The Beauty and the Many Beasts

The Build up to our Departure.

It’s hard to believe that we have called Rio Dulce home for nearly two months, time stretches differently when you’re living aboard, days blend into each other and before you know it, you are woven into the rhythm of a place. Most people breeze through a destination with their matching luggage, just like we used to, have a two-week vacation and right back to normal life, we sailors get deeply intrenched this could also be because life is never truly normal out here.

This is one of the many beauties about the life style we have chosen, as wherever the new port is, truly becomes our home, we need to grocery shop like locals, chase down boat spares and items for our floating home like it’s a treasure hunt, which truth be told it usual is, we engage with local craftsman  from wood workers to electricians and everyone in between, the interaction with the local community becomes a significant part of our daily life as well as our classroom in understanding the local culture.

What started as a dream to sail the seas, has turned into so much more, it has become about the destination, the friends we have made and the floating home that we have fallen in love with, the vessel has simply become our chosen mode of transport, to be able to explore the roads less travelled, the beauty of moving our home anytime we want, to any place we choose gives us an immense feeling of freedom and satisfaction.

Guatemala was truly the place that was never on our radar not even a few months ago until we had some very convincing buddy boats. We are truly pleased that we buckled to the peer pressure. 😜

As you know by now, we have been lucky enough to explore Antigua and Guatemala City, but Rio Dulce let me tell you is a true gem isolated way up the river deep in the jungle, financially humble, but truly beautiful and its wealth lies in the kind and happy local community.

The Rio Dulce (Sweet River) is 43 kilometres long and is an integral part of the way of life here; to get around you need a dinghy as all the shops and restaurants are set along the banks of the river, the locals use  wooden boats called launchers to get around, these can also be used as a taxi service. The river is everything from the highway to work, the playground for the kids, drinking water and a source of income for the fisherman.

The sailors really do add value to the area, there is something organized by cruisers for cruisers almost every day in the form of entertainment and supporting of local business, as well as many fund-raising projects to get involved in to make the life of the local community a little more pleasant.

The Beauty and the Many Beasts

Jungle living has its perks and of course a handful of cons if you can bear them. The green lush beauty with mango trees that drop more fruit to the ground than we can consume, oh and so sweet and delicious, it gives our sailing community their daily dose of vitamin C. We wake every morning to the beauty of the Rio Dulce. Every day we can get involved in something, one never needs to be board or lonely.

We have had some brilliant nights out, cruising up or down the river into estuaries to visit quaint little restaurants and bars, that really are just gorgeous and the food almost always surprisingly good, one evening in particular we headed to such a gem called Hotel Cassa Perico, which is quite a way down an estuary and rather deep into the jungle……what did we find…….. not local Guatemalan food, but a little backpackers owned and run by a Swiss guy serving some fantastic schnitzels, now who would have thought we would find something like that on the Rio Dulce, cheap, delicious and such a beautiful jungle hideout.

These pleasures do come with extreme heat and humidity and an insane number of bugs at sunset which is like a traffic jam under the table around your legs, together with some hair-raising lightning storms. One of our favourite nights would of course be margherita Mondays, however instead of getting dressed up with some beautiful Chanel perfume and a pretty handbag and heels for a night out, the Chanel perfume is traded for insect repellent and the pretty Gucci bag traded for a crusty 20-dollar sailors’ dry bag, oh man and those old broken flip flops. 😂 Everywhere we go involves a dingy ride and certainly some large splashes of water to rinse the good perfume off and destroy your freshly washed hair. The beauty and simple life of sailing far away from the chaos of traffic runs to work, with a perfectly made-up face……..Take me sailing BABY.

A Day in our life  

We have spent the last days on what feels like many boat jobs, although I am told by our friends that our list is shorter than most.

Some of our tasks have gone to plan and others not so much. One of the tasks that went totally pear shaped would of course be the woodwork job. We purchased a window frame air conditioner which we intended to leave running on shore power while we are away from Intle Breeze, this in the hope of curbing the humidity in the interior and of course this will prevent mould from developing……. A small woodwork job was required to get the aircon stabilized, what could possibly go wrong??? Uhm 15 centimetres could go wrong……….to be fair my husband has never claimed to be a carpenter, he has many talents but, this is not one of them, I guess he was not too amused when he came home with his work of art and I was rolling on the floor laughing,  when it did not fit, after he had laboured on this all day, I tried, oh I tried to be supportive, but self-control totally failed me. Needless to say, he enlisted the skills of a professional and the task was completed and problem solved.

Eric has put some effort into checking on our buddy boat Happinez while they are away and we will have friends do the same for us when we leave, once again some challenges getting on an off their boat but, thankfully I have a flexible husband. 😜 He is even able to fit his 6ft 4 self into a space that is barely large enough for a midget, to do a good bilge scrub.

Of course I have my tasks too which falls mostly around the detailing of the interior, but every now and then some alternative outdoor tasks also call for my attention like trying to stuff the sail into the bag and get it zipped up, which frankly always feels a little nerve wrecking for me because my ass burns when sitting on the sail and of course on this boat it is rather high up and when it swings a little, I think I am going to roll out, but most likely this will never happen actually it might even be impossible but the feeling remains.

Boat Yoga: The art of contorting your body into impossible positions while pretending to know what you’re doing.😜