If this boat is rockin'....

  Puerto Barrios, Guatemala
Tuesday, May 8, 2007

'Nilla at Bruno's in Rio Dulce.

We had set our sights on relaxing by the pool on May 8, 2007. The pump for the pool at Bruno's had been under repair for a few days and the water was slowly losing the scummy surface and green tinge. Other guests had braved the water and we were thinking we may as well. After hitting the internet café to deal with some business back home, we set up poolside at a small table shaded by a massive umbrella. The morning heat was ramping up and the sun had finally raised itself into the sky to become a heat laser to anyone standing directly in its line of fire. The umbrella at our table was a godsend. There were very few people milling around in the morning, which allowed us the peace and quiet needed to finish a few more journal entries. Later in the morning we had another reprieve from the sun when a layer of clouds rolled in. As we alternated working on the journal entries, we were greeted by some local boaters that we had become acquainted with over the past few days. John, a sailor in his

John on his boat.

mid-sixties, was originally a native of New York City, or more specifically Long Island. John and Michael had been talking over the days about their background and coming to be on the respective trips. John's story was interesting in that he was not an accomplished sailor. He had followed a dream and after a few daring attempts to buy a boat and leave his 'normal' life behind, he was finally able to conquer his fears and triumph over the objections of his inner voice and set sail across the Atlantic Ocean. Michael spent time reading John's journal and was amazed by the dream come reality that this man had accomplished. It was inspirational to say the least. As the two travelers shared their passion for adventure and writing, they developed a bond typical of mentor and student. Although they each continued about their days at Bruno's with little contact, the short snippets of time spent together did impact Michael, and his imagination about possible future excursions has been tireless ever since. Thanks John!

We were also visited poolside by Jeff. Jeff, in his mid-forties, is the classic carefree spirit from California. A sailor at heart with gads of experience in both sailing and boat construction, he has been touring the world for years. Jeff, originally from San Diego, conversed with Michael about his life growing up in Southern California and the changes in the industry, economics and people. Since Jeff has basically been a constant traveler either by backpack or sailboat for over 25 years, he has grown into quite a diverse and opinionated person. His opinions all seem to have underlying meaning or merit based on personal experience, which is both understandable and respectable. Michael particularly enjoyed Jeff's views on the USA that he has formed from his infrequent and short trips back there. He provided insight to the changes not generally seen by people that sit stagnant in their cities and become somewhat unaffected or otherwise ignorant to what is happening around them. Our discussion ended with Jeff tabling an offer for us to join him on his boat for sunset drinks. Without consultation we both replied "Yes", in stereo.

Jeff agreed to get all the essential ingredients for blender drink, including fresh pineapple and bananas. We were assured that he had a multitude of rum stashed on his boat and were told to bring nothing expect ourselves and an appetite for having fun. No problem. To reciprocate the spirit of giving, we offered to have Jeff and John join us for dinner. Everyone congregated around 'Nilla shortly before dusk to chow down and fill their bellies in preparation for a long night of partying...fiesta, fiesta, fiesta. John elected to skip out on the boat party as he was planning to travel to Honduras in the morning and so after dinner, we joined Jeff at the pier to catch our ride back to his sailboat.

Jeff's boat - Invictus.

We lowered ourselves off the pier into a small wooden dinghy. The dinghy was a bit unstable and every movement of the passengers inside was extremely exaggerated when the boat swayed back and forth. We putted along slowly toward the sailboat having to make a few strategic navigational turns to avoid getting splashed or flooded by the wake of passing boats and water taxis. At last we arrived at the sailboat. One by one we disembarked from the dinghy onto a more stable craft that was to be our floating party for the evening. Once we were out of the dinghy we both realized that our bottoms were soaked. Jeff explained that the wooden dinghy actually splits in two for transport and with a more that two passengers, it sometimes takes on a bit of water. That would have been good to know...before the ride!

Michael and Jeff sipping on blender drinks.

The first order of the night was to get a tour of the sailboat. The twenty-nine foot sailboat is a mix of wood and fibreglass construction. The cabin had just a little more room than what we have in 'Nilla but was equipped with a fancy three burner stainless steel stove. We mulled around the boat learning about its history and the sailing trips it has made under Jeff's command. Time for drinks. Michael picked through a basket of cassette tapes and laid out a few special requests while Geraldine cut up the pineapple. Jeff worked enthusiastically to get his blender working. No blender means no blender drinks. Jeff tried everything from banging the blender on the counter to yelling at it before it finally came around and started working. Phew.

Jeff mixed up a mean batch of cocktails and the three of us sat around listening to tunes and talking about a little bit of everything.

Human?

We were all having a blast. We must have downed about three of four blenders when a mysterious dinghy began to row near. We called out to the man in the boat and asked it he would like to join us for a drink. The man agreed and after some work, he managed to get his dinghy under control and row to the side of our boat. It was instantly obvious that the new guy joining our party was totally hammered. He got himself tangled in every single line tied next to the cabin before literally falling into the party zone. We held back our laughter and tried to offer some assistance of which he would have none. When he finally sat down, we took turns asking the newcomer some questions like "Where are you coming from?", "How was your night?" and "Which boat were you rowing to?" The answer we received was priceless. The man said: "I don't answer questions so if you don't already know the answers, don't ask the question."

We all took a deep breath and tried again. This time we kept the question simple and asked the man what his name was. His reply was: "My name is Human, I'm a human being." Laughing, we just carried on with the party. With copious amounts of booze being consumed, we were all feeling no pain. The music on the boat appeared to increase in volume and everyone was trying to talk over each other. Our new guest would be civil one moment and then right obnoxious the next. Michael sat down next him and learned that his name was actually Hugh. So to make a combination of the two names he gave us, Michael named him Hugh-de-man. We are not sure if he liked it, but he certainly responded to it. Michael and Hugh-de-man had a private chat at one point at which time Hugh seemed to calm down quite a bit. When we were alone, Michael explained that he simply told our drunk friend that there was no need to yell and be belligerent and that we all just wanted to party. That was one way to solve the problem and it seemed to work as Hugh was well behaved for nearly the remainder of the evening.

Hugh explained that he was living in Alaska. Intrigued, we asked him what the sunsets are like in Alaska. thought we might involve him in the conversation by asking what Alaska looks like. Hugh reached for his wallet and was all too pleased to show us some pictures he brought from home. The first picture he laid on the bench of the boat was indecipherable. The lower third of the picture was entirely white and blotchy, whereas the remainder of the photograph was shades of blue with tiny whites dots here and there. We all huddled around the photograph as Hugh started to explain what we were looking at. When he pointed at a white dot and said "This is 0 degrees", we all laughed uncontrollably. Hugh focused again and said "This dot is a sign that says 0 degrees, I know because I took the picture." Again we laughed. Hugh was not pleased with our response to his picture story. The next few things he highlighted on the photograph were equally as obscure and we could not make out any of the things he was pointing at. Hugh even acknowledged that the photograph looked different before it fell into the water. We roared with laughter. As quickly as the Alaska photograph came out, it when back into Hugh's wallet. Next, we were shown a picture of Hugh's family. There were about five or six siblings standing around his mother. Michael commented that Hugh seemed to have a big family and he replied with a "Don't be silly that's not even all of them!" Ok. How we were supposed to know that was beyond us. Hugh again dug through his wallet, however there were no more pictures for him to share with us. As unfortunate as that was, we all needed to rest our bellies from laughing so hard. Michael thanked Hugh for sharing with us and he replied "Yeah, whatever." Michael told Hugh that there was no need to have an attitude and that we were genuine in thanking him. Hugh leaned forward and explained to Michael that 'Yeah, whatever' does not mean 'Yeah, whatever' like we say it, rather it means 'Yeah, whatever'. What else could Michael do but simply agree with the man.

After the photograph exposition, Jeff hauled out his bongo drum and started wailing away on it. With Jimi Hendrix tunes cranked in the background it was a great mix of sounds.

Feel It!

We watched as Jeff played a nice solo and entertained the crowd. Next up on the bongo, Geraldine. Geraldine was quite intoxicated and it looked as if she was raising rubber arms to hit against the drum. Her appendages were flopping and flailing, however the impact on the drum was nearly nonexistent. In the meantime, Jeff found the pee bucket and had flipped it over to play as a drum. The two of them hit away for the remainder of the song that was playing on the stereo. With a break in the music, Jeff attempted to give Geraldine some lessons on hitting the drum. He barked orders at her to hit the drum harder to make it echo. After trying a few times, Geraldine appeared quite defeated and hollered back at Jeff, "I'm just not feelin' it." We laughed again.

The drumming continued as we split another blender of drinks and watched Hugh roam around the small cockpit of the boat. Hugh did not know if he was coming or going. He tried on numerous occasions to leave, however he could not see his dinghy in order to get into it. Tangled in ropes again, Hugh sat quietly at the back of the boat for sometime before he made one last effort to climb into his dinghy. This time Hugh found success, however the effort tired him out so much that he had to lay back in the boat and rest a while. All the while keeping an eye on Hugh, we continued to party. Moments later, Hugh was standing in his dinghy working on untying himself from Jeff's boat. It took Hugh sometime to get untied but finally he was floating away. Michael went over to check on Hugh and make sure he was still in his dingy, which he was. Houston, we have a problem. Michael noticed that beyond Hugh floating in his boat, was another white unmanned dinghy. Michael looked around our boat and realized that we no longer had a dinghy. Hugh had apparently untied both his dinghy and Jeff's and was simply floating away. Michael was laughing hysterically and walked toward the cockpit to say: "Dude, your boat is floating away!" Jeff did not quite understand and asked Michael to repeat himself. Once the words sunk in he ran to the back of the boat to confirm that in fact his boat was floating away. Geraldine and Michael laughed some more.

With some odd stroke of luck, another boater came by right at the same time. Phew.

Michael sneakin' in a picture with Matthew.

Jeff did not hesitate to climb into the strangers boat and get whisked off to save his own dinghy. Moments later everyone returned. Jeff climbed back in and introduced us to his saviour Matthew, or as he introduced him Matteos. Whatever you want to be called is fine by us. We sat around chatting and drinking with the new visitor to the boat while we finished the rest of our drinks. We had not paid much attention to Hugh when we realized that he had mustered enough strength to row himself back to within 10 feet of our boat. Unfortunately, in his drunken state, he could not manoeuvre himself close enough to the boat so he simply rowed in circles for about 10 minutes before tiring and laying down in the dinghy again. Hugh then slowly floated away into the darkness. At times we would check on him and he would again be trying to row toward the boat before giving up after little effort. We continually offered him help, but he refused.

We finished our drinks around midnight and decided to pack it in for the night. Jeff looked in no shape to take us to the mainland, so we hitched a ride with Matthew. The ride back was faster and we arrived bone dry, thankfully. We stumbled our way back to 'Nilla and passed out for the night.

Sunrise view from Bruno's restaurant.

Regardless of any hangover, we woke up early the next morning as we had to get rolling toward the border at Honduras. We had made arrangements to give Jeff a one-way ride to the propane fill station on our way to Puerto Barrios. After breakfast and cleaning up 'Nilla a little bit, we were ready to hit the road at 7:45am. Not bad after a long night of partying. As we were prepared to pull out, we saw Hugh at the bar at Bruno's and he walked over to say goodbye.

Sunrise on the Rio Dulce.

Michael asked Hugh what happened to him last night and he replied that he kept trying to row back to our boat and all he kept thinking was "I just want to get back to the boat with the nice hippies!"We all laughed namely because none of us are really hippies. Hugh explained that no matter how hard he tried he continually rowed himself around in circles until finally he was exhausted and passed out.

Thirsty 'Nilla.

In the morning he awoke with the sun beating on his face as he slept in his dinghy. Hugh explained that he was able to get his bearings from the placement of the sun and the moon in the sky and he determined that he had floated under the main bridge from the Rio Dulce into the Lago Izabal. With some rough knowledge of where he ended up, Hugh was able to start rowing toward more familiar land, namely Bruno's bar. It was a treat to see Hugh-de-man in the morning and get a chance to say thanks for all the laughter.

The propane station was easy to find and we took the opportunity to fill our tank. We never pass up the opportunity to have a little more fuel in reserve. We dropped Jeff off at the main corner for him to catch the bus back to Rio Dulce. Shaking hands, we parted ways.

The drive from Rio Dulce to Puerto Barrios was through the rolling coastal mountains. The hills were filled with jungle vegetation including banana plants, palm trees, tropical oak trees, ceibas and massive ferns. We had been seeing these lush green hills for days and it was

The Rio Dulce.

finally nice to be driving in them. The road meandered through the hills before dumping us out at a flat stretch of land leading to Puerto Barrios. The purpose of our trip to Puerto Barrios was to find a mechanic named Sandino Junior. Apparently, Sandino ran a shop called Carbucentro and was supposed to be our best bet at finding a replacement carburetor in these parts. Poor 'Nilla had been coughing up black smoke and sputtering for nearly two months. We knew it was a fuel issue and after replacing the filter and pump the next step was replacing the carburetor. We pulled up at the shop at about 10:30am and were greeted by Sandino. 'Nilla was given a thorough inspection by Sandino and communication was easy as he spoke decent English. At some time, Sandino spent twenty odd years working in Los Angeles before he returned to Guatemala to set up his business. It was not long before Sandino was on his cell phone and relentlessly called all of his contacts to find the necessary carburetor for 'Nilla.

Our storage locker camp.

Success at last! The part was available, however it would take a day to arrive by bus from Antiqua. We asked for some help in finding a safe place to camp and again, Sandino was back on his cell phone and yammering away to someone on the other end. Within minutes, a man on a motor scooter pulled up and asked us to follow him. Sure, no problem, we are in a foreign country and do not have a clue who you are, but we will gladly follow you. Sandino explained that his friend Gustavo ran the marina at the end of the road and we would have a safe place to camp there. As we reached the marina, the road ended and we turned off to follow a narrow path toward the boat storage area. We were motioned by Gustavo to pull into one of the concrete bays designed for boat storage. This was nearly an ideal camping spot as we were protected from the sun, but also from the wind. The carburetor was removed at the marina and Sandino took off with it as he needed to send it off to Antigua on the bus. The distributor in Antigua wanted to see it to make sure he sent back a comparable replacement. There was nothing to do now, but sit and wait for the new part to arrive.

We headed downtown to kill some time. The market in the square is always a good place to pass a few hours. The people at the market were generally friendly and only the odd shop owner was aggressive to try and get our business. We basically circled the market and saw mainly the same stuff. We comparison priced a few things that caught our eye, however we

Michael at the Puerto Barrios market.

did not buy anything. It was another hot and stuffy day and we decided to hit up a local food vendor for a cold drink. We did not search long before Geraldine spotted a fruit juice stand. Michael tried a local dish of sausage with rice and beans while Geraldine sampled fresh strawberries pureed into juice. For around $2 CDN we were pleasantly content with food and drink. With mildly full bellies we made our way back to 'Nilla as we were still a tad hung-over and needed to rest. Michael managed to get a two hour nap, while Geraldine simply tossed and turned in the exhausting heat. As mentioned before, there was not a lick of wind in our marine storage locker and it was plain old muggy in the van. When we finally mustered up enough energy to get off the bed, we decided to put an end to the heat madness and get ourselves an extension cord. We needed to have outside power as our solar panel was useless under the cover of a metal roof. The only person we knew in town was Sandino, so we walked down to his shop. Sandino did not hesitate to provide us with an 80 foot cord. There was a jump in our step as we walked back to 'Nilla ready to chill out once the fan was turned on high.

Photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=16xvaj2z.620dnzdz&Uy=-6xi4kc&Ux=0