Lazy Days.
Trip Start
Dec 22, 2006
1
66
97
Trip End
Feb 10, 2008
Rio Dulce,
Guatemala
Saturday, May 5, 2007
We walked around the grounds a bit and found a nice cozy place in the shade to spend the day. One of the buildings had an overhang balcony on the second floor that provided a perfect covering on the main floor from the sun. Hammocks were strung between the support pillars and Muskoka chairs lined the sidewalk next to the building. This was the place to set up. We sat around typing our journal and reading books simply enjoying the shade and peacefulness of the surroundings. Massive coconut trees lined the lawn between the building and the river. A turkey could be heard in the distance repeatedly make the tell tale cock-a-doodle-do. A Siamese cat was running zigzags under the shade of the trees chasing lizards or toads or some other small reptile. It was bliss.
When the afternoon breeze rolled in, our bodies were at a comfortable temperature so we decided to head up to the main street to hit the bank and change over some money to the local currency. It was Saturday and all the banks closed at noon. Unfortunately, we missed them by an hour or so. At camp, we walked directly back to our shade haven and resumed the position of sitting back and doing not much of anything. From one of the doors along the sidewalk emerged a woman with a pleasant smile and warm appearance. Enter Josie. We exchanged pleasantries with her and chatted about trivial things including the weather and the power outage. It was not long before the conversation shifted to travel and we discovered that Josie and her husband Miles were Albertans as well and have been traveling down to Guatemala often to deal with a sailboat that is docked in Rio Dulce.
The day passed by quickly as we turned pages of our books. Before long nightfall set in. The power to Rio Dulce came back on around 4:00pm, which gave us a chance to hit the internet café and review the NHL playoff schedule. Bruno's had satellite TV, however we were not totally certain if they would put the game on. We tried anyway. We arrived at the bar when we figured that the Ottawa Senators v. New Jersey Devils game would be playing. Silly us, we still cannot figure out the time change or more accurately what time zone we are even in, so we were only able to watch the third period. Ottawa, with a 3-2 victory, handed the Devils their final loss of the season and eliminated them from the playoffs. After the game, we watched a few interviews of the players on ESPN sports, which is horrible compared to CBC. Bedtime was upon us shortly after the game ended and we went home to rest up.
The next day was of similar affairs as the day before. The shady haven called us back again and we spent most of the day reading and relaxing. Nothing much is open in small villages on Sunday, so we did not even venture up to the main street and instead stayed down by the river protected from the heat by the shade cover and the satisfying breeze. Josie and Miles were around throughout the day and we chatted with them in between turning pages of our books. Today we decided to splurge and eat out. The Sunday special at Bruno's was BBQ; we love BBQ. It was Q45 for the dinner plate, which translates to about $6 CDN. The BBQ had been on all day and the smells had been wafting into our noses and tantalizing our senses for hours. After checking out the grill and watching massive plates of meat and salads being served up, we opted to share a dinner. We sipped on a beer while we waited for our plate to arrive. Bruno's did not disappoint and served up a dinner platter consisting of grilled sausage, chicken, and onions topped off with mashed potatoes, fresh greens and corn on the cob. The meal was ample enough to fill up the two of us. After dinner we rolled ourselves back into the comforts of 'Nilla and watched a movie before falling asleep.
We had been working on our journal for days and the on the morning of May 7, 2007 we decided to hit the internet café and upload some information to the travelblog site. We spent hours inside, which we did not object to as there was no breeze and the heat was stifling. In between running back and forth to the internet café Michael was able to get some work done on the van. The fan had bug screen taped inside the roof top housing which had come loose and wound itself around the blades. Michael took apart the fan, unravelled the bug screen and cleaned up the unit in general. The next job on the agenda was to silicone the front passenger side of the fibreglass roof. The seal had worn free in Mexico and we had tried various products to fill in the gap. We nearly used an entire tube of specially designed RV silicone, which did nothing by dry up and crack. A two part epoxy hardened itself, however did not adhere to anything and the hard bead it formed peeled easily away from the roof. This time, we were going to try, good ol' fashioned clear silicone with no fancy special purpose. Michael spent an hour or so, scraping, cleaning and otherwise preparing the area for the silicone. We waited until the late afternoon when the temperature dropped slightly and the sun was behind large palm trees to apply the silicone. It only took a few minutes and presto....another job completed. We finished at the internet café late in the afternoon and as we were admiring the silicone job on the van a couple of travelers walked up. Jean, from Alberta, noticed the tire cover on 'Nilla and had to say hello. She was traveling with Michael, a young German University student taking a break from his studies to see a bit of the world. Both of them were wonderful people and invited us to meet up with them for drinks at the bar later. Heading out for drinks was not a normal occurrence and we jumped at the chance to sit and socialize.
We met up at the bar around 7:30pm and ran into Josie and Miles again. We chatted with them briefly as they were leaving the following day to return to Strathmore, Alberta. Well wishes were passed between us before we walked over to the table with Jean and Michael. The conversation was odd to say the least. We swapped stories about gross jobs, silly friends and unusual experiences. Everyone at the table seemed entertained by each other. Before long, we all started to yawn and realized that it was nearing midnight, which was well past bedtime for all of us. We bid adieu to our new friends and retired to our quarters for the night.
