starting from where we left off…first of all i cant give any photos for a while, cause my computer cord is torn in half! and i cant figure out how to upload photos on the public computers…but ill look into it…but probably there will be a big update with a bunch of photos in a few weeks…so last time, erik and elyse were at spanish school, and emory and i were about to take the boat out on lake izabal. Which we did! it was so amazing…Captain Alyssa!! yeah! we had such a great time. We took Pleiades, Colton Harris Moore (kyles boat), and Dorthy Ann (steves boat) …We sailed to this town called El Estore (the store), in one day, and went into town, and pleiades crew did a great job sailing us in, especially since it was the first time out without erik!!!
..It was a nice town, we found good eats and liquados (fruit shakes)…the next day we took a bus to this giant gorge where we got canoed by two 14yr old and a 20 yr old boys to a great swimming hole, and cave. This was part one of my birthday, the gorge was amazing!! beautiful! we saw monkeys, we swam in the cold waters, we explored a cave a little, and got all cooled off. We did get into a fight with the guy who gave us a ride, which was unfortunate, cause we were told one price and when we got there we were told a different price…usually i would say they were trying to scam us, but i think it was actually a misunderstanding that ended kind of badly, they just got mad at us and drove off…but we had a really nice time despite it. We found a different ride back to town, and hopped in our boats and tried to sail to the end of the lake (5 more miles) but there was NO wind…so we tried pulling the boat with the dingy, which worked for a bit, then as soon as we sent someone back to town in the dingy to buy birthday beers, and someone suggested we motor, the wind shot up like a bolt and we had to sail in circles until our beer run was finished!! we ended up sailing some in the dark but we were having so much fun it didnt matter…we made to the end of the lake no problems..then i was surprised by a really wonderful birthday party! including cake!! and amazing dinner, that we all ate together! it was really fun, i was really happy to have this birthday out on the boats!
The next day we took steves boat up a little river and then canoed around in our dingys, there were 10 of us in 3 dingys, and all of us saw howler monkeys!!! there were 4 of them and a baby!! up in a tree just hanging out…we walked up to the base of the tree and watched them for a while…the next day i realized this is possibly the time that i got chigger bites as well! Then we headed back to the boats, and after some hilarious bouts with running aground and getting a little tangled in fishing nets we parked steves boat up to the other two and had dinner together, and becky was celebrating her “boat” birthday, and one year of sobriety. so we had another birthday party!
Then next day we sailed again to el estore, to get water, and emory, becky, and i tried to find this empanada that emory had found the day before that was filled with raisin custard! it was the most amazing food i have ever eaten…really, caitlin i wanted to bring one to you…pocket dessert! Sadly we didnt find them again, elusive food of guatemala…sigh….
we took off then to go back to hot springs cold water!! we got to the lake entrance of the place at night and celebrated ANOTHER birthday, kyle´s birthday!! similar thing, dinner party!! party hats!!! and funny cakes…it was really fun…and the last of a long series of birthdays!..
the next morning we walked to the hot springs, and it was a raging river! the water was really high from a lot of rain….we swam swam swam and mud bathed, and some folks went and explored caves…it was really relaxing and fun…then we headed back to the boats for a long sail back to rio dulce.
Our sail to rio dulce, was fairly stressful for me cause we ended up having to navigate at night though a narrow passage, which went great! but i was wracked with worry…i didnt want to hurt the boat or run into a castle, which is what we were maneuvering around.
But i must gloat and say that we did great! and though i dont know a whole lot about sailing, i can get the boat to move and can get it to stop, turn left right…got it…the rest is time. i felt pretty proud of all of us.
The next day i had to go to guatemala city to get my new passport, which took 5 hours on a bus, and 10 minutes at the embassy, so fast! Then i ran into elyse and erik at the bus station! what luck! they were pretty tired and i was too, we all rode the bus home together and erik and i decided to have a night off the boat, have some together date night, and got an inexpensive hotel room, it was nice cause we got a little one on one time before jumping deep in the getting ready to leave guatemala stuff.
The next day, tuesday the 14th, was the last planned day in rio dulce…we kicked in to high gear getting ready, packing up the bikes sealing up leaks, last minute food buying, and celebrated our last night by having a little party on pleiades, getting pretty drunk, and then going out for Chinese food! hehe! the elyse, turkeytown, sayah, and i went to this bar and hung out with some guatemalans, who bought us drinks and tried to get us to dance and we had a lot of fun…followed by getting shushed by the guards at the place we keep our dingy…and being a bit obnoxious….We didnt leave the next day, cause the 3 boats were planning on leaving together, but then kyle was trying to fix his broken motor, so we decided to wait one more day, and elyse, emory, and i and a few folks from other boats spontaneously decided to get a gold tooth. HEHEHE!! so now i have a gold tooth window, its pretty subtle i must say..its also awesome. and everyone is going to be jealous, except my mom probably, sorry mama its not permanent!
The next day pleiades left in the morning and planned to meet the other two boats in livingston, the check out port of guate. We stopped at the fresh water springs, and filled our water jugs again, and again i dunked in the cool fresh water and felt full of life and turned into a fish for a few minutes…We got to livingston, before dark, ate some dinner, and walked around, discovering more and more of this really interesting town.
The next day, elyse, emory, and i went to the 7 altars waterfalls, and erik stayed to work on the boat. The waterfalls were nice, and we got in trouble a couple of times for trying to steal coconuts, not cause we want to steal them from people but because we thought they were just coconut tress on the beach…but no, there are NO free coconut tress in livingston, im letting you know now so you dont end up getting yelled at like we did…just dont even try.
oh and the biggest news of my life! I CLIMBED THE MAST! thats right, i climbed the mast up to the first spreaders, my goal is all the way up by florida…an i climbed a small coconut tree..i am a successful person!
When we got back to town, erik said the the two boats that we were waiting for had come and left, we actually watched them from the top of a hill, cruse out of guatemala toward honduras, where we planned on meeting them the day after they got there, which at this point would have been yesterday! so why are we still in livingston you might ask….that is for the next post, which ill do today probably,,, so you dont have to hold your breath too long!
also some sad news that many of you know…scogin enroute home to minneapolis was in a non life threatening accident. He made it through mexico and was in texas riding freight trains and some how, im not entirely sure what happened, broke his right shin bone and ankle, and his left heel..had to crawl to the road for help and was taken to a hospital in texas. He is alive, safe, and healing, this happend on the 6th of march (i believe) and he is getting a lot of love and support. If you want to be filled in more, email me boibella at gmail and ill get you in touch with someone or forward you the emails ive been getting about him…Scogin if you are keeping up with this thing, we love you so hard…and cant wait to see you again and eat a million bananas with you, all the chocobananas you can eat my dude! we miss you!
more to come…love
