Welcome to Guatemala

A New Panacea

flying into Guatemala City

Tristan's Story

It was late October and winter loomed in Fort MacMurray. At that same time Hurricane Irma loomed over Florida where Panacea 1 rested, on-the-hard, awaiting our return for yet another cruising season in the Bahamas.  Maybe this time we would go to Cuba! But only IF Panacea survived the hurricane. At the farm back in New Brunswick Susan and Derek were watching the hurricane from online as it blew straight through Marathon in the Florida Keys and then wobbled past Tampa Bay before bowling through north-central Florida - DIRECTLY across Panaceas boatyard.

What if Panacea did not survive? It's time for boat shopping - just in case. A quick run through Yachtworld and emails to dad and Sue - separately. "Which one do you prefer?" I ask each of them.

Well- I already knew dad preferred the CAL 2-46. His response was "...don't stop dreaming!" or words to that effect. Susan surprised me."I LOVE the galley in the Morgan." she replied with ethusiasm. A day or two later we had a Facebook video call together and I told them we should try to buy that Morgan. Dad had pretty well resigned himself to the total loss of Panacea in Florida. In our video call they told me that there had been no word, and that if she was destroyed, they were ready to throw in the towell and stay in Canada shoveling snow. We all agreed that last year the CAL 34-1 had been just a little crowded with Claire and me living in the main salon and Susan and dad in the forepeak.

"Go ahead ... go have a look..." dad encouraged. I figured that it would become a sellers market after 'IRMA' so I had best go there right away.
Things at work were quiet -probably for the season- so it looked like I was free for a while. I called the broker for the Morgan and made him a conditional offer. It was accepted so I advised that I was flying to Rio Dulce. Chris Stanley told me he would pick me up and give me the tour. A few days later Air Canada took me on another tour. It took 36 hours to go from Ft Mac to Edmonton, to Toronto, to Houston and finally to Guatamala City. Chris had arranged for a reliable taxi driver to meet me, and Roderico was there holding up a sign with my name on it as I stepped out of the air terminal. Roderigo is an old hand at picking up arriving Nortamericanos and made our first stop an ATM which he assured me to be 'reliable'.

With 2000 Quetzals in my wallet (about CD$350) our next stop was the bus station for the final leg of my journey to Rio Dulce. Roderigo's services cost about about CD$15 and the bus ticket - another CD$ 17.00. The bus wove it's way down from the mountain home of more than half of all Guatamalans. At our supper-stop at the halfway point we were warned that the bus would leave without us if we were not present when the driver finished his meal.

Still among the mountains - half way to Rio Dulce

I finally arrived in the town of Frontera at 9:00 pm after having driven west-to-east across the entire country from Guatamala City. Chris Stanley was to have met me, but the bus had been delayed by road construction and he had gone home. We spoke by phone and he directed me to the hotel Posasda del Rio just beneath the bridge near the bus terminal. Rough but servicable, describes my room there. CD$30/ 180Q was about the most you would want to pay.

view from Brunos

Chris met me at Bruno's Bar/restaurant just as I finished breakfast the next morning and took me for a quick tour of Rio Dulce in his 'lancha'. After a tour that took in a trip past the fort that dominates a choke-point in the river, and a number of local marinas we arrived at the marina/resort and boatyard of Nana Juana. The boats name - Dayz Off, a Morgan 462 - (original name Prescience - ed). The two, I was to learn was the last variant of this model, with design features specified by a major charter operator. Chris had recently repainted the engine and performed an oil change. A refrigerant bottle connected to a set of guages was attached to 'something' in there. The condition of the interior was consistent with the boats age.

I stayed a week in Rio Dulce, commuting back and forth from the other side with a couple, Tommy & Lisa, who were about to purchase a catamaran in the same boatyard from Chris. Chris obligingly came and picked us up at Bruno's and returned us there in the afternoon. After a few days in Frontera I was learning the ropes and had begun to hire tuktuks to get around. For 10Q a tuktuk would come to Nana Juana for me and drop me near my motel. By the end of the week, Tommy and Lisa had struck a deal to purchase the catamaran. I departed for Canada after signing the purchase agreement for Dayz Off .

Claire and I partnered in the purchase. We used a closing service in Miami recommended by the broker. At first they acted pretty stunned, unable to reconcile builder certified boat length with the length recorded on the Coast Guard registry. They also had a problem with the Canadian requirement for conversion of all metrics to metric. They wanted me to hire a surveyor to measure it and to delay the closing indefinitely. I told them that anyone with simple arithmetic skills can do a Transport Canada Simplified Survey, and that I would not pay for a middleman to perform such a simple task. This was not helpful. When I called Chris to tell him what they were up to, he called the senior partner who took over the file. We closed on time, a week after the offer was accepted.

Yippee! We own a(nother) boat!

I got back on the plane after Christmas with a suitcases full of boat parts and another suitcase with bedding and pillows. This time I booked with the Mexican airline, who partnered with Westjet and the route was more humane!

On arrival I started cleaning right away. I had brought a lot of tools and boat parts but my list of needs grew daily. I passed the more urgent needs to Claire, who would be joining me aboard. The very first such need: vinyl decals with the boats name and port of registry : Panacea2, Edmonton.

Life is Good!

Claire's Story

When I participated in the purchase of a 46 foot Morgan  ketch in Guatemala, Tristan had already fallen in love with the Rio Dulce on his inspection trip in November. When he flew back to take ownership of the boat in December he fell even harder for this place. I was looking forward to both seeing the boat and getting to know this new town that would soon become a large part of my life. But first, I had to make preparations for all the changes that this would mean for my life. I gave notice at work in Halifax as my moving to McMurray was already part of the plan. At work, my employers were very accomodating and understanting of why I needed to go. I agreed to work remotely until a replacement was found. I hoped to be able to do this from either McMurray or Guatemala, though we still weren't sure how reliable the Internet would be in Guatamala. My world was going to be incredibly different from this point forward, a whole new ball game -and I hoped - a good one.

I sold or donated my two bedroom apartment full of things, spent Christmas with my parents and then started the long drive across the country, with my cat named Mouse roaming free in the car. She was already a pro-traveller, happy just having a large quilt made of old t-shirts of mine to lay on and a perch for her in front of the back seat so she could sit at shoulder height between the driver and passenger seats and see out all the windows.

She spent about half the drive up there just looking at all the sights. On the first day of the drive my mother phoned and as soon as Mouse heard my mothers voice, she hopped in the litter box and peed.. as we drove down the highway. I laughed and took it as a good sign - joking to mom that the cat disliked her so much she would use the litter box every time she heard her voice.

I woke up at 5 AM on the third day of the trip west. This was to be a 16 hour leg of the drive from (between) Lake Nippigon /Thunder Bay to Saskatoon and was going to be the longest of my driving day. I wanted an early start. About twenty minutes out of town I heard a pop and rush of air... I pulled over and walked around the car, every window was fine. I was very confused. I again started the car and everything appeared okay so I moved onto the road again. As soon as I got up to speed that wind noise started roaring again. I then realized that there was one window I hadn't checked... my moon roof. I pulled over, opened the sliding inside cover and was able to put my hand right through the window where it looks like a chunk of glass had just popped off. The sun hadn't risen yet and there wasn't much I could do in the middle of nowhere Ontario so I pressed on. About two hours outside of Saskatoon, one of those lovely aerodynamic trucks coming the opposite way managed to suck the whole window out of my car... all the glass from the moon roof was now gone. I pulled over in case it was on the highway, but it was truly gone, I couldn't find a single piece of it.

Tristan convinced me to go to an auto glass place and push to get a real patch. Saskatoon is a large town and it should be possible to put a good plastic seal on to keep the weather out. Mouse, entertainingly, barely noticed the extra noise and cold, but did spend a little more time curled up in my lap where it was likely warmer. The next morning I went to Speedy Auto Glass in Saskatoon and they cleaned my roof, vacuumed up some of the remaining glass in the car and put a good solid plastic patch on the roof and though they couldnt promise it'd survive forever at least said it'd get me to McMurray and made me promise to get the glass replaced as soon as possible. I owe them so much - my 5 star review on Google barely covers it. The car was quiet and warm. The rest of the drive was positively pleasant.

Finally I arrived at my new home! Mouse,of course, hissed at everything that moved and hid in the bedroom... but slowly she warmed up to the kids and when I taught them to bribe her with Kraft Singles they all made friends pretty quick. All this between Dec 22nd and 29th, when I arrived in McMurray. Mouse is usually a little cranky with strangers. She caved to memories of Shrimps 'boss kitty' status right away and let her be, settling for a few hissing matches with Crystal. Before long they all calmed down... sadly only a few weeks before Shrimp passed. She was an old lady cat and had been Ethans best friend for almost longer than I can remember. She will be missed.

Now it was planning time. In two weeks I'd be leaving for Guatemala and had to have decals made for the boat, pack all the supplies on the lists we'd made, and acquire bedding and towels and other items which were needed. When I finished - I had a huge suitcase full of fuel filters, syphons, my work gear, a few books, two pillows, two sets of sheets, two sets of towels, random engine parts I may never be able to identify, and various tools. I was pretty sure when my suitcase got inspected I was going to be asked a lot of complicated questions.

On January 16th, I made a midnight departure from McMurray, with a two hour stop in Toronto, then with another two hours in Mexico City for a a 6PM arrival in Guatemala City. Going through Customs, there's a button the customs agent pushes, red you get inspected, green you go through.... I wasn't worried about red, since everything I was carrying was safe and allowed... but having to carefully repack it in a hurry would not be pleasant... luckily I got the green light and that Customs lady looked just as relieved as I felt as we both looked at my pile of luggage. We both laughed and I walked out into Guatemala City. Roderigo, as promised, was waiting outside the airport and got me to the hotel and an ATM safely. The hotel was only two blocks from a McDonalds. It looked like a University part of town, so despite being told to stay in my room, I went to the front desk and me speaking french and them speaking spanish, was assured it would be safe to wander the few blocks to McDonalds. Those nuggets never tasted so good!

I caught the bus the next morning and enjoyed the seven hour drive across the country. Tristan was waiting for me at the Fronteras bus stop. We grabbed supper and some beer at The Shack and then headed to the boat, which had only been launched a few days prior. I was looking forward to not having to sleep on the hard... it's much nicer on a boat with the waves rocking you to sleep every night.

favourite snack at the Shack

The boat... she is huge... the aft cabin is larger than the bedroom in McMurray so it's like living in a palace. The day after I arrived we headed into town to get a SIM card for my phone, groceries and other supplies. The town is a long street after the bridge, tienda after tienda, all slightly different which is a fun shopping experience but can be frustrating when you're looking for something specific... It's a town which seems to be based on selling products for all the local farms or for the local boating community. Of course the first things acquired were bacon, eggs and beer. I looked for other types of meat since I had not been sure what I would find, but there was ground beef, steaks, pork, chicken and all kinds of sauces and ingredients. All of my worries about getting bored of the same food for months were gone. I let Sue know as soon as I discovered the meats and products since I know she enjoys the kitchen and would be taking over as chef when she arrived.

The marina was pretty full when I arrived and our whole dock was full of fun people. We did pot lucks and had drinks at sunset, they were a fun group of people. Most of them were only here a short while and have all moved on but it was nice to arrive to a welcoming group. One of the group had a dog, and when they would dinghy into town, their dog would come aboard Panacea 2 and hang out with us until they returned. Buena was a sweet girl, she and her family are headed further south, to the Panama canal.

I alternated between employment-type work and doing boat projects my first few weeks. It rained non-stop so there wasn't much exploring that got done, and not a lot of outside work either. We had one gorgeous day which we used to take a dinghy run to Livingston on the ocean and it was stunning. After that, the sun was out more regularly.  We had to prepare for the others as Sue and Derek were soon to arrive, followed shortly after by Nargis... a full boat to be sure :)

I've been learning a lot about boats, but my first big boating adventure was getting lifted up the mizzen to free the main line for the sail (aka. mizzen halyard -ed)... I wasn't scared 'cause heights are okay... but it was amazing being up so high...the view was amazing, avoiding all the radar and antennas up there was a little complicated but luckily the line came free right away and I got a great view of the river / lake system we were in.

Tristan had been coveting sailing dinghies for a while and I found one on facebook for 1000Q so we picked that up as a spare. Of course we had to sail it around the lake a few times. We got the small outboard working so we'd have two 'motorized' dinghies. This one was based on the Optimist but built by a welder in Grenada who wanted a larger optimist and now we've got it - an 'aluminum Super-Optimist'. 'Small world' that a couple staying in the town recognized the dinghy and told us about it's history. Tristan used the dinghy to teach me a little about wind direction, what direction with the wind we were sailing and the correct way to angle the sails and how to keep tension. Good lessons and hopefully I've retained a little :)

We had to give up the inflatable for some patching and for a new rub rail for about a week and decided to rent dirt bikes to get around. It was a blast... on the streets I was fine, I've been licensed on bikes for over two years now, but I'd never driven off-road.

Tristan took it slow, some nice flat dirt roads and mud, then we got more adventurous... and I fell and hurt my knee and ankle. Luckily the bike was fine. Driving out of the woods, down a mountain, with an ankle and knee that didn't want to move - was not the funnest experience, but we got back to the boat safely.  With Derek's help the bike was returned. Sure, I had driven it home, but I was pretty sure that the stop and go traffic through town would be the end of my ankle and knee. The damage has earned me breakfast in bed from Sue, though.... which is always nice :)

Some of you folk have asked for lots of pictures so this blog has a link (below) which we hope you can run as a slide show. If there are problems with it, please feedback us


river tour https://photos.app.goo.gl/yw8wcrU0m15hxXk32




Susan   webhostess

Derek   editor