30/04/2012/9:14 pm, Halifax, Nova Scotia (crew); boat in Rio Dulce
You've probably guessed that we are home in Halifax by now!
We arrived in Fernandina Beach, picked up our car that miraculously started after sitting on the lot at Tiger Point Marine all winter, and moved into Dick and Tina's guest room for a couple of nights. While we were there, we managed to connect with other cruising friends - Carole and Richard (Kilissa) and Sandi and Steve (Yonder) including one memorable afternoon when the "girls" went consignment store shopping while the guys did "guy things" - like getting groceries and checking out welders and drinking beer. And then we all met up for the evening chez Devoe. Between munchies and beverages, we modeled our purchases - to oohs and aahs from the gentlemen! It was a fine time indeed.
We stopped to visit Sue and Terry in South Carolina and then headed up through the Blueridge mountains and Shenandoah Valley (shades of John Denver) - a nice change from the more easterly route we've taken other years. Unfortunately it poured rain through most of the trip - it was beautiful, but visibility was limited. We kept seeing less and less green as we travelled North, and we managed a picnic only one day, but we never did encounter snow so we were happy.
Jim worked up the statistics for our travel this year. It is so interesting to see how each year changes from the last. Here they are for our 2011/12 journey from Fernandina Beach FL to Rio Dulce, Guatemala:
Nautical miles travelled: 1460.6 (down from 2021.5)
Statute miles: 1680.8
Kilometres: 2689.3
Nights at anchor: 45 (way down from 72)
Nights on a mooring: 22 (way down from 64)
Nights at dock: 91 (way up from 32)
Nights at sea: 6 (same as last year, but we had 4 consecutive nights this year)
Longest distance travelled in one passage: 420 nautical miles - Key West to Isla Mujeres, 95.5 hours - crossing the Gulf Stream and the Yucutan Channel). (It took longer but we covered fewer miles than last year - 510.5 nm from Varadero, Cuba to Fernandina Beach, FL, 74 hours - travelling with the Gulf Stream)
Diesel used: 145 US gallons (down from 185 US gallons)
We left Madcap on a mooring in Vero Beach last year when we came home for Christmas; this year she was on a dock in Ft Pierce. We took advantage of very affordable dockage in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala when it was available. We still love to be offshore in beautiful anchorages, but when we were in communities, it was very convenient to be on a dock.
This will be the first year that we've left Madcap in the water - fresh water - and we'll let you know how it turns out!
Spring has arrived in Nova Scotia. The forsythia is in full flower; daffodils echo the brilliant yellow at the back of the garden. My tulips didn't amount to much of anything, but all the rest of the shrubs and trees are budding out. The robins are here, chickadees chirp and the grass needs mowing.
Our tax returns are filed, we've caught up on hugs and news with Mary Beth and now we're off to Ottawa for a visit with our boys. We'll really get into home mode when we get back. This life of 6 months aboard a boat and 6 months on land still seems to suit us.
Have a great summer everyone and thanks again for travelling with us. I'll write a few lines now and then, and we'll see you again in the fall as we continue our exploration of Guatemala and surrounding waters.
|
Comments [1]
We, too, are back on tera-firma and catching up.
Will look forward to more blogs. So nice to have connected with you two.
Happy summer!
Charlotte
15/04/2012/1:33 am, La Antigua, Guatemala
We have just had the most extraordinary day.
It started much like yesterday - with breakfast on the patio - except today it was a full breakfast with tamales, tuna/chili croquette things, eggs, plantains, beans, a basketful of breads and a big tray of fruit. With full stomachs, we set off to explore and made it as far at the corner before the first happy thing happened. We looked across the street to find two familiar looking people - Ted and Honey Lynn (Patron) whom we had met at El Tortugal. We had enjoyed sharing a table at the Easter pot luck and wished we'd had more time with them - and here they were! After agreeing to meet for drinks later in the day we spent the morning wandering the city - through the market near our hotel, past churches with crowds of parishioners mingling outside and vendors selling ice cream and fruit, up and down the cobbled streets.
We then thought we'd look up a restaurant Karen and Martin had told us about and it was as we headed down 5a Avenida Sur that the stars really aligned. We had our heads together studying the map when a couple of folks stopped to ask if they could help us. "Yes, we're looking for Meson Panza Verde." "Oh, that's just where we're going," said the gentleman. He glanced at Jim's "Sailing World" cap, asked if we were boaters and when Jim said "yes" he replied, "We're meeting folks there for lunch. Some of them are former cruisers. Why don't you come too; I know you'd get along." We hesitated about 5 seconds before agreeing, and so it was that we followed Santiago and Leigh Ellen down the street, through the door of the lovely Meson Panza Verde, and up the steps to meet Lyne (from Montreal) and her husband who have been living here for several years. Then along came Marianne and Wyllys (the former cruisers - from Maine). We mentioned that we left our boat in the Rio for the summer and Marianne said, "Oh! Our good friends Cabot and Heidi are in that area too." Well - Cabot is the person who connected us with Casey and, by now, Chewink is tied up right next to Madcap! Pretty cool to accept an impromptu lunch invitation from a random stranger on the street of a foreign city, meet a really interesting group of people, including a good friend of the folks who told us about where we've left our boat. We're operating on one - maybe two - degrees of separation these days.
Lunch was absolutely delicious. We talked and talked, felt immediately at home, and thoroughly enjoyed the company of all these folks who regularly gather for Sunday brunch in this beautiful spot. We left with promises to connect again when we return in November, and with suggestions for restaurants for later in the afternoon. Thank you, Santiago!
A return visit to Jades SA resulted in a new piece of art for our living room, a visit to the Artisans Market filled my pack with some brightly coloured textiles, and then it was time to meet Honey Lynn and Ted. We had drinks on the roof top terrace at El Sereno where the views would have been spectacular if the clouds hadn't moved in, and then we moved on to have dinner at La Pena de Sol Latino (another suggestion from our lunchtime friends). It's a charming restaurant run by former cruisers where we enjoyed delicious and beautifully presented meals. Live music by an upscale Andean band finished off this amazing day spent with so many new friends.
Jim and I are surprised and delighted by the way Guatemala has wrapped its arms around us. It's beginning to seem like we are meant to be here.
Tomorrow, we catch a flight from Guatemala City to Florida where we'll reclaim our car, visit old friends and head north to Canada. We have come to the end of this cruising season and approach the beginning of what we expect will be a wonderful at-home season. I wonder what extraordinary days are yet to come.
|
14/04/2012/1:31 am, La Antigua, Guatemala
Our departure from the Rio was beyond beautiful. Nicholas arrived in his lancha about 6:30, we enjoyed a coffee with Casey and then piled our bags in the boat and headed out of the bay. The water was flat calm, the mountains rose softly around the lake, and the last few fishermen returned home from bringing in their nets. We just gazed around in awe at how absolutely gorgeous this area is.
About 50 minutes later, Nicholas pulled up at the dock in Fronteras and we dragged our bags up the hill to the Litegua station. We bought our tickets and boarded the bus (sitting back a few rows just like my walking partners suggested - so a) we wouldn't be as aware of erratic driving and narrow misses, and b) we would be less likely to be killed in the event of a head on collision). The bus rattled away across the bridge to Morales and on to the big city.
The scenery changed dramatically from the serene blue water we had started out in, to forested slopes and shabby towns to arid hills and eventually the drab, grey, dirt-poor outskirts of Guatemala City. Colours changed from blues to greens to browns and greys. Meadows and orchards gave way to steep hills with cinderblock buildings jumbled like mono colour Lego blocks. It was easy to see how earthquakes can cause so much destruction in places like this. Traffic came to a standstill for more than an hour and we never did see what caused it, and by the time the bus crawled through the narrow, dingy streets of the capital city to the bus station, our connecting bus to Antigua had long since departed.
The agent I tried to talk with spoke no English and my Spanish wasn't up to arguing that I had a ticket for the 2 o'clock bus that had left and what were they going to do about it, and we didn't want to wait for the 6 pm bus, so we shared a cab with two young women who were also headed for Antigua - paying 100 Q each and forgetting about the 45Q we had already paid for the bus.
By the time we got to Antigua, we were 5000 ft above sea level, out of the dinginess and into a beautiful colonial town nestled in a valley between three volcanoes. It was once the capital of the country, a lively political and cultural centre and home to a huge number of churches and monasteries, but after a series of earthquakes, it was pretty much abandoned in the 1770's. Buildings were evacuated and plundered and residents were ordered to move. For the next couple of hundred years, it was mostly squatters who stayed. In the 1800's a coffee industry began, but it wasn't until the mid 1900's that anything really changed. Then, the city was designated a national monument, efforts at restoration began and parts of the city returned to their former splendor. But then came the devastating earthquake of 1976, when thousands of people died and buildings came crashing down.
Antigua was designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1979 and work began again. The Lonely Planet Guide says: " Perhaps the real miracle of Antigua is its resilience. Despite the destructive forces that have conspired against it - earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods, followed by virtual abandonment and centuries of neglect - it's reemerged with a vengeance, buoyed by the pride of its inhabitants."
La Antigua is now home to more than a dozen Spanish language schools, the wedding industry is big, tourism booms, many glorious buildings have been restored and the ruins of others are charmingly integrated into the streetscape.
We didn't see much of it by the time we arrived on Friday evening but we grabbed a quick dinner and fell into our bed at Hotel Entre Volcanes. This restored colonial hotel is near the market and a few short blocks from the central square. Jeanette and her staff took very good care of us, and the fact that all of them speak English as well as Spanish was a great help.
I had read that Elizabeth Bell gave excellent walking tours of the city so we headed for the fountain in Parque Central at 9:30 on Saturday morning. To our delight, we were the only ones to show up so we had a personal tour from this excellent scholar and historian. She is American by birth but has lived and studied here since 1969, is a cultural historian who is passionately interested in sharing the story of this city with visitors, has written several books including "Antigua Guatemala; the City and its Heritage" and gave us one of the best tours we have had. We highly recommend her tour to anyone who really wants to know some of the historical and current story of this city (and country).
We visited the Catedral de Santiago, and learned of the stabilization efforts and restoration plan. We viewed the architectural style, "Earthquake baroque", paid a visit to Jades SA to learn a bit about the jade industry here, and ended up at the Casa Santo Domingo Hotel which is built around the ruins of Iglesia Y Convento de Santo Domingo - once the biggest and richest monastery in the city. The site is also home to several museums, only one of which we had time to visit - but which was fascinating. It houses a collection of contemporary glass pieces and the pre-Hispanic ceramic art that inspired them. We loved this place!
In the afternoon, we viewed intricately embroidered and handwoven textiles that women from outlying communities brought to the city to sell. We bargained for and bought a few things, fended off hordes of folks selling wooden flutes and jewellery and scarves. One particularly insistent (and not typical) woman called out after Jim "You very cheap man!" when he refused to buy his wife a table runner!
We ate at Frida's that evening, enjoying very good Mexican food at a little table under an original Frida Kahlo painting. A walk home through the cobble stone streets, people watching all the way brought an end to our first - and definitely not the last - day in Antigua. As much as we hated to leave the Rio, we are really glad we made the decision to spend a couple of days here.
|
