Trapped in Guatemala

 

Sunrise at Tortugal as we prepare to sail downriver to Cayo Quemado. 

We've known for some time that we were supposed to leave Guatemala by January 20th, but as that time approached we still had boat work ongoing. Our Marina manager, Byron, assured us that we could stay a while longer and just pay a fine on the way out. We only needed another week. We wrote Raul, our agent and explained the situation. We heard back from him on January 8th and he said we'd be OK leaving a week or two afterwards, with a fine. We also heard from others in the river that they were waiting s well. So we didn't leave as originally planned. Well, in hindsight, that was a big mistake. 

Our anchorage at Cayo Quemado, also known as "Texan Bay" due to Mike's Cafe. Mike specializes in southern comfort food.. We had chicken fried steak and chicken fried chicken one night, both served with a huge helping of mashed potatoes and gravy (nice and peppery) with a small salad  It's actually a series of small interconnected bays that merge into mangrove lined canals that feed back into the Lake.  This is all located at the far end of El Golfete, a long narrow lake that connects Lake Izabel via the Rio Dulce to the Golf of Honduras.

But we were blissfully unaware of the problem at our beautiful anchorage. We came the day before to get our insurance rigging survey from Tom, a rigger that lives there. He scrambled all over our boat and pronounced it "amazingly over rigged and sound". The survey went off immediately to our insurance company who finally approved our renewal. SO, all set, we thought and proceeded down to Livingston on a launcha to check out of the country. Raul was plain spoken; "Your boat has overstayed it's allowed time and you will have to either import it into Guatemala or leave without a zarpe." Well, these aren't possible options for us (or any of the other boats in our situation). Importing the boat into Guatemala is a two year process and not only involves a complicated procedure to determine it's value (we've been told the tax is 30%) but you have to hire a lawyer to accomplish it. And leaving without a zarpe means not being able to go into Belize, Mexico or Cuba on the way home, regardless of weather or needed boat repairs! So we applied for special permission to depart admitting our error and explaining that we needed to return to home for health reasons (and we admit it, old age). Now we were told, we just need to wait. That was January 27th and we're still waiting. 

We have a guest, Jenny Wolf, arriving on February 19th. She had planned to meet us in Belize but was flexible enough to change her plans so will come to us in Guatemala. We're going up to Antigua, the old capitol on the 18th and she'll join us there on the 19th Then we all go down to our boat in the Rio Dulce. Hopefully, we'll get permission to leave that week and the three of us will sail to Belize. She'd fly home from there if that works, otherwise, she'll fly home from Guatemala City. Wish us luck!

Rigger Tom scrambled all over our boat, up to 
the very top with little assistance and no fear.

We took a public launcha from Cayo Quemado
down the Rio to Livingston to "check out". Along
the way we picked up and dropped off various local
people

We spent a week at Cayo Quemado visiting with our friends Brenda on My Island Queen and Sarah on . Cannonball. The later has been building a "retirement community" near Cayo Quemado, more on that in another blog post! Jerry and Debarah from Czech & Mate stayed with us until we sailed back up to Tortugal Marina on February 2nd. It's now February 14h and no word yet. We hope to be able to leave on the next high tide starting a week from now. 

Rigger Tom at the top of our mast.

Lunch at Bugga Mama's our first trip down to 
Livingston. This is a training facility for Ak'Tenamit,
 a Rotary sponsored school for local
children.  

Scott and Jerry at the bow of our this time private
launcha trip to Livingston.

It's hard to see the scale here but these cliffs are 300 feet high and lined with mahogany, teak and palms. The river is 6 miles from the end of El Golfete to the Garifuna town of Livingston at the mouth of the river. 

Our second trip we enjoyed a great meal at this
restaurant, Raul's favorite - terrific fresh fish!

Debarah at Casa Rosita's where our launcha docked.
These beautiful painted tables were especially
 commissioned from a local artist. 

Our launcha driver Bob, Debarah and I on the way
back.

Dried fish are a specialty here in Livingston.
When the fish are running they are put our to dry
all over town. 

On the way back from Livingston our driver Bob took us through some of the narrow canals that
wind their way through the mangrove forest. There are no roads anywhere in this region. The locals and expats all travel by boat and many of the homes are built partially on stilts over the water. There is little solid land.

Here's a typical local home on the canal with their small engineless dugout out front. 

Our last night we had dinner here at Sonia's with Jerry & Debarah and Sarah. One table set out on the dock and one menu - chicken pepian, rice and salad - no alcohol, we brought wine with us.