Blogs from Río Dulce, Caribbean Coast, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 2

When we left Guatemala in November 2010 I did not know if we would ever return, but I knew that I had left a piece of my heart there. No country has affected me in quite the same way as Guatemala. In 2011 as we cruised the east coast of the U.S. Jimmy and I had to make a decision about what to do or where to go next. I previously thought I wanted to settle in Florida for awhile and take a break from cruising, but I knew that was not what Jimmy wanted. The more I thought about it I finally came to the conclusion that I could continue cruising awhile longer if I could just go back to Guatemala. So here we were in late May 2012 back in the Rio Dulce (Sweet ... read more

Sara here, Mark has gotten pretty busy and I've stepped in to guest blog for him. It has been a long week and half since we've posted anything and, as Mark has earned the "featured blog of the week" I thought we should get on that train. Last we left off, we were leaving Lago Atitlan, headed for Quetzaltenango - shortened to Xela (pronounced Shela). We arrived in Xela and found Case Argentina, a pretty large hostel that also shares space with the Quetzaltrekkers. The Quetzaltrekkers are a fully volunteer group, who lead treks and give their profits to a program for street kids in Guatemala. They were running a full moon hike up Santa Maria, the nearby volcano, and, as I was feeling sick, Mark signed up to do the trek alone. As the day ... read more

On November 28, we started our trek to Rio Dulce. First, we hoofed our back-packs from the hotel for a few blocks until we found a taxi. This may seem like a causal task and something simple. However, as we would walk down the street, waiting for a tuk-tuk to come along, we would see one ride by us on the next road over. After the first 3 tuk-tuks passed us on the road up the hill, we decided to climb up to that road to be sure and catch the next one that came by. No sooner had we trudged up the hill with our packs and started down the new road, we looked down the hill at the road we just left and it would seem that the tuk-tuks decided to take the low ... read more

After being piled into Rapiditos (mini buses), literally feeling like sardines in a tin, we arrived at Hotel Backpackers which is the accomadation given to the volunteers of Casa Guatemala. We filled out a few forms, tasted our first Guatemalan beer, Gallo and got shown our dorm before we enjoyed a nice meal looking over the waters edge at Hotel Backpackers. We were located right on the water, under the longest bridge in Central America, unfortuantley due to the amount of rain having a swim in the water wasnt advised! Early nights were in store for us all week as we had to get up, have breakfast and be ready to leave by boat for the orphanage at 730am. Our week at the orphanage wasnt quite what we expected but very rewarding all the same. When ... read more

Guatemala, partie 2 Nous préparons présentement L'Eau-Dace 4 pour la continuité de notre voyage. Plusieurs petites modifications et réparations ont été faites. Le nettoyage de l'extérieur du bateau et le carénage reste à faire. Tous doit être faits avant le 15 novembre prochain, la date prévue de notre départ. Notre prochaine destination est le Belize, juste au nord du Guatemala. Nous avons bien hâte de manger du poisson, des langoustes et de se baigner dans l'eau cristalline. Ensuite, le Mexique, cote est du Yucatan. Nous allons nous protéger des vents près d'une petite île nommée Isla Mujeres et nous y passerons le nouvel an. Ensuite, la cote ouest de Cuba, nous n'y sommes pas allés encore avec le légendaire Jardin-de-la-Reine ou il pleut des langoustes grosses comme ca. Fin février, retour aux Bahamas pour ensuite retourner ... read more