In July Sea star sat in her slip at Tijax marina and Dan and I joined in Rio Dulce activities and took a week-long inland trip.
ART FAIR IN RIO DULCE
Cruisers on the Rio and elsewhere like to join in festivities and activities, and besides boat projects-that's what we travel for. Around the Fourth of July we had our Marina entertainments, but a few days after Independence Day a more permanent member of the Rio Dulce community, Keven, was directing The Rio Dulce Arts Festival. He gathered cruisers to help in various ways. John and Suzi on Cabaret were recruited to cook chicken and pulled pork and prepare lunches for the masses expected. They recruited Sea Star to give out the pre-paid drinks for the day.(well actually I asked for the job)
We had a blast! The performers were professional, the artists well received and the crowd was great for people watching from behind our booth. As you can see, an uplifting and for some, profitable day.
People arrived around ten in the morning. School children performed an original play showing aspects of their heritage. Costuming was wonderful. I was working the booth and didn't get to see the play but there are pictures posted on the local on-line newspaper; Rio Dulce Chisme Vindicator. You can visit it if you wish and by going to the section Photos of the Day, and see lots of Rio News.
Some folks just were taking advantage of the crowds for sales
Interesting artwork was displayed
The modern band setting up- They set up for hours and played around 3:00 PM.
The clowns blew balloons and twisted them into the shapes of flowers and animals for children
A VERY large breadfruit from the growing artistry of Frutas del Mundo. Frutas has learned how to grow and propagate varied fruiting trees and plants that local people can use to lesson the landscape blight and uselessness of land slashed and burned, land which no longer produces crops and is abandoned. These fruiting trees can be used for a subsistence living by bringing the fruits to local markets.
These young models and their dog basically opened the fair
Magnificent local basketry. It is a major issue to travel from the mountain villages, carrying the crafts. These young Mayan girls might have walked to somewhere on the river to their cayocos or launchas and traveled the river in a motor launcha to arrive in Fronteras.
The basketry Guru
Paintings for sale and children's face painting
Natural items a bit glammed up. The crowds were fascinated by the bull skulls covered in mirror chips and money.
Simple instruments of the Garifuna
Some young folks visit like this-
Many more like this
Traditional instruments
A fruit vender. She pares pineapple, mango and papaya, bags it, and sells for the equivalent of $.50
The parking lot for launchas. See a typical palapa roof in the background.
Colorful and extremely exuberant dancers
Simple accompaniment of drums and other percussion instruments for the female dancers.
Hard core bikers watching the fest.
After the Arts Fair a few weeks went by of typical days.
There is always reading, internet and walking to keep one busy but there is much more. Radio net communication for boaters occurs each morning at 7:30. (except Sunday) Each day is different because the announcers change. The radio gives cruisers a chance to hear what is going on at the other marinas like volleyball, music or Dinner and a Movie. If boaters have items for sale, they can advertise on the radio. It can be difficult to locate a needed boat part or items for a project. On the VHF net businesses can tell of specials they might be having; diesel, solar panels, varnish. People come on to say, " I need a *piece of plexiglass (for instance)* Does anyone know where I could try looking?"
When someone is flying out of the area, one might announce that they will carry "flat, stamped mail" to the States or Canada or Europe to be brought to a post office for mailing. It is possible to receive packages and mail in this area but services can unreliable and are always expensive.
The part we listen for on the radio is when the ten or so nearby restaurants come on and advertse their "special of the day." For the kingly sum of 45 Quetzales, (around $5) the restaurants advertise taco dinner, enchiladas, meatloaf, chicken dishes, ribs, all with sides and some with a drink. Cruisers are thus encouraged to leave their projects and air conditioned boats for awhile each day. It's HOT on the Rio. When you step off of your boat mid day the heat hits like your open oven feels when you cook on board- so preparing food for three meals a day just isn't what some want to do. Food goods, fresh vegetables and fruits are very reasonable to buy-- when the item is available, and on certain days- So, to us, finding a cheap but good dinner or lunch out is important especially if we have been busy, or actually when we have not been very busy eating away from the boat is welcome, too!
There are marinas that hold Movie Nights, Trivia Nights and music events and send out their launchas to pick people up and return them home after the event. During the day sometimes dinghy trips to visit new areas are arranged. Tijax has a very nice swimming pool that I use regularly, along with some fellow cruisers and the backpacker or tourist tours that come to Hacienda Tijax as part of a travel itinerary.
Guatemala on the Rio is HOT- oh, did I already write that? Some parts are less hot, like the mountains. Mountains also are where there can be new birds to find. Dan and I did some research and decided on an inland trip to a bird reserve area and hotel called Los Tarrales (means the Bamboo). The bird list of possible sightings was impressive; at the top of the list was the Horned Guan. We arranged a bus trip with some friends to the beautiful Colonial City of Antiqua in Guatemala (5 hours) and from there we would head toward Lago (Lake) Atitlan and Los Tarrales, (2 hours) and stop in Guatemala City on the way back to the Rio Dulce.
First step was riding an air conditioned bus to the city of Antigua, where we hired a taxi to our unknown to us hotel named, Quintas de las Flores which turned out to be a great value.
At least five gardeners in white hats with red ribbon kept the grounds immacul
The Cathedral's dome could be seen through the trees and toward the downtown square.
It is difficult to wait for la cena in the hotel restaurante. Mural behind painted in 1993- a copy of a depiction of earlier times.
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| Maximon's seating area. Ah Maximon, the God of drinking and smoking. |
Jimmy photographing the scarlet macaws at Casa Santa Domingo Convent- now a tourist restaurant with lovely grounds and some areas of ruins.
Santa Domingo corridor
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| Agua volcano |
The four of us visited a jade museum. We could have purchased jade jewelry, but we restrained ourselves.
The museum had a darkened room in which they explained the Mayan world would come to an end in December of 2012 according to their calendar.
Around the city of Antigua
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The Arch beyond which is the market place. |
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| Traditional costume from all areas of Guatemala. A display in a traditional crafts store of clothing from the various Mayan groups around Guatemala. |
Our fellow travelers, Donna and Jimmy from Blue Water Cat.
One of the most flamboyant flowers in the Quintas de las Flores manicured grounds
At the city square. This building holds the city government offices, police etc. It has been repaired from recent earthquakes, a historical problem for Antiqua.
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| A city of well kept areas, these flowers draw hummingbirds |
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| Outdoor laundry sinks |
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At the city square. This building holds the city government offices, police etc. It has been repaired from recent earthquakes, a historical problem for Antiqua.
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Here we saw a group of firemen giving a ride to a large group of nurses.
After spending two days in Antiqua we were due at Los Tarrales. In the town square we hired a taxi driver to bring us the two hour trip out of town through the town of Potulul . We passed great scenery. This is Agua Volcano in the distance.
On to Las Torrales for birdwatching in the mountains
Shots on the way to birding at Los Tarrales
Soon at Tarrales we began to look around. Los Tarrales is a private reserve owned by a third generation Canadian- Andrew. Our bird guide, a local young man about thirty years old who, since he was 17 has learned English and has trained himself to recognize the various birdcalls which he tapes on his Ipod. Josue' is knowledgeable about the area and explained that all the families on the reserve live there by choice and most work for the reserve or help to protect the reserve from hunters, or bird poachers. This includes some 350 persons. A church, medical care, a soccer pitch and community activities are part of life on the Finca. They also protect the timber and bamboo and assure the lands are undisturbed,
Los Tarrales once on website click home or finca for information.
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| Flowers at the door of the simple lodge. |
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A stand of long growing bamboo.
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A spectacular view from Vesubio. Josue drove us up to the village in a 4x4 truck so we could see the Ornate Hawk-Eagle and Black Hawk-Eagle through his birdscope. Sure enough, the birds were circling around the top of the mountain and we had a short look at each. We climbed about an hour and a half more through the hillside working coffee plantation and had sights of many spectacular birds along the way.
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| Josue captured this Blue tailed hummingbird preening through his scope and took many pictures with my camera to achieve a good one. |
. Los Tarrales is also an ornimental plant grower
An Indian woman walking home, more than five miles up a hill to a village of three extended families who work the coffee plantation.
Many agoti are seen in the evening. Here we are hoping to locate owls. We did when it was darker.
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OWLS:
One evening after dinner when it was quite dark, Josue' took us back to a place we visited in the daylight, called vocally and then with his Ipod recording to attract a Black and White Owl. It was a magic moment when the owl, which had been answering the call of the man or machine showed itself with the help of Josue's flashlight. It landed silently in a tree not far away and right above our heads, so it could be seen briefly for each of us in the scope. We also took another walk and were delighted when Josue' pointed out a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl.
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| Laughing falcon |
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| They allowed us to view the small villiage perched on a steep hillside and in the scope, see other raptors |
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Josue' listening intently for birdsong
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| This a a copy of a picture from a painting of a Horned guan which is possible to see at Los Tarrales but we did not though we tried, stomping through steep hillside folliage on the coffee plantation.
This is a picture of a painting of a horned guan. The picture, I didn't inquire about the artist, was in the dining room of the two-bedroom lodge we rented while at Tarrales. This bird is one that many birders go to the Vesubio village and climb for three more hours to possibly see. For us, after walking uphill for 1 1/2 hours we decided that we could be quite happy to see the various species at that altitude, as many were new varieties for Dan and I and Donna and Jimmy although interested in the natural beauty and vigorous walk, were not avid birders.
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A turquoise crowned Mot mot- right outside our sitting room window
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| Andrew's grandfather's still running Mercedes |
An incredible find. The highly endangered Azure-rumped tanager, and he got us a picture. We saw three tanagers, a pair and a juvenile. The three of them appeared to be building a nest in a tall pine tree. Dan and I were glad to see the birds because they are endangered, mainly due to habitat destruction, but Josue' was ecstatic and was going to return to do some research at the site and monitor the nesting.
In our three wonderful, comfortable and well-fed days at Los Tarrales we checked off 80 birds on the checklist. We saw and heard more but unless we both saw them, did not count them.
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Driving down the Atitlan Volcano from Vesubio, we encountered this incredible sight. This group was (it) was moving in unison in the shape of a size 12 men's shoe. We watched as the head caterpillar would move along and the rear caterpillar climbed over the top to move as one mass. My rather gross movie wouldn't play, so you only have the picture. Too Bad.
Driving down the Atitlan Volcano from Vesubio, we encountered this incredible sight. This group of caterpillar was moving in unison in the shape of a size 12 men's shoe. We watched as the head caterpillar would move along and the rear caterpillar climbed over the top to move as one mass. My rather gross movie wouldn't play, so you only have the picture. Too Bad.
We stayed at Los Tarrales for three days then started back to the Rio by way of Guatemala City.
On the way we saw the Fuego Volcano spuming smoke. Shortly after we were back at our boats we learned there had been an eruption at Fuego and 10,000 persons evacuated.
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Our excellent taxi driver Jose. We hired him at the Antigua plaza taxi stand. He came back out to Tarrales to pick us up and drove us to Guatemala City in about four hours. We had not been looking forward to taking a bus (one would call the buses we saw "chicken buses"- they would have made numerous stops along the way. The taxi was the way to go.
Arriving at Dai Nonni Hotel in zona 13 in Guatemala City. Very friendly and clean place.
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Strange things in the city. The four of us were walking to find dinner when who-what do we see but this dog, sitting on the seat of a motorcycle like he belonged there. Well, he did. I looked up "No Stress Mike" on the internet. This dog rides on the front of the drivers seat, traveling with Mike, and has for years.
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| Second strange city sight. While we were eating our dinner, this riding club came in, each with an old-fashioned American built car. There was a vintage Rolls Royce also. I've forgotten all the makes but above are three of the cars. The Rolls, a Pontiac and Chevy. |
Out the bus window on the way back to Fronteras.
AND SOON -ON TO AUGUST 2012
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