Ok, so expectations were set pretty high considering last year’s AMAZING Christmas in Belize. Sure, Raf, Eric, Greg, and the Thompsons all helped make it a spontaneous, dynamic Christmas. Great tropical sunshine, clear blue waters, and an incredibly idyllic backdrop made the situation unbearably fantastic. So how could that have been beaten?Well, if I had counted on the weather to settle the score, this year’s Christmas lost hands down to last year’s. The rain never fell harder or more relentlessly on Utila than it did all last week. The winds and storm action were pretty brutal and well, to put it mildly, it just plain sucked.
That and the fact that I went to La Ceiba last Thursday to try to get some parts for the boat’s water pump, do some shopping (for far better prices than on the island) and to meet up with Rob from Siqquituq, and my danish pal Sjelle, who was coming in from Rio Dulce by bus to get away from the river for the holidays. When I left Utila, the weather was reasonably good, but by the time I got to La Ceiba, the weather got horrendous. Rain was sheeting, and visibility was almost nil. I BARELY saw the breakwater leading into the harbor. It was pretty nerve wracking going into the harbor with a large swell sweeping my boat in on 8 foot high waves, but yet I made it in without a hitch.
I met up with all in reasonably good time (Heather, Rob’s wife had to fly back to Canada due to her dad’s illness, which rings awfully familiar to what happened to me last year). The plan was to come back on Friday, to give us enough time to get situated back on Utila to partake in the numerous festivities. Only problem was that the weather wasn’t cooperating. The rain on Friday was all too ruthless, and by the time afternoon came around, it was still pretty bad, so we nixed leaving on Friday. So we opted to hang out, go into town and actually catch a movie at the mall. So we went and saw “King Kong”, the new Peter Jackson remake. LOVED IT!
We finally saw a break on Saturday. But then I noticed that I had a leak in my exhaust that needed to be repaired, since Sjelle and I had just done a major once over on the engine, and I didn’t really want salt water spraying all over our hard work. So I had to set some epoxy on the leak and let it set for several hours, which ended up ruining our chances for leaving that afternoon, which also happened to be Xmas eve. So alas, we would spend Xmas eve in La Ceiba.
That actually meant going to the part of town called “Zona Viva”, where Rob, Sjelle and I had dinner, and then hit some of the clubs and bars in the area. At midnight, the whole town went off in a rash of fireworks, and needless to say it was pretty deafening. But after that, we found our way into one of the better clubs, and ended up staying there till about 3 AM. So it was definitely a DIFFERENT way to spend Xmas eve.
The next day, we waited on the weather again, and by around 10 AM, it seemed to clear up enough to get out of there. But then I checked my engine, and saw the exhaust repair was still LEAKING! So I had to repair it again. This time I used a faster setting epoxy, which I hoped would at least give me a temporary enough repair to get the boat back to Utila. Once there, I give it a more permanent repair. So that added a couple more hours to our wait. We ended up not leaving before 2 PM, into less than desirable weather. But it did end up working out ok, and we made it back to Utila by sunset. The bad news is that we missed all the island Xmas festivities, so that was a bit of a bummer. The guys at Gunter’s and Tranquila had a nice pig roast with all the trimmings and lots of beverages, and ah…. we missed it all.
But despite the shortcomings, and the mishaps, it still turned out to be a fun and interesting Christmas in the Caribbean. Maybe I was wrong to try comparing it to last year’s Christmas. I guess you gotta have some like these ones to give you another twist on the whole idea of what Christmas in the Caribbean can be like. So I just take it at face value, and appreciate the experience for what it was.
In other news we went to Cayos early last week, and enjoyed a nice night over there. Lisa, (crazy ex-lawyer), and two French Canadians I know from the island, Anie Claude, and Anie Pier, came along. Rob and Heather from Siqquituq were already there on a mini-charter, so we met up with them and it was good fun, we had great weather there, and on the way back to Utila, we saw a phenomenal waterspout (a tornado that forms on the surface of water), that blew up a mere 200-300 meters behind us as we motored into Utila’s harbor.
So now, let’s see what New Year’s holds.
And on that note, let me wish everybody a fantastic 2006. I have a feeling it’s going to be an interesting year for a lot of us. 