"You won’t know, if you don’t go."
So, once I got to Hasselt from London, several Belgian Andiamo alumni and I were able to get together for some good times. With the exception of Queen Roz, and Miet’s friends Steven and Saartje (who were still traveling in South America), everyone else was present. Raf, Mietsie, Miet, Cil, all met up for dinner and drinks at a local Hasselt cafe on a nice summer evening. 
Comment from: mietsie [Visitor]
that was such a fun-evening,
still killing time in Brussels… 😉
mietsie
These are pics of our last sail through Lago Izabal before tying up Andiamo in Rio Dulce for the rest of the summer (and hurricane season). Mahia stayed on as crew, and a day later, Miet and her friends Steven and Saartje joined us from Frontreras. It was to be a wonderful three day sail, where we saw awesome breezes, amazing sunsets, fierce thunderstorms and other wonders. And despite one big and stupid foible on my part, the experience continued unfettered. Here’s to good sailing, good friends, old and new, and everything else that Andiamo stands for.Without further adieu….
Our first night, anchored off Finca Paraiso, brought in a fierce thunderstorm that convected off the mountains. It was thunder and lightning on steroids, and rain that fell in absolute horizontal sheets for much of the time:
The next day, we made it out to the Agua Caliente (hot waterfalls), so Mahia can get a chance to enjoy it…
Then, back to Frontreras to pick up Miet, Saartje and Steven…
Then, it was off back to the Lake…
The next few shots are of the sensational sunset we saw in El Refugio:
So with a first-ever crew of born Americans, we set off for Rio Dulce on May 19th, we set sail for Rio Dulce, Guatemala. The trip took 17 hours, and all fared well. We even had some splendid onboard entertainment thanks to Katherine, who broke out her guitar and sang her whole repertoire of original songs for us as we mostly steamed for Guatemala. Everyone handled their watches well, and the trip went flawlessly. Heck even during our entry into the river’s shallow bar at peak high tide, Andiamo didn’t touch the bottom once (Another first!).
The time had come, and it was time for Andiamo to leave Utila. But not before we had one last big sail day. About 10 people from around the island came. Monica and Claire pretty much threw it together, and off we went at noon on the sunday before Andiamo was to leave Utila. Karen, the dive instructor who so diligently took care of the cats while Andiamo was in the yard, also came along. And, she brought along Mahia, who ended up becoming one of the infamous “Sea Cadets”, and crewed with Andiamo back to Rio Dulce.
It was a great day, lots of food and beer, and unfortunately, games initiated by Monica! Despite the games, it was a fine ol’ time. It was also Claire’s big sendoff, since she was due to leave Utila the very next day. By the way, all the GOOD pics here were taken by Rob, who so graciously copied his photos to CD for me before leaving Utila. Great job Rob!
Comment from: Curtis [Visitor]
Isn’t it obvious? Chopping oregano for the marvelous dinner to follow.
Fair winds, Andiamo.
Andate! Tristemente, sono qui… un certo giorno che seguirò.
So in early May, Andiamo had to go into the boatyard to get some work done on her bottom and rudder. She was set to stay in the yard for about a week (actually ended up being 10 days). So with the cats comfortably being taken care of in Utila, I was free to go exploring around Honduras for awhile. There wasn’t much to stay around La Ceiba for, so a trip out to Copan was in order. I found out that Lotte and Pauline were there, so we coordinated to meet up while I was there. Then we went over to San Pedro Sula for another while, before we’d part ways again.
Copan was interesting, though not quite as “Tikal” interesting. The buildings were more elaborate, but the temples were more ruined, and not in as good preserved condition as Tikal’s. But it was interesting to see the differences in building techniques and architecture between these two cities that in the Mayan world were relatively close to each other.
The next few shots are of Andiamo, waiting to go back into the water after doing its time in the La Ceiba shipyard. She’s got a nice new bottom coat of paint, repaired rudder, and a gleaming topside, that had been spot painted, waxed and buffed to a spit shine. Hope I can keep her looking like that for awhile!
Well, not really. It was to be Miet’s 2nd visit aboard Andiamo, her first time being when she and her then traveling mate, Miriam came up the Rio Dulce with us from Livingston. Shortly after Lotte and Pauline left Andiamo for Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and so on, Miet and her fellow school volunteer, Linda (from Holland), came aboard for a week. They were in Utila to get PADI-certified, among other things.
Andiamo was dealing with a bit of downtime during this period because I was waiting on my new main (which took another month to show up), and there were various projects taking place on the boat at the time, so there was unfortunately no sailing while they were aboard. But that didn’t stop us from having a great time, particularly at dinner time. In fact, it seemed like all we did while they were onboard was eat (and drink, a little).
Leaving London for Brussels on the Eurostar train (aka the “Chunnel” train) is a pretty interesting thing. First, the train is super-quiet and super-steady, unlike the noisy/shaky “tube” subway trains you take everywhere around London. Second, the train makes it way quietly out of London and through the English countryside, into a benign-looking tunnel that eventually takes the train more than 150 feet below the bottom of the English Channel! You’re in the dark tunnel for what seems like a day (but it’s only about an hour and a half), and you come out of it in France. Bada Bing, Bada Boom, you’re across the English Channel.
This is the 2nd time I’ve taken this train across (and below) the English Channel, and it still confounds me how the whole thing is possible. Yet it is. Here’s to modern engineering.
So, now I make my way to Brussels where I will continue my trek across the Old Continent. If the last five days are any indication of the tone of things to come, I gotta say it’s all quite intriguing to me.
The last couple of days and nights in London have been pretty action-packed and filled with new faces. Steffenie and I got to hang out quite a bit, and she has continued to evolve into quite the friend. I even mentioned to her that our friendship has developed quite an “edge” during this visit, which I enjoyed immensely. Seems like the cynical and acerbic sides of our senses of humors meshed quite well, and resulted in some very entertaining discussions regarding our respective “cultural” differences. I hope she enjoyed that banter as much as I did.
Same thing happened with Rosie, I got to know her quite a bit better since our time in Utila, and really enjoyed the time we spent. Her boyfriend Scott, an Aussie, turned out to be an incredibly nice guy who I’m sure to want to hang out with again somewhere and sometime soon. After meeting these people’s circle of friends, I realized that I now know so many more people in London than I did just a few days ago, which is great. I’ll need to come back in September on my way back to the states, so it’ll give me another opportunity to see these people some more before moving on. All these new people you meet along the way make a trip like this so much more interesting than looking at museums or tourist attractions, I’ve always felt that way.
Oh, and can’t forget about Maike and Juliane, two Germans I met at a hostel bar, and ended up hanging out with for a while as well. Juliane works in England as an Au pair, boning up on her English speaking abilities. Maike’s a schoolteacher who was in town for the weekend from Hamburg visiting Juliane. They were staying at a hostel around the corner from where I was staying. We ended up meeting up and hanging out at the West End one evening, then the next day we had lunch at a great Indian restaurant before they had to head out of London.
So now I’m in Belgium for a while, meeting up with yet a whole other bunch of people I know both here and in Holland. Surely I am bound to meet a whole slew of new people through them.
And that’s ok with me.
