Saturday, July 24, 2010

AT MARINA TIJAX June 22-July 23

At Marina Tijax- Rio Dulce, Guatemala June 22 – July 23, 2010

Sea Star has a comfortable slip at Marina Tijax, ( part of Hacienda Tijax, Finca Tijax) on a lovely property on the Rio Dulce directly across the river from the town of Fronteras. (called Rio Dulce by locals which can be a bit confusing when directions are given). We have taken morning walks with binoculars and have seen(best guess identification) some local Aztec Parakeets, various fly catchers, Collared seed finch, Blue black Grass Quit, Thick billed Seed Finch, a spectacular Altimera Oriole and a pair of Roadside Hawks. Oh yes, and one huge Finca owner’s dog.

Texan Bay Music
This is our second arrival at our slip. We’ve written of our enjoyment of the music of Gene and Brenda on the CSY named Queen Mary we met in the Hobbies a few months back. Well, many boats are now arriving in the Rio or are here. Queen Mary had arrived from Mexico and taken a slip at Texan Bay and were to give a concert before they flew out to Alberta, Canada. Sailing back to Texan Bay seemed like a Great Idea especially because our friends, Doris and Tom on Footloose didn’t want to miss seeing Queen Mary, but their sailboat would have been difficult to remove from the spiderweb of boats they found themselves in at Mario’s Marina. Dan thought a great solution would be taking Doris and her guitar and Tom aboard Sea Star when we headed to Texan Bay. A good time was had by all. We enjoyed the singing of yet another Texan, Mike, who with his wife Sherri own and operate Texan Bay. Listen to the video -pretty good, huh?

We arrived at TB and took a swim, a harbor relaxer, some chicken fried steak made with pork, and Doris, Gene and Brenda started to refresh their memories of the songs they would play the following night. Brenda plays the melody on electric keyboard, Gene bass guitar, Doris strums acoustic guitar and I sing along to songs like Me and Bobby Magee, and They Say You’re Leaving – trying to see the tiny, tiny words on the paper in the dark.

Well, never mind that it was the same few people who showed up the next night, because as usual we had a blast. Since Brenda and Gene really were leaving Guatemala so sooon, we helped set up their Shade Tree awning to protect the boat while they are gone, clean the fridge (Doris and I got all the goodies-remember these folks are fishermen!) and then motored off back to Mario’s for Doris and Tom and Tijax for us, giving us a chance to look at the changes in the Rio again during the twelve miles back.

Texan Bay


In the good old days
Dan actually had to remind me that not only were we on the Rio at then Suzanna’s Lagoon with our two teenage sons-that time for four months BUT that in 1971 Dan and I had traveled by ferry across the river and through Fronteras when we visited Tikal and were moving into Belize. Our “then” mode of transportation was a Toyota pickup truck with Dan driving. I had fashioned a camp tent that fit on a platform on the bed of the truck. It was so “groovy” because our gear was contained in a huge box and we were totally self-contained otherwise. We drove from Massachusetts to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala and then back home. I remember feeling grateful to arrive back as Dan had become really sick from, we think, a scorpion bite! Ahh memories. Wish I had a pic to put here- but no digital at the time, sorry!

Did I mention that it’s REALLY hot on the Rio? Dan and I decided to have a sun cover made for Sea Star. It will be finished in about another week and should keep Sea Star a bit cooler allowing us to keep hatches open during the daily-nightly rainstorms that I guess we’re going to have to live with this year. The thunder claps and lightning flashes constantly for hours at night- scaring us to death after our lightning strike in Bocas del Toro last June, usually knocks out power for a few minutes to a bit longer at Tijax and causes us to do the “hatch dance” up and down all night.
Work on the boat in exotic places

Sea Star is getting a face lift. Her teak cap rail, rub rail and eyebrow are being totally stripped, sanded and recoated by a power- house of a tiny, local Indian woman. Her name is Lupe and she has been spending eight to nine hours a day on Sea Star for about two weeks now. She made the stainless shine- Dan says it wasn’t even that shiny from the IPY factory! Now she is using Dan’s heat gun to allow scraping off of the old Cetol and preparing, sanding the wood for the new coating. Sounds easy until you realize that there is rub rail below the cap rail all around the boat. The rub rail needs the heat gun, too and quick scraping to remove the old cetol. When you are (she is) standing in a dinghy using a live heat gun and scraping, that doesn’t leave a hand for holding on to the boat! I’ve been holding the dinghy steady while she works and this is with lanchas going and coming to Tijax regularly. We cringe as they approach or leave and steel ourselves for waves under us, lifting and jerking.

Lupe and her husband do the same work so right now they are both at our marina working on different boats. Linda and Gary on Rainbow Rider and I switch off providing the lunch for the two of them to keep these hard workers going. Our job is going well-but it rains a lot so a bit slowly and it’s so ungodly hot I feel terrible having her work. She wears a pair of my shoes so her feet won’t burn on the deck, my brimmed hat over her baseball cap, and a long sleeved shirt and pants to protect her skin. No union here but a full time job for a few weeks more.

Today is Friday, July 23th and we have had a set back. While scraping away filler material close to a stanchion- Water strongly weeped out! NOT GOOD! Oscar sort of quickly removed another and same problem, another well, you get the picture. Suddenly we are all outside and staring at Lupe’s hard work but knowing we have to deal with the water. More on this event as it progresses because calling Island Packet customer service (Skype the only way) reminded us that IP offices are NOT open on Friday-so here we sit with materials and how-to questions until Monday. Only one problem, the work is proceeding during the weekend. I wrote a topic thread to IPYOA.com and hope someone comes back to me.

Our free time is broken up by trips out to buy food in the open markets and grocery store of Fronteras, go to the bank or ATM, try to locate every restaurant to eat- about US$6.00 for a good meal, or to find needed supplies. For good bread without warming up the boat I run to Mario’s Marina where the staff bakes it. Yummy for French toast.

They hide boat supplies well around here. There is a place called Mar Marine that boasts that the store is like a West Marine. NOT! At a tiny hole-in-the-wall under the Fronteras bridge we found a quart of Cetol when we need three of them, not there but another place, Chici’s (Reed’s Tienda) we were able to buy stainless steel cleaner, but not the one we really wanted, we found sandpaper but need more, we found little plastic bottles of acetone, thinner and mineral spirits by going from store to store.—The good thing is our useful Spanish is improving a lot.

Lupe is very patient and repeats her words over and over until she is understood and we are sent out for something else. Sometimes we engage in conversation with vendors and locals with limited range and lots of gestures. Lupe has a family of three children, oldest twenty five and her husband, Oscar, is a carpenter at a nearby marina. She plays the marimba (I’d love to hear that!) for community functions and at times private parties for the Guatemalans on the Rio. She care-takes the owner of Tijax’ boat and really is skilled at what she does with the teak. She told us a story of a Canadian single-hander who hired her husband for lots of work and then said he had no money. The only recourse they had was to call the ships agent, Raul, who told the Port Captain. -The boat was not given permission to leave the Rio or Guatemala when he wanted to- but they still have not seen their money!
In pics see Lupecleaning stainless balanced on a plank held up by our dinghy raising system under the arch.

Along with Lupe’s work we found Dillon Oberhauser who With his parents, live and work in the Rio now but had only been there ten days when we saw the posted mimeo flyer that informed us they were sail and canvas makers. Our sails have taken a beating in the tropic sun but only on the sail sun cover, a strip that protects the sail when furled. We had Dillon, Dad and Mum (he’s from South Africa) over to look and down came our sails and onto Jenny Lynde.

The later pictures show Dillon preparing a plastic template on line wrapped around our boat, then he goes around tracing his lines and vuwalla! If there is no wind he gets a clear picture of the project. He’s, well I guess it’s the family, making Sea Star a total sun awning that will cover from the staysail back to the mast and zip with a piece from the boom back to above the current bimini. It will include a water collecting fitting for water when it rains. (Yes we do have a watermaker but it’s not very clean in parts of the river, especially by Fronteras.) and the silt would clog too many filters, we think. Of course we are excited! It’s promised by July 30th.

I’m still trying to find out how many boats are in the Rio. More about that when I figure it out.

2 Dulce

Monday, July 12, 2010

RIO BOUND AND RIO all AROUND June 21-30 2010

RIO BOUND AND RIO all AROUND June 21-30 2010

Sea Star joined the long line of cruisers who will spend varied amounts of time on the beautiful Rio Dulce in Guatemala during hurricane season 2010. We have a reservation at Hacienda Tijax Marina and will spend until early November there. We arrived to the Rio Dulce without incident crossing the sand bar entry on the well publicized GPS waypoints in company with two other boats on Monday, June 21, actually a week earlier than we had expected to enter.

We traveled the last 11 miles from Tres Puntas, Bahia Gracioso to the mouth of the River Dulce. Our three boats left our anchorage at 7:00AM, planning arrival in Livingston about 9:00AM and leaving plenty of time to do the required Livingston stop and continue on farther in the Rio. We were able to sail part of the way and it was a pleasant and sunny day. Despite good wind and weather our mood was somber as once in the Rio that is the end of the movement part of cruising for the season. The boat is safe from most inclement weather and that is the reason to make the twenty-five mile away from the Caribbean Sea passage into the winding Dulce which provides mountains that divert and break the strongest winds or so we hope. That’s what Sea Star and a huge number of others cruisers hope. At some point I will get a “sorta accurate” count of boats hiding in here for the season at many different marinas, with of course, different profiles.

The first order of business was to check into the country of Guatemala at the town of Livingston inside the mouth of the River. Within a few moments of our dropping anchor five officials and a ships’ agent named Raul were on Sea Star having a coke and filling out immigration, agricultural, and boat papers allowing Dan and I to stay in Guatemala for 90 days. Hard to believe but 90 days will not be enough and so we must apply soon to have the paperwork completed when we need it to be.

Raul, the ships’ agent took our papers and passports and gave us directions; park the dinghy and left off the hill on the main street through town to his office and farther up on the main road to the bank so we could withdraw money called Quetzales. In about one hour we could pick up our completed papers and stamped passports. Q1000 took care of the fees, about US$130. Raul gave us a map of the Rio with usable anchorages, including marinas who support the Eco Rio projects and security patrol. No hassel at all. See : mapasdequatemala.com /destinos/Izabal/patrullaje (website)

We found a place in Livingston for a quick lunch, glanced around the town to compare it now- to as it had appeared to us twelve years previously on our family trip to Rio Dulce, lifted anchor and started motoring up the Rio toward Texan Bay, our goal for the day.

Dan and I entertained our individual thoughts about “changes” as we motored past new thatched roof homes with docks, a much larger diesel sales building and passed or were passed by the river traffic. Absolutely- the graceful Cayucos were still paddled by the brown skinned dark haired Indian men—but many now were paddled by women, teenage girls and children, perhaps stopping to hand- line for fish or set nets. I think we were looking at two cayuco in the garage families!

So ..there are now more boats on the river everywhere. Some were the size of the Cayucos but were motorized. There were some larger and more powerful colorfully painted lanchas and even water taxis, and small tour boats with sun biminis. I had trepidations there might be construction and encroachment on the river I would see as “spoiling or ruining” the natural beauty of it for me.

As we traveled on we remembered our first entry through the narrow curve in the river; looking up-up on both sides of the boat to magnificent vertically steep, brilliant white limestone cliffs of 300 to 400 feet, covered by lush, green foliage; so beautiful and awe inspiring they took your breath away. Wonder of natural wonders, the steepness of the cliffs and the designation of the area as National Park in 1955 according to Eco Rio literature has, limited so far, any encroachment in the nine or so miles of the canyons! Fabulous and Majestic.

Soon, however we were approaching the Golfete a wide open deep area of the Rio Dulce located about 12 miles from Livingston and another 12 miles from the upper Rio where the number of houses increased, but we enjoyed the new sights and the look of increased prosperity. Of course waterfront homes are desired by Guatemalans who can afford to develop those difficult spots and there is an increase in that population along the entire river. In the wider waters of the Golfete we saw hints of what was to come later on the upper river; a few speed boats and up to 50 foot yachts of the rich, jet skis and ski boat toys.
Here are slideshow and movies up the river- I think itthe movies are best with no sound.

Livingston to Golfete


We moved into a bay off the track to the left and saw the masts of sailboats there, letting us know we had arrived at Texan Bay, a marina/ bar restaurant and anchorage run by Mike and Sherri , Texans complete with drawl, who relocated there and have been working on preparing a marina and lodging facilities for the last four years. Their place blends in with the mountain behind and is secluded with lovely scenery viewed from dinghy explores. Mike showed Dan and I the way to locate some lagoons which provide birding and nature watching opportunities for the cruisers who stay at Texan. Dan spotted Black headed Trogans, a Purple Galinulle, and a Roadside Hawk who really lost his “road side” as there are no roads into Texan Bay.

Texan Bay has excellent docking facilities and wonderful food so many cruisers choose to stay out of the hustle of the “social” whirl on the upper Rio or leave their boats with these friendly people in Texan Bay while they land travel. Dan and I spent three great days there eating well and birding, even swimming, and eating and eating (did I mention the great food?) then decided it was time to move on up the river to the town of Fronteras and work on replacing our cell phone and internet facilities that expired or died in Honduras.

By that time we had made the realization that the Rio Dulce, which means “sweet river” is indeed fresh water. It was amazing to think that Sea Star would soon be free of all vestiges of salt and its corrosion! I used our bow salt water washdown as a fresh water washdown! Using a pressure spray of river water we removed the mud from the anchor and also cleaned the hose and the pumping fitting used to wash with salt water, (which conserves your boat fresh water supply.) You could just feel happy for the engines, dinghy outboard and sailboat Yanmar, having a fresh water wash for the first time in more than two years as we ran them. Then came the rain, buckets, no barrels of it, to wash the bimini, dodger, stainless steel and the wooden cap rail.
Texan Bay first visit
Texan Bay


After three days we moved up the Rio, threw our anchor down at Mario’s Marina to say “hi” and have lunch with John and Suzi from Cabaret who had contacted us on the radio. We hadn’t actually seen them since Cartagena, so we had lots of catching up to do. Other cruisers we knew were there, too; Niky Wiki from Roatan, Loreli from La Ceiba and Footloose, Tom and Doris, who were away from their boat. We still needed to get to Fronteras so we anchored by the town. Tijax is across the river from Fronteras and the dockmaster at Tijax saw and recognized our boat name and called to us, saying we could come in a week early to take our slip if we wanted. We did and here we are -at great side tie, two 30 amp plugs for electric so ..AC here we come!

Tijax is great for birding. It is an eco lodge with trails and cabanas for tourists. There is also a restaurant and we are quite close to Fronteras town. We happily set up our shore power and had air conditioning- for awhile until the power went off- many hours-three days in a row. Power is expensive US 0.50 an amp hr. and not too reliable but because of the heat (90’s) the air conditioning is really a lifesaver on the boat. We can use the Tijax pool each day but even that is warm. Eugeneo, the owner and his daughter Adrianna invited all of the cruisers at Tijax to a welcome session where, while munching on free snacks of shrimps and sauces on crackers and pitchers of Margaritas any questions we had about Tijax or the area were addressed. We discussed Eco Rio and the Marine Security Patrol paid for by the marina operators. It was explained, as well, why there could be times we lose our electric power on the dock. They have a back-up generator which can be switched on to keep the lights at the restaurant and to light the walkways (very important as they are boardwalk over mangrove roots) but sometimes not enough to run power at the dock if there is a storm and trees fall down on the power lines. We have nice neighbors on the dock so I think for now we have a good home for Sea Star.

We’re just back to our slip after a quick trip Back to Texan Bay . More next time.