Guatemala

Guatemala, it's bloody amazing!! Well we have only been here just over 2 weeks now but are absolutely loving it. We arrived at the sandbar at the entrance of the Rio Dulce river just before sunrise to go in on the high tide. We draw just under 2m and had a 54cm tide and from the waypoints we found online chanced it and went in but not long after we're pushing through the mud. A nice fisherman came alongside for a little support and said we were in the deeper water but that didn't help much!! We committed, gave it shit and pushed on through for 400m,down at one stage to .5kt just making way we could feel it was just mud but we made it anyway. When we leave next time I will have to do some serious survey in the dinghy beforehand that's for sure! By the look of the worn antifoul we pushed through maybe 20cm deep mud.

There are a LOT of stories about Guatemala and lots of them are not so good, a bit like Madagascar and that was one of our favourite places. It's funny the more 3rd world you go a lot of the time the more friendly the people are but sure you can also find yourself in trouble if you're in the wrong places or not so careful! But so far we couldn't be happier to be here. 

Checking in with Customs ect in Livingstone was super easy with the help of the local agent Raul, all done very quickly with the officials really polite and friendly not asking for any bribes or trying to rip us off. Livingstone is the mouth of the river Dulce and  mainly makes its way from the fishing fleet, it is nice enough place for the day with a few local bars and restaurants but not a lot else to do there and apparently not the place to stay overnight as a few boats have had stuff stolen of their deck while asleep.

Heading up to Rio Dulce town is about 25nm up the river and the scenery is just spectacular. Big green canyons on either side for the first 7 miles with loads of birds and fisherman it's really stunning. Then the river opens up wide and before long you're in the first main town Rio Dulce. Everyone gets around by water rather than car it seems and they all wave and are genuinely nice which leaves a smile on my face. The town must have 10+ little marinas, a lot of yachts just anchored also and then 3 boatyard's you can haul and do work in. The main town is small and a little chaotic but has lots of rustic charm for sure, loads of little stores selling everything you need including the freshest and nicest vegetables we have seen for a real long time. There's a couple of really good little hardware stores for the gear we need and also a couple of real nice little bars on the water, one we have become very familiar with "Sundog Cafe" has it's own jetty we can safely leave the dinghy. My Spanish is coming along well, I'm the second week into having lessons each morning at Sundog which I'm really enjoying.

Now we are full on into a refit and will post some more pics of that soon

Livingstone 

Coming into the canyon