Life On The Rio

Rio (river) Dulce (sweet) could not be more aptly named. We have settled into our life here, and it is everything and more than we expected. There are several marinas stretched over a few miles around the town of Fronteras (Frontier). I would say the average marina size is 15 - 20 boats, and so there are probably in excess of 300 boats waiting out hurricane season here. Many marinas, such as ours, are accessible only by water, as are many of the businesses. Needless to say, our dinghy gets a good workout. We take our laundry to the Backpackers Hotel just under the bridge. Each load is 35 Q, washed, dried, and folded, which is about $4.50 USD. We visit businesses along the river and in town, and while it takes some searching, we can usually find what we need. The fruits and vegetables in town are fantastic, so we often go.

Super Fruits and Veggies

Always Hectic

The orphanage, Casa Guatemala, comes to the marina in their launch twice a week with frozen and refrigerated goods, so we buy our meats, cheese, butter, and yogurt from them. Friday nights we go to Tortugal Marina for pizza and a movie. Actually, they send their launch to pick us up. There is usually a good crowd from Mario's Marina, Catamarans Marina, and our marina, Monkey Bay. Of course, there are many restaurants, and the prices are very reasonable, so they are fun to try out.

And the monkeys have been around.

Tikal

We took our first extended inland trip to the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal and to the city of Flores on Lago Peten Itza. We traveled with Ray and Vonnie, sailing on Wishbone from Toronto, Ontario. It is a three-hour bus trip to Flores, and Tikal is another 63 km. The trip could not have been better. We got to our hotel, La Casa De Don David, which was 2/3 the distance between Flores and Tikal, in time for a late dinner, which was included in the room price. We arranged a guided tour which would start with our ride from the hotel at 5:30 am. We had an excellent tour guide, Caesar Moran. By 1 pm, we were all exhausted from the heat, hiking, and climbing, and called it quits to return to our hotel. Beyond the ruins, the park has such an incredible variety of flora, fauna, birds, and wildlife. We would have liked to spend several days, but our time (budget) was limited. The following day, we went back to the city of Flores to get a hotel on the little island connected by a causeway. We liked the minivan driver who took us to and from the park, so we had made arrangements with him to take us to Flores. It was also a treat to walk around this very quaint city. After a short three days, we were back on the Rio Dulce, but with great memories.

Ray and Vonnie

Agua Caliente

A group of us from Monkey Bay, fourteen in all, planned a little excursion to an agua caliente (hot springs). This one is about halfway along the northern shore of Lago Isabel, or about 12 or 13 miles from Fronteras. We each brought our own drinks, and most of us bought fried chicken in town to take for our lunch. We caught a collective, a minivan, which dropped us off near the entrance to the agua caliente. While a collective is crowded, it is very inexpensive. The agua caliente was great for swimming. It consisted of a stream flowing by with cool, but definitely not cold water, with a waterfall cascading into it from the hot spring. The spring water was extremely hot, so the water in the pool below the falls was quite warm. Just upstream, the water was much cooler. It was a fun outing. Luckily, when we hiked back out, the collective (same guys) had guessed when we would be done and had parked under a shade tree to wait for us.

Lunch Time

Monkey Bay Marina

We arrived at our marina on May 1, so we have been here just a week. We could not be happier with our selection of Monkey Bay. There are several marinas, and each is unique. We struggled trying to decide, of course, site unseen. Monkey Bay is noted to be a little quieter than some,  mostly because it does not have a restaurant attached. It is only accessible by water. We were welcomed by everyone and immediately included in all the activities. It seems there is always something going on. Right now, there are a lot of us here, but it will begin thinning out soon as people head north for the summer.  If nothing else, we all get together every day for happy hour, but there is also dominoes, eating out at restaurants, going shopping, and taking little excursions, and it has only been a week. It is so comfortable here. You can leave your things out, like food in the refrigerator, or shower stuff in the cabinets at the showers, or maybe the book you are reading in the palapa, and no one will bother them. We have our sail bags in the palapa to be out of our way until we leave, for example. The marina is managed by John, a super guy with a very good reputation for caring for the boats while the owners are away. We have heard the monkeys, but have not seen them yet. They should be back soon. They apparently make a circuit, allowing time for the leaves to grow back before returning. We do have a couple of porcupines living in our palapa.