prove it.... We catch the panga to town, 18 people on board and not one life jacket to be seen... we tell the driver that in Canada the sentence would be 2 years in prison for each missing life jacket, and he would have to serve 36 years of hard labour. He says this is Guatemala...

Friday, December 14, 2001 Start to pack up our big black bag, and clean up the boat, tomorrow AM we will vacuum and get the laundry together , so we can have a fresh start when we return in January. Have to check with Carlos the Shuttle guy, apparently he only has 5 passengers.... making a charge of US$ 30+ each, still a bargain to Belize City. Lift dinghy on to the foredeck and clean the bottom, Suzuki 4.2 and Honda gen set go into Lube’s locked storage shed. Invite Ray, on Fleur des Isles II, for supper on Lube’s deck and have the last of our frozen t-bone steaks complete with oven baked potato, onions and mushrooms and halapineo peppers sliced real thin fried in butter.

Saturday, December 15, 2001 05:45 up and about, pack the last bag, shower, bag up all the laundry for mama to do while we are gone, Vacuum everything, turn off all the electric except the inverter battery charger. Give Lube a last tour and instructions, he is to pump the bilge each AM and PM when he opens and closes the boat up. I will send further instructions by e-mail for our January return. Carlos and his driver Hermanio arrive with the van at 06:50 and we load up. Two other passengers, Gerry and Janice were at the well secure Banana Palms Resort a four star near the Castillo US$89 dble, turns out we met the same Colorado couple over lunch at Bruno’s just last week, they are only going as far as Tikal. We have a nice ride but very heavy rains heading into the mountains, not much traffic, only 5 in a 10 passenger van and the road is good. At the Peten border check station we picked up a young lady (the lady friend of one of the police??? driver making brownie points???), she was headed to Flores. Peten is Guatemala’s largest and most northern province and transporting apples, pears, coffee beans and limes "in" is not allowed. The young lady gets a drive at the turn off to Flores and we continue to Tikal.

11:45 At the Tikal State Park gate, there is a Q50 per day fee for all visitors to enter the park, our driver successfully argues with the mean looking machine gun toting guards, that he is only dropping off 2 passengers and then taking 3back out heading for the Belize border. This gives us a chance to see a bit of the Park, our friends have a room at the "Jaguar Inn" a kind of upscale backpacker place with private cabanas & baths, we get a grand tour, definitely a place to come back to. Buy a Milky Way chocolate bar (do not usually eat sweets but the first food of the day) say goodbye to our new friends and head off for the border, another 100 miles or so. The last 40 miles is dirt road, recently rained on and greasy. Our van cannot cross the border, the driver does not have proper Belize insurance papers, as Carlos already informed us, so we unload, do the Guatemala Immigration "out" thing, walk across the parking lot, do the Belize Immigration and then Customs "in"thing, all the while being harassed by an aggressive Belizean taxi driver who wants to charge us US$75 to Belize City. We repeatedly refuse his offers, he must think we are "just off the turnip truck". We see a Novello bus in the lot, ask the driver, he takes us to the village bus depot, about 5 minutes away, and we board the "chicken bus" for Belize City for the grand charge of US$2.75 pp. Not bad, only early afternoon and we have already saved about US$65....

16:50 After 59 stops in 3 hrs and 20 minutes, we arrive at the Novello bus terminal in Belize city; taxi to Pat’s recommended Mar Hotel, only room they had was a single bed, not large enough for three of us, the place next door just had a fire and looked like a death trap, so we directed our taxi to the "Hotel Chateau Carribean" US$89 for three, next door to the Fort George Radisson. Rooms clean, complete bath, 3 beds and 100 channel cable TV, we are in paradise... after only 11 Spanish channels on Whitecap... We were able to see the latest Bin Laden bragging tape for the first time. A quick trip to the chinese store takes care of the rhum and coke thing and we can relax... Time to call home tell them where we are. Cannot confirm our reservations, the Continental desk is closed for the weekend. Supper consisted of combination fish platter on a steaming hot plate, conch, lobster tail, shrimp, whitefish in a wine sauce while sitting at the bar. Gerry says one of his top 20 ever!!!. We remark there is one bartender and one cashier, Backpackers on the Rio could learn from this...

Sunday, December 16, 2001. Leroy as usual, up and gone for his smoke by 06:30, Our cable TV does not work for the news, desk operator says someone broke a pole last night and they are "fix’n him up"????? Walk over to Barclays Bank by the Swing Bridge get BZE $ 300. Decide to take the water taxi over to Caye Caulker for the afternoon, got tickets on the 12:00 for BZE$ 25return. Star Tour Ferry powered with 2 x 200hp Yamahas had 38 passengers on board, First stop after the run through Porto Stuck was Long Cay to drop off a family of 4passengers, Long Cay was devastated by hurricane Mitch a few years ago; next stop Cay Chapel to pick up one passenger, then Caye Caulker, all in about 45 minutes, takes us almost a whole day on Whitecap for the same run... disembarked most passengers then the ferry continued on to San Pedro, another 10 miles. We walk the length of the village, all the way to the "Lazy Lizard", bare feet like the locals, no pave on Caye Caulker. Met Edward, a big black guy with a "Wave Dancer" shirt on, he tells us he had friends who drowned on her so out of respect he wears this shirt on Sundays. Dick remembers him, from Moho Caye, he is now the skipper on the Dept of Fisheries patrol vessel "Lutganus". Walk back to Popeye’s for "baked potato with cheese and bacon" and beer. Gerry met a guy Paul Keizer who was on the same ferry, turns out he is an Continental employee on a 5 day holiday with his son and daughter. The waitress brings the bill, we are the only occupied table in the place, the bill is made out to "three old men", we ask if she really expected a tip?? We catch the 17:00 run back to Belize City.

Monday December 17, 2001 06:40 Woke to strange noise, turned out to be heavy rain on the tin roof of the hotel, and did it rain!!! Called Randy Parmeter at Moho caye, he biked over. Gerry has a bottle of the finest Guatemalan rhum he wanted, 23 yrs old and supposedly the best rhum in the world, you drink it neat, just like cognac. Called Lisa, the only lady cab driver in Belize. Dick met her when he was looking for parts a month ago and she drove him all over the city looking for a new choke cable. Lisa picks us up at 11:00, says she hopes we are not flying American Airlines as "dey like ta falla frum da sky". We have non stop commentary all the way to the airport, from her experience flying to New York and having twins only 6 days later "dey is Americans" she says, to her problems with a 13 yr old daughter who is ashamed to admit her mother is a lowly taxi driver, and who climbs up on the roof of their house and will not come down..... Lisa says: I no hafta lay on me back to buy dem good clothes". We get to the airport 3hours ahead of the flight time, and have to wait 2 ½ hours!!! on hard seats...

Arrive Houston, rush to the next terminal for our Newark flight, arrive Newark at 23:00 get a shuttle van to Econo Lodge US$55 for night including free coffee and donuts in the morning.... Only problem, somehow the top of our rhum bottle somehow came loose and everything spilled out, so we only had enough for one nightcap.

Tuesday December 18,2001 Up and at it at 07:00, shuttle to airport, new rules say at least 3 hours before flight time, and we end up waiting 2 ½ hours again. At least the seats are softer... Arrive Halifax, gather up bags and get sent to the customs inspection line, lady wanted to know why we did not have liquor, I answered we did, but it spilled out.... Leroy got stuck with the new $10. tax on a carton of cigarettes (which only cost him $6.00). Mary and Caroline were waiting, wonder if Gerry made it to Charlottetown yet???

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone, expect to be heading back on Jan 11 and do the reverse trip to the Rio Dulce..