About time for me to update the blog, right?
About a month ago we went from a salt-water ocean boat to a fresh-water river boat. For the summer we wanted to go somewhere relatively safe from hurricanes. On Guatemala's Caribbean coast there is a large river called the Rio Dulce (sweet river). About 25 miles up the river there is a large community of cruisers, marinas, ex-pats and rich Guatemalans. High mountains and a long winding river mean that any hurricane that were to hit this area will (hopefully) dissipate before it gets to us. Hundreds of boats show up each spring to spend the summer here. Most people however button their boat up and go home for the summer. It's a beautiful area, deep in the jungle with volcanic mountains all around. Parrots fly overhead and in the morning we can hear the roaring of howler monkeys across the river.
Before we could get here though we had to cross the bar at the river entrance. The depth at the entrance is around 5 1/2 feet at nominal tide. We draw close to 7 feet, so we definitely can only get over at high tide. The tides here in the Caribbean are much less than the pacific side (2 foot swings verses 20 feet), so there are only a couple of days a month that the tide is high enough that we have a chance of getting over without help. Also the "deep" part is constantly shifting. Locals at Livingston, the town at the entrance, make money coming out in little speed boats (pangas), "tip" the boats and pull them over the shallow spots. We really didn't want to do that, so we planned to come over at the highest tide in May (+2 feet). We got the latest waypoints, the time of high tide, lined the boat up, crossed our fingers and hit the bar as fast as our boat would go (which really isn't very fast). We plowed a furrow through the mud but were able to force our way through :-). 15 boats came over the bar that morning and only four had to be tipped and dragged, not too bad. Once in we got checked into Guatemala and headed up the river.
Our last view of the ocean for many months:
Rio Dulce, here we come:
We spent the night anchored in Golfito lake then the next day pulled into our summer home at Mario's marina.
There are quite a few cruisers also spending the summer here, as well as quite a few that pulled in years ago and have never left. There are lots of things to do; dominoes, volleyball in the afternoon, potlucks, movie nights. Or just hang out in the very cold pool (cold is good here as it's very hot and steamy). The local town has basic provisions so we're well set.
That's all for now. We'll be traveling to California for a couple of weeks to see friends and family, as well as marvel at what a supermarket is.
