WHITECAP's

SAILING

EXCURSION

Rio Dulce, Guatemala

March 21, 2004 - April 11, 2004

Sunday, April 11, 2004. 08:00, all is well this morning, air temp 92F already. Luvi tells us two Lancha operators were found floating in the gorge, their boats are missing, must have been a turf war or something, at least it is two we do not have to worry about. Emi tells us that last evening the Catamaran Hotel ferry was involved in an accident on the river, glad we decided not to go to Casa Perico for dinner last night.
Walked to Backpackers for e-mail, met Angie on the street, she has a walker to move around, her leg is all bandaged up, she was hit by a taxi in the city 2 months ago and her ankle was broken in several places. The river is quiet this morning, but the sky is busy, private planes and helicopters arriving to pick up families for the trip to Guate city.
Spent most of the day scrubbing/hosing the bilge and the cabin floor and everything in between, including Mary who would not get up from the dinette table reading e-mails. Finally got rid of that black oil in the bilge.
14:30 "Tides End", Reg and Gail out of Vancouver, just arrived and tied up behind Whitecap. They left here in December, and sailed up the Mexican coast as far as Isla Mujeres, where they spent 6 weeks and now have returned to the Rio and luve's dock for storage and the hurricane season, while they return home.
Called Alan on "Starsong", he is back from the city and Antigua, asked if he would like to meet us for dinner at Bruno's, says he will be there, the visiting lady friend from the US thing is not working out, she would prefer the Med and air conditioning, she is going back to the US on Tuesday.
16:00 Dinghy to Bruno's for pork chop/cob of corn /sausage/salad b'bque, all for Q35 and Mary and Dick shared. Here is a picture of the "last supper crowd" (appropiate for the Easter season), Mary, Alan, Wahaka Bob, Terry, Kookie, Carolyn and LeRoy. No picture of Dick... he gets to be the photographer.
Two people were injured in that boating accident on the river last night, the Catamaran Hotel boat t'boned a speeding lancha, and the Catamaran Hotel boat had lights!!!
Luvi says we can store our dinghy in the house, and the 4.2 Suzuki on a rack on the side of the walkway, so we will not have to worry about these two things for the summer.
Two options for our trip to the city, Monica, the young lady who manages Bruno's, tells us the 1st class Maya del Oro "directo" bus from Flores to Guate City, goes through Fronteres daily, it is Q100 (US$12) per person. There is also Mario's Marina van for US$25/per which may be going also.
Monday, April 11, 2004 03:50 Air temp 89F and nary a breeze anywhere except for our two fans. Our last full day on the Rio. Almost everything we are taking home is in our two large bags, we just have to sort it all and pack properly when we get to the city.
The Mario's van plan did not work out, it is going on Wednesday. Dick dinghys to town, buys two tickets on the Maya del Oro leaving at 1PM Tuesday, have to be at the bus stop half hour before. Meet LeRoy and Jim on "Pathfinder" at Bruno's, Jim suggests the Sevilla as an alternative hotel to the Spring, it is cheaper and he says nicer, we will take a look.
Lou and King are on their way back into the river, the delivery boat has battery charging and fuel problems they will have to get repaired before they go back out.
Dinghy back to Whitecap, Mary says Alan on "Starsong" was just here, invited us to " Dim Sum for lunch ," off we go. When will we get to eat the 2 lbs of peel and eat shrimp Dick cooked yesterday, just too busy....
Back to Whitecap, remove the Suzuki from the dinghy transom and lift it to the house deck, Luvi is going to chain it to the railing. Luvi's younger brother Guillermo takes the dinghy to shore and scrubs her down with soap and brush, when we come back from our last trip to Chiqui's Sunset bar the dink is clean and ready for "storage above Emi's kitchen " on the ceiling beams above the computer desk inside the house. Manana, we have to pick up our starter from Julio (if it is ready), re-install it and start the engine. Then remove the SS exhaust riser to take home (18 lbs) and have a new one built. If we cannot get the starter LeRoy will have to pick it up later.
Tuesday, April 12, 2004. Beautiful lightning display all night, rain and thunder only started around 04:30. This is the first rain we have had since we came back up the river and it should cool everything off for awhile.
06:40 Cloudy and raining, air temp 82F, bay flat calm. time to get our last packing done. Cannot get in touch with Julio, so the starter will have to be picked up later. LeRoy and Carolyn come over for coffee on "Yankee Girl". Remove the exhaust riser, get all dirty black again.... time for shower and something to eat, peel and eat shrimp with home made cocktail sauce make a perfect late breakfast.
12:00 Luvi takes us across the river to the Rio Bravo dock, this is closest to the bus stop. Our bags are really too heavy, will have to buy another bag in the city to spread the load around better. Sit at "the bus stop" for 3/4 hour, absorbing the diesel smoke and smells from all the passing traffic, everything going or coming from the Yucatan, Belize and Tikal in the Peten Department has to pass by here, this is the only highway and it goes right through town.
13:00 Bus leaves on time, first stop is 20 minutes at the Morales junction, 30 miles away. Next stop is unscheduled, there is a transport truck upside down on the highway about 50 miles further, we sit in an air conditioned bus, with the engine turned off so there is no air conditioning any more!!! An hour later traffic starts to move again. Then we have a half hour stop at the junction of the Chiquimula highway (goes to Honduras and Copan) and then another stop an hour later at El Ranchero Junction to pick up passengers coming from Coban. We finally arrive in the city at 19:45 this is supposed to be a directo 5 hour ride.... and taxied to the Sevilla for a look, Dick says he prefers the " Hotel Spring " .
Wednesday, April 13, 2004. spent the morning at the 3 level 500 stall underground market behind the cathederal. It is amazing how much this market has improved in the 3 years we have been coming here, it is cleaner and brighter, the quality of the products is much better, and many of the young ladies speak very good English and they will bargain.
14:30 Dinner at the "Europa" after we finally find it, but their corned beef and cabbage specialty is sold out for the day. Walk all the way back to the Hotel Spring time for a rest and shower.
Meet "Gary Loo and his son Steven" from Kensington PEI, in the hotel lobby, they and 5 other Island tradesmen have been working up in the mountains 50 miles (a 4 hour drive) beyond Coban for the last month, building a new school in a native village. They are travelling on the same flights back to PEI. Gary was one of the carpenters building Richard and Maureen's house 9 years ago.
Thursday, April 15, 2004. Guate City is a lot cooler than the Rio, had to use a blanket last night. Taxi picks us up at 10:15 for the Q65 trip to the airport where we do the security thing and meet up with one of the cashew salesmen from the Rio here in the city airport selling cashews, these guys travel around!!!
12:35 Our Flight to Houston leaves 15 minutes late but arrives in Houston 10 minutes early.
16:45 Flight to Newark leaves 30 minutes late, but also arrives early, good stern winds. Weather cold but we do not see any snow yet. Phone several hotels, but the only room available is at the Econo Lodge, located in a seedy area of Elizabeth, NJ, seems this is the only place we have been able to get rooms for the last three trips through here....
Friday, April 16, 2004. Air temp 56F, cold but no frost. Our flight leaves Newark for Halifax at 12:30, so we catch the 09:30 complimentary hotel van, lots of time for something to eat at the airport.
15:30 Arrive Halifax, snow and ice all around, Customs does not even bother with us, but we have to carry our bags, all 220 lbs, by ourselves as there are no available carts!!!
Evan is waiting for us for the drive home, he drove to Halifax this AM to deliver Greg and Donna Bowles for their flight to Florida. Lots of ground snow and a snow/ice storm in the Cobequid Pass, the trees are all covered in ice and bent over, nice to come home to!!!

WHITECAP
- Monday, April 19, 2004 at 06:16:49 (EDT)

Tuesday, April 6, 2004 06:00 Someone just whizzed by in a jetski between us and the public dock, made a turn by Luvi's house and went back out full speed waking us up.. well... Tutti probably made as much noise barking at him. Looks like another cloudy day today. Air temp 82F. Good morning for Mary to clean under the galley propane stove.... Fixed the leak in the pot and pan locker under the port fwd gate stantion, at least we hope we fixed it, took out the 4 bolts and re-bedded everything. Fixed the spinnaker haillard by winching the haillard backwards, something went snap up top, but it seems to be all right now, at least Dick did not have to go up top... yet.
Chiqui's store, usually closed on Tuesdays, is open today, we walked by there on the way back from Backpackers internet, Don Chiqui must have an eye on all this extra Semina Sancta business... Have never seen so many Mercedes, BMW, Explorer, Toyota, Lexus and all the other makes SUV's in one place ever, also, never seen so many boats on the river, it is just constant traffic, even Cocaine Carlos, with all his gold chains dangling, is out there jet sking around.
Dinghy to town for veggies, Bruno's restaurant is full and the pool also. Meet a new Canadian, Louise from Montreal kind of backpacking/bumming around, she is headed to Isla Mujeres on a US boat next week. Tomorrow, Lou and King are sailing "Dalliance" a Valiant 40 to Pensacola Florida, the owners, Harold and Ginger, have purchased property there and do not plan coming back to the Rio, this was the couple that we met last year, who each had an artificial leg, one from a shooting (he was a policeman) and the other from cancer.
Planned on b'bque kabobs tonight but Mary not feeling up to it, so dinner was a can of bar clams (the last one) for Dick and cup of soup for Mary....
Wednesday, April 7, 2004. Again the day started cloudy, but air temp 89F, going to be a hot one today. LeRoy comes over at 09:00, we clean up the battery contacts, Mercedes still will not turn over, we take off the starter, clean it up, cannot figure what is wrong.
The campers return from Livingston and unload all their gear off the lanchas into the waiting truck. The little dock has never been so busy, the lanchas are lined up two deep on both sides.
Big excitement of the day, someone showing off in a small airplane near the local private airstrip downriver, comes in for a landing, forgets to put the landing gear down and goes belly in!!! Big effort, got to get it off the strip before the private jets start in for the day. Apparently, we hear, they just pushed it off to the side, with a front end loader... wonder if it is the same cowboy who flew under the bridge the other day???
LeRoy and Dick dinghy off to town with the starter heading for Julio the Mechanico shop, he says "tres houre y media, hoi". We taxi back to town. Veggie market has fresh string beans, Dick buys 2 lbs for Mary.... Mary loves green beans....
Next big news on the street, someone runs up to LeRoy, Carolyn has jumped off the bridge.... Turns out Steve from Bruno's has organised bungie jumps from the top of the bridge span at US$40, it is 100 ft from the railing to the river , they pull them back up using a truck and a pulley system. Carolyn (now or never) got a freebie for being the first one of the day, when we met her on the street she says she had rubber legs and her heart was in her throat... She went back to the motel.
15:30 (tres houre y media) Call Julio, starter not ready yet, "manana", he says; the manana word in Central America only means "not today". Getting worried, everything closes for Semina Sancta, the banks closed at noon today until Monday, does Julio close also??. Dick dinghies back to Whitecap, quick shower, and back to Bruno's with Mary for the Wednesday night b'bque steak, Q50 not bad considering we ask for an extra plate and two potatos and share the 12 oz steak and salad. Temperature reached 98F today, so much for a cloudy day.
Thursday, April 8, 2004. 08:00 Bright and sunny, this is going to be a real hot one. Air temp 92F. Fred on "Nauti 2" the Islander 39 that was at Tortugal last year, is heading out the river for Florida, he plans to sell her, buy a larger boat, and return to the river. Fred and his friend Ed the Brit on "Oberon" yack ("where are you now?", they should just look out the window.) on the radio all morning, it was a relief when they finally went into the Golfete and out of radio range!!
Thought about the burned out lower bilge pump, time to take it out, Dick talking to himself "should I test it first? just to make sure it is the pump", and he answers himself back "No, you already checked the breaker and switched the wires, it has to be the pump". So about two hours are spent cutting the bilge pump wires, climbing into the aft stbd hatch to disconnect the hose at the check valve end and hauling the whole thing out from under the engine. Cockpit and Dick are a mess from all the black gunk in the bilge. Clean up the pump and hose with soap and river water, connect it with two wires direct to 12 volt and... the damm thing worked!!!! Why did he not check this before ??? Dick just wasted two hours taking the stupid thing apart, now he has to put it all back together again.... time to lengthen the too short wires on the pump, and this time solder a fuse holder in the + line just in case. Cannot even take a shower, the town water is shut off. Dinghy to Chiqui's for new replacement clamps, he has none, stop at Mar Marine the only 1 1/2" clamp they have is US$8.50, rip off or what... Just not Dick's day.
13:30 Temp reached 102F today. Town water comes back on, shower feels good... walk to Chiqui's sunset bar for happy hour, we are the only ones there, but the business traffic keeps coming. Boats are banging against the dock from the passing wakes, and they are lined up to come in.. shelves are getting empty, only Thursday and ice cream is all gone...
Friday, April 9, 2004. Good Friday, 06:00 already 85F. Start re-assembling/re-installing the lower bilge pump, in two hours Dick gets it all in place again. Switch on the breaker, short the two wires and we get spark, so we have voltage, the pump has a black wire and a brown wire, marrette the black to black and the red to brown wires together.... nothing.... Get the thinking cap on again. Luve calls Julio the Mechanico, starter solenoid has to be replaced, he says Monday...
Time to clean up the cockpit, no soap left on the boat, dinghy to Chiqui's, too hot to walk, customers already lined up at his cash, today they are buying liquor and wine by the case, Dick buys 3 kinds of soap, he is trying to emulisfy the oil in the bilge.
The Eglasia Catholica, has set up stations along the river on both sides, and a parade of boats (read: anything that floats) will be doing the "Stations of the Cross" starting at 09:00 today. The parade comes into our bay at noon, Station 6 is in front of the Marimonte Hotel.
12:30 Replaced the 1/2" plastic pipe in the "African Queen" with 1" plastic pipe, much better, it spreads the shade out further, and our water collection system will work just as well. Time for a shower water back on.
14:30 Air temp 102F again today. Decide to do a river tour in the dinghy and have a beer at each stop... First stop "Mansion del Rio" near the Castillo, where we had shrimp cocktail, a chicken kabob and beer (beer is Q18 here). Next stop Suzanas Laguna Marina, the place was full, we waited for 1/2 hour and did not get waited on, (there was only one waitress and she was run off her feet) so we left. Re-filled the dinghy gas tank at the Esso, headed across the river to Bruno's dinghy dock, walked to Jeff's, had a beer (Q7). There are thousands of people on the street, this whole town is one giant carnival. Walked to Bruno's had a happy hour 2 for 1 beer (Q10) and picante wings with Mary, Carolyn and LeRoy . By the time we finish it is almost dark, head for home, so much for our tour of the river.
18:45. We get home safely. Luve says he saw "Tides In" in Gringo Bay off the Golfete. This is the Vancouver boat going to be tied up behind Whitecap, he expects them tomorrow or Sunday. Luve has chartered Cocaine Carlos's lancha this week and is taking people to Livingston and back. Says he can make US$100 /day clear
Saturday, April 10, 2004. 06:30, Dick decides to remove the bilge pump again, after it would not work with the wires switched. Getting professional at doing this job, had it out in 30 minutes and no swearing... The Rule company will re-build their own products for a small fee and shipping, better than a new one at US$250 here. Moved Whitecap forward towards the house, the bow is now 2 ft from the house deck. Removed the mizzen sail and cover, folded them up and stored them with the lifejackets and sheets in the dry aft port cockpit locker. Re-packed and rolled up the spinnaker and the mizzen staysail so they only take a small space in the stbd aft locker.
12:30 Decide to head for the Saturday AM swap shop at Mario's, the river was just a mass of passing boat and jetski wakes, we both had dinghy but when we arrived and everyone was already gone. "Starsong" was closed up, Alan and his US lady friend have returned from Antigua, but have gone on a bus trip for the day, Julie the Cayuca Club manager is watching over the dog Morgan.
14:00 Dinghy to Catamaran Hotel, where we split a hamgurger and chips for lunch. and walk around the grounds.
15:30 Dinghy to Bruno's dock, we want to walk through the park under the bridge, there are many native craft stalls set up for the big weekend, but it was kind of disappointing. Walk to Jeff's , notice the old Hood sail put to use as a sun shade. Jeff has a concentrated soap product for Q27/ltr we can try in the bilge, and we are always welcomed by Mariella with her beautiful smile.
16:00 Dinghy back home, the river is still crazy, at least we have something to be happy about... these people will all be gone back to the city tomorrow and the river will be normal and peaceful again.
Dick has a fitful night, Montezuma got him again.
Sunday, April 11, 2004. 08:00, all is well this morning, air temp 92F already. Luvi tells us two Lancha operators were found floating in the gorge, their boats are missing, must have been a turf war or something, at least it is two we do not have to worry about. Emi tells us last evening the Catamaran Hotel ferry was run into on the river, have not heard any more yet, glad we decided not to go to Casa Perico for dinner last night.

WHITECAP
- Monday, April 12, 2004 at 05:39:41 (EDT)

Sunday, April 4, 2004 Cloudy today, air temp 88F. Rained in the AM, leave the sails for tomorrow. Hans on "Huto Matua" out of Vienna Austria, sold his catamaran this morning, and this afternoon another buyer showed up after flying in from the US. Hans's wife is ill in Europe and cannot sail any longer.
We were able to get our "in e-mail" working again, 105 files. Paul Schurman sent lots of pics of the LeFurgey Centre fire, what a waste just for a few tools!!! Would have been cheaper to just give the lad anything he wanted!!!
11:30 Mary, Kookie and Dick dinghy to town, too much weight load to get the dinghy 4.2hp up to plane, so we have a slow wet ride to Bruno's. Kookie gets dinghy butt, says she will walk home across the bridge.... We wander around for the afternoon, meet a new couple at the old Crow Bar now called Schooner Bar and Grill, Ann and Lew Tucker on "Serannity". They have been living aboard at Abel's marine railway and the workers have the week off for Semina Sancta so they are stuck there, and have to climb a ladder to get aboard. Dick picks up 2 doz juice oranges for Q10 (CDN $1.50) and decide to share the Sunday supper special at Bruno's; b'bque pork chop, sausage, an ear of corn, mashed potato and veg salad for Q35 about CDN$6 for the two of us... got home just at dark.
Monday, April 5, 2004. Cloudy this morning, stay in our bunks and read until 09:00. Air temp 92F. Water tank is empty again, Dick makes fresh orange juice, 12 oranges makes 600 ml juice. Sad day today, we will be stripping off the sails and packing them away... Planned for yesterday but too wet. Here are some pictures, notice every one is smiling, but that is only for the camera, they do not really mean it.
Mary folding up her end, and Diego trying to stop us, he knows something is up but cannot quite figure it out. Our old 30 year Hood genoa is in surprisingly good shape, considering there is no UV strip on the leech and foot. Dick went all over it, the stitching is good and there does not seem to be any bad spots. Here is Whitecap stripped of her main and jib. The spinnaker haillard is seized in the block at the masthead, will not go up or down, cannot quite figure why, will have to climb up to check it out, or we will not be able to raise up the dinghy each night.
Big excitement of the day, there were 4 launchas and one of those long "Monterico" ferry boats at the public dock next to us almost all day, at 16:00 a large transfer truck backed up the lane to the dock and started to unload. There was complete camping gear (tents, beds, propane coolers, propane stoves, tables, pots and pans, sleeping bags) and supplies (food, drinks, even 5 gal bottles of water), for 50 people, and there were even three ladies who are to do the cooking!!!. Someone did a lot of logistical planning for this tour... It took almost an hour to load up the "Monterico" boat, and he could not take it all. Apparently, it is a group of American students coming by private plane to the Poptun airstrip (3 hours west of here towards Tikal) and they are headed to somewhere near Livingston for 5 days.
Tuesday, April 6, 2004 06:00 Someone just whizzed by in a jetski between us and the public dock, made a turn by Luvi's house and went back out full speed waking us up.. well... Tutti probably made as much noise barking at him. Looks like another cloudy day today. Air temp 82F. Good morning for Mary to clean under the propane stove....

WHITECAP
- Tuesday, April 06, 2004 at 16:34:12 (EDT)

Saturday, April 3, 2004. Laundry day, clean up the things we will be leaving behind. Dick dinghys to "Starsong" to try out his internet service. Mario's Marina have onboard satellite internet service, in mail does not work there either. Nothing much at swap shop today. Pick up frozen 2 filet mignons, Mario's little store brings things like this from the City, not cheap, but the only place you can find them... Make plans to have dinner at Casa Perico tonight, if they will come pick us up in their launcha. On Saturdays they have b'bque chicken, pork, fish, steak, kabobs, salads all you can eat for Q40, one of the best deals on the river, if you can find the place!!!
Busy place today, helicopters, private jets and other aircraft, rich Guatemalicos take the week of Semina Sancta as a holiday and come to the river to play for 10 days or so. Tomorrow the fast speed boats and jet skis will be everywhere, the river will not be the place to be after dark in a dinghy. From Chiqui's sunset bar, we watched one cowboy fly his plane under the bridge span. Chiqui is busy today, everyone picking up their weeks supplies... by the case.
18:30 Alan calls on VHF, he finally contacted Casa Perico after calling all afternoon, they will send their launcha over to pick Mary and Dick up, we are the only passengers. Imagine your business depending on VHF radio for reservations and customer pickup, and they do not answer repeated calls all afternoon!!! John from Chicago on "Friendly Confines" also at Mario's Marina, joins us for dinner. Casa Perico uses fresh pressed orange juice with their rum, ooh-La-Lah, Flor de Cana to die for.... We get back home at 23:00, surprisingly the river is quiet.
Sunday, April 4, 2004 Cloudy today, air temp 88F. Sad day today, we will be stripping off the sails and packing them away...

WHITECAP
- Monday, April 05, 2004 at 04:11:56 (EDT)

Sunday, March 28, 2004. Day of rest today, puttered around the boat sorting things out. Richard forgot the teak moulding for the cockpit table on "Cajun Spirit". Add that to our pile. Mary remarks we have not heard from "Charlie" for some time, maybe he got gassed from the exhaust leak or else he abandoned ship in Roatan, hope he is OK.
Alan on "Starsong" calls on VHF, he and his dog Morgan are coming through the Golfete and just about to enter the river. They are stopping at Mario's Marina but will come to Chiqui's for 4 to 6 Happy Hour and then to Whitecap for dinner. Tonight's menu "beans and weiners", garlic coconut bread and wine. We agree to meet at Dim Sum for lunch tomorrow, Hans from Austria on the catamaran anchored off our dock is also coming.
Monday, March 29, 2004 Lunch at Dim Sum, Ingrid, the owner is just back from Holland, we wondered where she was. Iliana is busy building some new cabanas, and enlarging her spanish school building. Dim Sum and the spanish school are on a small island called "Xycala" (ish-caa-la) just across the river from Chiqui's store. Alan just bought a plastic "made in Guatemala" 8 ft dinghy, a knockoff of the Walker Bay for US$250 here in town.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004. Rain all morning, good time to work on the engine and the new battery wires. Walk to Mar Marine, buy 6 ft red 2 AWG marine wire (US$4.75/ft) and 5/16" hole fittings to solder and shrink wrap the ends. "Dick built"... better than factory!!!. Disconnect the negative wires on both battery banks, Dick does not like shock treatment, climb into the quarter berth, crawl through the hatch and lay on top of the engine UG!!!, everything is black from the exhaust leak. Remove the wire from the + post on the alternator to the starter, this routed the direct power charge from there to the start bank first, (reasonable to assume this has been our problem), and then string the new wire through the bulkhead directly to the + post on the "house bank" under the Q berth. Already dirty, this is a good time to scrub down the engine compartment with soap, water and a stiff brush, then do the same under the port fwd cockpit hatch. Lucky none of this soot came into the cabin.... Close everything up, try the engine, will not start... damm. Glow plugs click in but no go, it is 16:00 enough for today, play with this again tomorrow or the next day, hot shower feels good, but it will take at least two to get this black off...
Wednesday, March 31, 2004. Cloudy again today, Brian on "Mustang" on the morning VHF net promises good weather for the rest of the week, that's nice.... Air temp 89F, light breeze.
Alan on "Starsong" calls, steak b'bque night at Bruno's tonight, with baked potato and salad for Q40, we arrange to meet at Jeff's at 17:30 then go to Bruno's from there.
20:00 LeRoy and Carolyn meet us at Bruno's, the steak was really worthwhile, Alan asks if we would like to go to Denny's Beach in the morning for 4 hours of horesback riding, Dick says yes, Mary declines, Denny is to pick everyone up at 08:00. We dinghy home in the dark, but tonight at least we have a flashlight.
Thursday, April 1, 2004. 06:00 Roger on "Majico" leaves the dock, he is headed to Belize, his 2 year permit is up, so he has to leave the country and come back in to start the process over, just like we just did.
07:30 Nancy on "Miss Lou" is net monitoring the daily VHF net today, Stu on "Mixto Listo" always gives the daily tides, today Stu announces a 15 ft tide for Livingston..., everyone knows we have a max of 1 ft, Nancy does not catch on until Stu breaks in later and says he made a mistake...
08:00 The crowd from Mario's arrive to pick up Dick. There are 8 of us, Denny's new launcha with a new 115 HP Suzuki just flies the 12 miles up the mirror calm Lago Isabal to Denny's Beach. Denny is an ex-pat Canadian who has been here for many years; he purchased this waterfront property when he came, put in some palapas and strung hammocks ..., it became a kind of hippie haven, the type of place that if you lost a buddy in the 80's you may find him there.... We are told the story that one day, many years ago, Denny was at a friend's wedding, at one time during the party, he asked if the bride had any sisters. Several weeks later, Denny was called on the VHF from Fronteres to come and pick up his new wife. Denny launcha'd to town and there waiting on the dock was the never yet met beautiful young lady "Lupi", a cousin of the bride, all the way from Honduras with her suitcase and all her belongings. The story continues, she proceeded to clean both Denny and the place up and they married, the project became a success and they now have a fine young family.
09:30 Horses arrive, Dick figures his mount will be an old pregnant mare, and sure enough... Her name becomes "Jane", and she likes the bananas Dick brought for his snack. "Dick and Jane" become a team, all the way up the mountain, with beautiful views of Lago Isabal, ford streams and creeks, through bogs and along barbed wire fences, and trot/gallop across beautiful valleys of pasture land with herds of Brahman cattle grazing in the lush jungle grasses, and never once did Jane try to chuck Dick off... maybe it was the bananas??? Biggest problems were learning to come up at the same time as the saddle, and sitting in a saddle made by Mayans for Mayans.
13:30 We return to Denny's for lunch and the trip back home. One of the ladies in our group, Margarena on "Shanti" from Montreal, was stung by a wasp, she is allergic and has a reaction, benadryl did not work. Just in case, Jungle Medic is called on the VHF, says he will come right over. A young man, David MacKenzie, who is building a home next to Denny's walks over, turns out he is a medical doctor whose parents (his mom was a MacMillan) came from Charlottetown. David takes control of the situation. Cancel Jungle Medic, who says he will come anyway, just to make sure, says he has never been to Denny's and wants to know how to get there by boat in daylight, there are no roads to Denny's Beach. The patient Margarena, with an ice pack on her shoulder , David MacKenzie, holding a young native child, who crawled into the lake last week and drowned, David luckily revived her doing CPR in the launcha on the way to town, very fortunate little girl. Also in the picture are Chris on "Anomaly" from Michigan and Alan on "Starsong".
Friday, April 2, 2004 . Jungle medic has another medical emergency this AM, a young girl burned in a gas tank explosion on a finca east of the bridge. Turns out OK.

WHITECAP
- Friday, April 02, 2004 at 19:57:31 (EST)