Christmas in Antigua; New Year's on the Rio Dulce, now in Placencia, Belize

Our hosts at Chez Daniel and friends, Daniel and Maria Elena

It's been a while since my last posting so I'm dashing through the last month and a half. We spent Christmas in Antigua with friends Daniel and Maria Elena, then took a long bus ride to the Rio Dulce to return to Scott Free at Tortugal Marina. After a few weeks of work and fun there we motored down the Rio and after checking out of the country at Livingston attempted to exit the river. For the first time we were unsuccessful and ended up stuck fast in the mud. A local boat took a halyard from our mast and tipped our boat over on it's side and we motored free. It all happened quite quickly thank goodness. After a quiet night in Bahia Graciosa near Puerto Barrios, we sailed up to Placenia, Belize and checked in. More to come!

Our neigherboring volcano sent up a salute on
Christmas morning. It erupted on Saturday 2/9 and
rained ash on Antigua and Guatemala City. 

Various parades happened everyday in the week
preceeding Christmas

This particular one had a wide variety of characters

Some were Disney characters

And some were familiar politicians

Speaking of familiar characters, the MacDonalds in
Antigua is rather different from any one we'd seen in
States

Christmas wouldn't be complete without lots of
candy

More giant characters - ? The Three Kings

The churches were beautifully decorated
with flowers, often poinsettias, which grow
wild here, Scott went to Mass on Christmas
Eve as they had a chorus and band.

We attended a wonderful dinner given by a Swiss
friend of Daniel and Maria Elena at her home just
outside Antigua for Christmas Day.

We toured a finca (coffee plantation) outside of Antigua
where Sean had arranged a gift certificate for Xmas.

The view from our table at Tenedor Restaurant

Where Scott and I enjoyed a wonderful meal the day after
Christmas.

We had a huge group of friends together at Backpacker's
Restaurant on the Rio Dulce for New Year's Eve. There was
a live band, dinner and dancing - and of course great company.

The shot from the other end of the table.

Scott and I celebrate another great year!

A group of our friends from Tortugal Marina
organized a special evening at Casa Perico.
The Swiss owners cooked a fantastic buffet
of their specialties.

Thomas Bartl & Ulrike Boker, our German
friends from Tortugal Marina on S/V Toriba.
We are going to visit them at their home
in Bavaria in July.