The Agua Caliente! A.K.A. the Hot Spring Waterfall River

Posted by Christopher

So yesterday, we decided we’d go to the “ Agua Caliente” which is essentially a hot springs just below a waterfall with some caves and stuff. The only question was our means of getting there.

Our boat has been lifted out of the water (as I’m sure you’ve read) and so we’re staying in a very socially empty area filled with boats. Although, we have made friends of some of the only other people here. There is an 11 year old boy named Brendan, whom Alexander and I have been hanging out with lately, and a 9 year old girl named Beth, who Katie has befriended.

Guatemalan bus stop

So they told us that we had two choices: Either we could do a big tour trip that was really expensive and we ended up with a tour guide. Or we could go on the local shuttle up there. So naturally with us being “experienced world travelers” we decided to take the local bus.

I was in this position for an hour total.  There and back.  Notice the arms of the people hanging on outside the bus.  There were people on the roof, too.

The next thing I knew I was sweating in the back of a broken down van, surrounded by half tourists, and half local Guatemalans. Also my attention was fully drawn to several people who were holding on to the side of the bus and standing in the door at 60 km/h because we couldn’t physically fit anyone else inside. As well as all that good stuff, I was getting progressively more car sick, considering that they had seated me facing backward on an insanely winding road.

This seems safe.  Although it is hard to make a seatbelt work out there.

Finally after what was probably about half an hour I heard Mom say “this is our stop” so I tumbled out and tried to settle my stomach. We needed to walk for a little while after that up a wide path but we finally reached the Agua Caliente.

Katie went rock climbing!

Our friends knew of a spot where we could jump off of the waterfall and some caves that you could swim and slide through. So we set up a blanket and made a small sort of picnic area, before Brendan showed us up the climb/path to the top of the waterfall it was about 6 meters high and was a very intimidating jump. But as soon as we got to the top of the waterfall looking down in to the pool of water below people started to move out of the way.

Get out of the way!  I think the crazy gringos might jump!

I jumped off and out with the wind rushing by me and landed with a big splash. It was not the highest thing I’ve jumped off all year but it was pretty awesome. Then we went to the caves where we crawled and squirmed through a little circuit, making my way to the other end, in fact we even got Mom to go through.

Katie flings herself off of a waterfall in style!

Probably not the best time to start wondering if the water under me is deep enough.

Inside the caves.  I half expected Gollum to sneak up behind me.

Credit for the cave and jumping pictures goes to Alexander.

For lunch (which I had minimal amounts of) we had picked up some deep fried chicken at a restaurant called Pollo Campero, only because it’s the most common restaurant in Guatemala (you can find a crowded one every couple blocks). But It was so awful that I could barely stomach it, knowing about the car ride that I would need to go back with, so I ate maybe one wing. It was essentially kentucky fried chicken with a Guatemalan health rating.

Eventually we needed to go back, and so we packed up and got picked up in a shuttle bus. The ride home was just as bad as coming there, needless to say, It was unfathomably cramped.

I took a picture of these kids on our digital camera and showed them themselves.  They were amazed!

The Wind of The Storm

Posted by Katie

The storm was even scarier because it got darker!

It was a nice afternoon, the moon was up and the sun was down. It was about 7:00 p.m and I was playing with my friend in her R.V.  All of a sudden the R.V shook and a huge wind howled outside. My friend Beth and I decided that I should go back to my boat before the wind blew up.  I didn’t really want to go out in the wind but I new it wasn’t going to get any better in the R.V.  So I got out of the R.V. and made a mad dash for Monashee which was about 100 feet away.

My friend's R.V.

As I ran I got more and more freaked out.  The wind pushed me the way I wanted to go but it still felt like It was trying to push me down.  Once I got to the boat Mom, Alexander, Christopher and our friend Brendon were trying to climb down the ladder to our boat.  After they got down we had to wait 10 minutes in the gusting wind.

The ladder to the boat.

After the ten minutes, Mom said while this was going on we should do our teeth at the bathroom in the marina.  I thought it was a kind of weird  thing to do in a wind storm but the boys climbed the ladder back up to the boat and got our toothbrush’s and tooth paste, alive.  Once we had run all the way to the bathroom we were rewarded with warmth and no feel of wind inside the brick bathrooms.  We did our teeth and then we went to check on how the dingy was doing.  The dingy had been holding out pretty well but we had to fix it up a little bit.

The dingy was rocked a lot by the wind and waves.

After all that I had gotten a little more comfortable okay a lot. Well…you decide how comfortable I was based on the fact that toward the end of the windstorm I played get on the pole and push other people off.

Adventures in Antigua

posted by Alexander

Antigua is one of the most interesting cities I have ever seen. There are all the kinds of stores you would expect anywhere else but they may seem a bit different.

One of the many beautiful churches in Antigua.

There were grocery stores, stores for computers, even one with a few slightly outdated video games. There was a Dominos and a Mcdonalds. One of the more interesting places was the market.

The central square in Antigua was a great gathering place for everyone.

It a literal maze of people trying to sell fruit, or t-shirts. One store even sold a bunch of piñatas. Christopher and I ended up getting some pretty funny shirts there.

As for the structure of Antigua it was not the same as our cities back home. Where ours have everything displayed out on the streets with the buildings behind, every street in Antigua is lined by walls.

Walking along one of the walled streets of Antigua.

As tourists we would walk alongside the walls passing the little doors that made up the entrances.

A glimpse of one impressive courtyard hidden behind a wall and a big door.

We learned that the trick was going through a door; because inside was often an impressive garden or a grand interior.

All the action goes on behind the walls in Antigua.

A garden and a restaurant through a door just visible from the street.

We checked out some cool stuff outside the walls too. One of the main attractions was a park in the center of the city. There was a fountain in the middle of mermaids squeezing their breasts.

Apparently, when the fountain is working, water shoots out of their nipples.  Oh, those Spaniards!

The guide book said water was supposed to come out the nipples but I guess the fountain wasn’t working when we were there. We also looked at many interesting cathedrals some of which were in ruins.

Another impressive cathedral, with a convent off to the left.

Now I know I mentioned the Mcdonalds before but I thought some more detail ought to go into describing the nicest Mcdonalds I have ever seen and most likely will ever see. This place had a different entrance and room just for Mcdonalds ice cream! The main store was huge and opened up into a backyard garden with tables and a fountain!

This is the inside of the McDonald's in Antigua.

And they had a different room and counter for the “Mcafe” products (coffee and muffins and such). Christopher, Mom and I got ice cream there and talked about why it would be so nice. I thought that this whole Mcdonalds was probably cheaper than a small compacted one in a big city in North America. Christopher agreed and he and Mom said that maybe this was a layout of how they want every Mcdonalds to be. You know, once Mcdonalds rules the world.

Now I would like to tell you all about our accommodation while in Antigua.This place was massive! Christopher and Katie each had their own room with two beds.

Our vacation rental in Antigua was about as big as our house back in Canada.

They pushed these together to make them bigger. Mom and Dad had a room with a king size bed and so did I. And every single one of us had a personal bathroom! There was also a big living room and kitchen.

Our kitchen and dining room table in Antigua.  We got to have Dominoes pizza one night.

Unfortunately our first night there was rough because there were people up into the wee late hours of the night, yelling at each other and making us miserable. They must have been up until one o clock! And mind you, they were using a pool which clearly had a sign that said no use after nine! I eventually moved to use Christopher’s extra bed because the sound was fainter in his room. Then when they finally shut up we moved to my room because Christopher’s was full of mosquitos buzzing in our ears. The next two nights were much more restful.

Think I'll go out to Alberta...

Posted by Scot

A couple of weeks ago, on the side of the busy highway in Fronteras, Guatemala, at a store that was really not much more than a stall, I bought a sim card for my unlocked cell phone, as well as a prepaid plan that allowed me to make local calls, international calls, and access the internet.  The salesman, who told me his name was Dennis, didn't speak any English.  I don't really speak any Spanish.  The whole transaction took about 8 minutes from the time we started to the time I had the card in my phone and could make a call.

Fronteras, Rio Dulce.  Real, or imagined?

I have repeated this exact transaction in the Bahamas, Jamaica, the Caymans, and Honduras.  It has never taken more than about 15 minutes.

Yesterday, in a busy mall in the middle of Red Deer, Alberta, I went to the Telus store to do the same thing.  Only it should have been even quicker, since I already had the prepaid sim card I bought when I was here in December.  TWO HOURS after I got into line, I finally left the store with a cell phone that should work for the next week.  The first hour and a quarter was spent standing in line.  In that time, the three customer service agents at Telus managed to serve a total of 3 other people (one each).  My turn took another 45 minutes, with the salesman having to phone the Telus customer service line to make it work.  Unbelievable.  I have no idea why Canadians put up with this, but we all pretty much just stood there in line, getting more and more frustrated at the ineptitude of the whole thing.  Anyway, if you have a choice, don't go to Telus.

Telus could learn a thing or two about customer service at a roadside store in Guatemala.

Flying from Guatemala City to Calgary via Dallas/Fort Worth, it occurred to me that these are three cities in three different countries where you can wear a cowboy hat with no hint of irony.  And people do.

Got a ground floor room in the hotel this time.  Right next to the pool.  So that should be good.

Just as I did back in December, I am having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that the two realities I am currently living can co-exist on the same planet at the same time.  How is it possible that my family is on a boat, in the almost unbearable heat, surrounded by the green jungle of the Rio Dulce in Guatemala, while I am working in a modern hospital in Red Deer, Alberta, where the snow is melting, the brown, flattened grass is stretching out in ever-widening patches, and the dirt is blowing across the fields, clinging to what remains of the icy drifts?  The cognitive dissonance is so severe as to make it feel like one of these two realities has to be a dream.  Can they really both be true at the same time?

Zip-line Movie Time!

Posted by Scot

OK, I get it.  You are busy going to work, taking care of your kids, or your patients, playing Bridge, riding your bike through Thailand, etc.  You don’t really have time to read my ramblings about this and that.  You mostly just look at the pictures as a break from your daily routine, and maybe read a few of the captions.

Well this post is for you.  Based on the popularity of my last movie time post, I have condensed our trip to the Atitlan Nature Reserve into one short movie.  So join us as we careen through Panajachel in a Tuk-Tuk, then hike with us up past waterfalls into the Guatemalan hills, until finally we fly down through the jungle canopy on zip lines.

Then go back to work.  You’re welcome.

Panajachel

Posted by Scot

With the boat out of the water, we faced the decision to either live in a dusty, hot boatyard for two weeks, or take the opportunity to tour around Guatemala a bit.  Actually, there was no decision at all.  We had already planned to see some of Guatemala, and the fact we could get some boat work done while we were at it was an added bonus.

Once we were sure Monashee was securely supported and the work would go ahead as planned, we headed for the hills.  Literally.  A taxi picked us up right next to our boat in the yard, and zipped us over to the Litegua bus depot in Fronteras.

Waiting for the bus in Fronteras.

The surprisingly modern Litegua bus.

The bus was reasonably modern, and even had a little weak air conditioning.  We sat right in the front, but actually couldn’t see much of the road, since there were big curtains down across the upper half of the front windows, presumably to keep the sun out.  We could see enough, though, to figure out we were passing lots of big trucks on solid yellow lines around tight bends.  Probably just as well that we couldn’t see much more.

The Guatemala countryside was beautiful and green.  We crossed lots of low lying mountains and hills on windy, two lane roads.  At each stop, the doorway was filled with locals yelling up into the bus, selling fresh cut fruit wrapped in cellophane.

As the hours went by and the road wound away underneath us, the kids stayed amused by watching the videos that the driver’s assistant put on.  First was G.I. Joe Retaliation.  Even funnier than the original when it is all in Spanish.  Although I don’t think it was supposed to be a comedy.  Jack Reacher followed, but since it had a lot more dialogue, it wasn’t as much fun to watch.

Sitting at the front of the bus, waiting for another pass on a solid double yellow.

We can't tell what they're saying, but with GI Joe, it doesn't really matter.

After five hours, we reached Guatemala City.  It is by far the largest city we have been in since we left Fort Lauderdale.  We were glad we didn’t have to drive through the narrow cobblestoned streets ourselves.  In among the typical Central American decay that we are getting used to seeing, we were surprised to see some modern looking malls, complete with multi theatre cinemas.  The kids were also intrigued to note several McDonald’s and Taco Bells.  Something else we haven’t seen since Florida.

The bus station is right in the middle of the what appears to be the pinata district of town.  There were dozens of pinata stores, all decorated with their colorful hand-made wares hanging in front.  The work was remarkable.  You could buy a pinata of pretty much anything.  All the classic, and not-so-classic kid’s characters were represented.  We saw Dora the Explorer, Buzz Lightyear, Planes from the movie Planes, Cars from Cars, and on and on.  Guatemalan kids must do a lot of pinata whacking.

As soon as we got off the bus, Trinidad, the driver we had booked to take us to Panajachel, found us.  I think we were pretty easy to spot – no other families of five getting off the bus.

So, once again we hit the road, this time in his minivan, heading back up into the hills, bound for Lake Atitlan.  The Saturday traffic was crazy getting out of the city, and the first hour or so was stop and go all the way.  Once again, we were glad we weren’t driving ourselves.

After three more hours, we descended the steep hill down out of the mountains into Panajachel, on the shores of Lake Atitlan.  We were really happy to see how nice the guest house Sara had booked was.  Exhausted from the trip,and the excitement of the last few days, we were all happy to envision just hanging out in a real house, with plumbing and electricity, and catching up on some rest.

Welcoming guest house.  What a treat!

It even has a little garden.

And a real kitchen.  With runnig water and electrity!

After a solid night’s sleep, we were feeling a bit more energetic.  Sara and I borrowed the bikes that are included with the guest house, and headed into Panajachel to do a little exploring and shopping.  The kids stayed behind and played Risk.

Ready to explore.

The kids were pretty happy just to hang out and play Risk.

Panajachel is a great little town.  Touristy enough to make shopping easy, and have lots of good restaurants, but not so touristy as to lose some of the real Guatemalan flavour.  It is wonderful to see all the traditional costumes worn by the locals as they go about their daily business.  And the city is hopping, all the time.  You can get anywhere in a Tuk-tuk for the equivalent of about 90 cents per person.  It is pretty exciting squeezing all five of us into one of these tiny little converted motorbikes, and bouncing along the cobbled streets.

We are going to have lots of fun relaxing and exploring here for the next few days.

A lot of the locals wear traditional Guatemalan dress.

Taking the kids to the Sunday market...

... where you can get cotton candy...

.... helados (ice cream)....

... ride in a tuk-tuk...

... or buy some fruit and carry it home on your head.

Sara hasn't gotten the hang of carrying things on her head yet.

Can I get a tuk-tuk to the market, please?

High and Dry

Posted by Scot

Monashee on the hard.

The Rio Dulce is a hotspot for cruisers in the Northwest Caribbean.  Because it is 20 miles up a freshwater river, it is well protected from hurricanes.  Over 500 boats are stored here each summer during hurricane season.  Most of the owners take that opportunity to either head back home for the summer, or tour around Gauatemala.

This time of year, though, is cruising season.  This is when people return to their boats, and head out to explore Belize or Honduras.  That means the marinas and boating facilities around the Rio Dulce are relatively empty right now.  So, we decided to take advantage of that fact, and have Monashee hauled out of the water at one of the local marinas, to get some work done on her bottom.

After reviewing the list of things we wanted to attend to, we arranged to have our boat hauled as early in the day as possible.  That would give us a chance to get a good look at the bottom, and get started on some of the smaller jobs.  We manoeuvred out of our tight spot at Tortugal, and headed over to the Ram Marina, which is the most state of the art facility on the Rio Dulce.

After waiting on the fuel dock for a couple of hours, it was finally our turn to haul.  Ram is pretty careful about getting things just right.  Using lines on each corner of the boat, they slid Monashee in to the hauling bay.  Monashee is 20 feet, 1 inch in width.  Apparently they can haul boats up to 24 feet wide in their bay, but it still looked almost impossibly tight as we slid in.  Fortunately, everyone’s measurements were right, and we fit under the travel lift.

Getting the slings ready for our boat.

Sliding into place.

Will we fit?

Just made it!

Once we were in place, a diver underneath the boat ensured that the slings were in the proper position.  Then, Sara and I got off the boat, and up she went!  It is a bit terrifying to watch your house get lifted into the air, but everything went smoothly.

Monashee getting a lift.

Once we were out of the water, the travel lift slowly worked it’s way over to our portion of the boatyard, and she was gently set down on carefully placed supports.  After we were safe in our spot, we did a complete walk around of the boat.  The bottom is actually pretty clean, and it looks like we won’t need a huge amount of work to get it looking pristine again.  We will also take the opportunity to check all our through hulls.  At least one of them needs to be replaced, as it doesn’t close completely.  This is a priority issue, as you want to be able to close the valves that can potentially let water into your boat.

Heading out of the lifting bay into the boat yard.

Driving through the boatyard with an entourage, including some kids from another boat in the yard.

Sitting in the yard - Monashee's home for the next couple of weeks.  Our dinghy is stored safely underneath.