Ready For New Season

We are back in Guatemala ready for a new season.  We have been back on Ariel just one week, but have already accomplished much.  There is always a lot of cleaning as the tropics, during the summer in particular is very harsh on a boat.  The interior was again just as we left it, protected all season by a dehumidifier.  This was our second time returning and it was so much less stressful as we are now familiar with Guatemala City.  We were in luck this time as John, our marina manager happen to be making a trip to the city so we caught a ride back in his van, thus avoiding the scheduled five hour bus ride.  As it was, the van ride which should have been four to four and one half hours took eight hours.  As is typical on the mountain roads in Guatemala after heavy rains, there were many landslides which were partially blocking the road.  We were extremely thankful we were not on the bus. 

We had a wonderful summer, especially our time with our grandchildren and their parents.  Last year just before returning to Ariel we bought some property just outside Corning, New York.  We actually completed the closing after we returned to Guatemala so we didn't really get a chance to really know what we had.  In the mid 1800's it was a farm, which is still evidenced by the remains of a stone fence around the perimeter.  It has long since been allowed to re-forest.  In 1935 a hunting cabin was constructed on the site and this was added onto over the years, so that it is now a small house but in need of much improvement.  There was a tenant at the time we purchased and it appeared she was taking good care of the place so we let her stay.  It worked well until this past spring when she basically ran out of money.  We returned in May and started working on the issue and finally in August we had her and her possessions out.

We worked very hard all summer on repairs to the house and correcting some drainage issues with the land.  We discovered that the previous owners had discarded scrap metal along one of our lanes.  We recovered almost 10,000 pounds of metal which more than paid for the mini backhoe we needed to rent to move it. 



1982 John Deere - A Landlubber's Life

We moved in in August.  We soon found it very comfortable as a summer home, but  Ariel is our primary home.

We plan to leave the river soon first returning to the Bay islands of Honduras and then we'll see.