Being back in Florida even just a few months since my last visit here in March is surreal to me. I feel like it’s been much longer. Being in the islands of Honduras and Guatemala over the past months, and the many adventures that I’ve had on Andiamo have made it almost impossible for me to believe that it all fits into a period of just 3 months. The past couple of weeks in Rio Dulce before leaving for Florida have been rather interesting and eventful, despite the fact that I was in “checkout mode” when I arrived there. The “Sea Cadets” had all done a wonderful job as crew. I enjoyed having them onboard so much that I invited to stay onboard for Andiamo’s outing to Lago Izabal for one last 2-3 day jaunt before tying up permanently for the rest of the summer. Of the three, only Mahia decided to stick around. Katherine and Sabrina both had other plans and were quick to make them happen. So the day after we got to Rio, we bid our goodbyes to them as they caught their bus from Frontreras.
It was great having Mahia around for the next few days, because there was much to do on Andiamo to get her ready for her summer-long stay. She was willing to pitch in anyway she can, and she was good company to boot. Too bad she was deftly allergic to the cats, but she put up with that pretty well, despite the many discomforts.
Since we were heading out to Lago Izabal just a couple of days later. The marina decided not to tie us up at our permanent spot as we would be all blocked in and it would be a pain for us to leave a couple of days later. Instead, they gave us a temporary spot at a med mooring until the coming Tuesday, which was the day we were to leave for Lago Izabal. Miet, my Belgian friend from Antigua who had been on Andiamo already twice before, was on her way over with 2 other Belgian friends of hers. They would meet us at Frontreras on Tuesday, and we’d head onward to the lake. It was a good plan.
Unfortunately, over the weekend, the marina informed me that the boat that usually takes our spot was going to be back on Monday, and that we would need to clear out of there on Monday and not Tuesday. So I decided that we would go to the lake a day early and do some sailing around the lake for that day rather than just sit at a hot anchorage until Tuesday waiting for Miet and her friends. So that’s what we did.
We left there on Monday, close to noon, and headed into the lake. It was a nice clear day, and winds were brisk despite the early time of day. Usually, the winds don’t start really blowing until later in the afternoon, close to sunset time. But there we were in 15 knot or so winds just having a grand ol’ time.
Since Mahia had never seen the Agua Caliente aka “hot waterfalls” at Finca Paraiso, I decided that we’d anchor there for the night. The weather was getting pretty dreary, and fast. So we dropped anchor, and watched the storm clouds roll in from the mountains. Then the rains came, and it was some serious rain. We basically couldn’t get any further out of the boat then just outside the companionway before getting absolutely drenched. The storms pounded for hours. There was quite a spectacular lightning and thunder show happening on the mountains around us. So that’s how it was to be for the next several hours, so we ended up just watching some dvd’s and having some pasta for dinner before turning in early.
The next morning, the skies were absolutely clear, and it was a perfect day to check out the hot waterfalls. We dinghied in, meeting Julio upon our arrival. Julio is the manager of one of the properties on the Finca, and was kind enough to come and help us off the rockpile the last time we came here back in February. He remembered me and Andiamo, and showed us his usual kind hospitality. After spending a few minutes catching up with him, we started our walk over to the hot waterfalls, where we would spend the next few hours swimming and hanging out.
We still had to head back to Frontreras to pick up Miet and her friends, so we had to cut the swimming a little short, and head back to Andiamo. We got there, started her up, raised anchor and took off for town. We were running a little late, so I decided to just run the motor and get there asap. Lucky for us, because Miet was beginning to worry a bit.
We got to Frontreras, got Miet on the radio, and picked her, Steven and Saartje up with the dinghy. After some quick provisioning, we pulled up our anchor and headed back into the lake. We were hoping to make it to Denny’s Beach for that night, because we heard that they were having their monthly full moon party that night. The wind was blowing pretty good, and we were going dead downwind, so I put the sails up “wing on wing”, and off we went. We were running at a brisk 8 knots in excellent conditions. I’m not a big fan of dead downwind sailing, but if you have to do it, these are the conditions you want.
During this wonderful evening and night sail, we had something really REALLY embarrassingly stupid happen, and I’m so bummed about it, that I don’t even want to talk about it. It would have been enough to ruin the mood of the rest of the trip, but I refused to let that happen, and we just went on with life. But to this day I kick myself about what I let happen. Oh well…
Well, turned out nothing really was happening at Dennys beach that night, as the full moon party turned out to have been the PREVIOUS night. But it didn’t matter to us anyway, because we never made it to Dennys beach that night anyway. I apparently had a bad waypoint on my gps, which got us to a beach that was a bit south of where Dennys beach actually was. Since it was nighttime and I couldn’t see much of the shore, it was quite difficult to tell where we were. So rather than go crazy going up and down the shore looking for it, I decided that we would just drop our anchor for the night.
Miet and Saartje whipped up a great dinner, and we ended up eating in the cockpit, anchored at a place that we didn’t really know where it exactly was. But then, that’s cruising sometimes.
The next morning, it was clearly apparent that we were nowhere near Denny’s Beach. So we raised anchor, and went up the shore a little to the north and found it where we were supposed to have gone. We tied up at one of their moorings, and swam in for some refreshments. That’s when we found out that we missed the big full moon party, but we really didn’t because it got pretty much rained out by those spectacular storms that we watched all night on Monday.
After spending a few more hours there, and having some lunch. We moved on up the lake, stopping at a town for some additional “supplies” (as in beer and mixers!), and continued on up the lake, searching for what I’d heard to be an excellent anchoring spot called “El Refugio”. According to my guides, it was a great little cove that was in a very isolated part of the lake. That description turned out to be true. We were the only boat there. We arrived just before sunset, dropped anchor just in time to get a good swim and watch the spectacular sunset show. We grilled some fresh robalo that I had bought in town the day before, and enjoyed dinner in the cockpit. At night, there was no artificial light whatsoever anywhere around us, except for the flashlight on the occasional passing cayuco carrying a fisherman up the river that ends in the sac of the cove.
The next morning, we started out with a good sail out of the cove, and onward to another part of the lake that had a few navigable rivers that went into a dense jungle area. Unfortunately, the lake’s water was low, and the depths weren’t what I’d hope they’d be. So getting up these little river fingers would be dicey. Instead we opted to turn back towards Finca Paraiso, so Steven and Saartje can check out the hot waterfalls. We did that instead, had yet another wonderful afternoon at the falls, and ended up getting thrown out at closing time.
We got back on the boat, and raised our sails and headed out with the wind. The wind kicked up to about 20 knots and we had an awesome evening sail. Only problem I had was that I had to find the entrance to the river in the dark. I’d done it before, but it’s indeed a pain. But we did it, and found the river without a hitch.
Within another half hour, we were anchored outside of town and bringing Miet, Steven and Saartje back to town where they would get a room for the night. They had to catch an early morning bus back to Antigua, so they decided it would be better for them to be ashore. We bid our goodbyes to them, and they gave me a really really nice watercolor print of the main square in Brussels as a gift, that was drawn by Steven’s uncle.
The next morning, we headed back to the marina. It took awhile for them to get our dock space available, but they eventually did. We tied up at the spot where Andiamo would hang out for the rest of the summer.
For the next few days, Mahia was nice enough to stay and help me get the boat prepped for Andiamo’s extended summer stay. There was much to do and it was good to have her help, that’s for sure. It took awhile, but we managed to get Andiamo pretty much squared away.
Having a day or two to spare before I would head out to Florida, we hopped a bus to Flores and Tikal to check out the ruins. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it as much as I did the first time around, but I did, which was cool. After that little junket, we headed back to Rio Dulce, where I tied up my final loose ends. I bid my goodbyes to the cats, the marina folks, and Mahia, who went on to continue her Central America traveling, and hopped my Guatemala City flight to Miami. I was SUPER lucky to make my bus out of Frontreras, considering I overslept by an hour. The bus ride was long and bumpy, but I made it to the airport intact. About four hours later, I was back in the USA, at my least favorite airport on the planet, Miami. A few hours after that, I was in Daytona, having beers with Chris, Pam and several other good friends. It was a surreal ending to a very surreal day.
So now, I’m in “summer” mode. Despite some unpleasantness I have to deal with in regards to Mahi, I’m ready to enjoy the summer. My travels will take me to Europe for some extended visits with friends and adventures into Eastern Europe, where I’ve never been. I suspect that’s just for starters. As I said on my previous post, who knows where I’ll end up.
In the meantime, “Don’t steal my sunshine…” 
