- Sorry for the bad punctuation, this upload was from a tablet so I didn't,'thave to lug the 17 inch laptop ASHORE.on the tabletIcan't see what I'm typing as I type as the keyboard takes over the whole screen. Back to aface book for me I think.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Hanging out in Honduras once more
here we are two years after the last blog.update. uploading photos hasn't got any faster in the last two years. Love it or hate it, Facebook has become the easiest way to keep friends and family up to date with our progress. Well, while we wait for a weather window to head East, here are some sights from The Bay Islands of Honduras, mostly underwater!
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Utila and Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Feliz Navidad
Those Christmas hats from the last post continue to embarrass me about my lack of blogging this year.
It's time to replace them with something new.
2013 started with us leaving in a rush from the USA on expiring visas. We made it to Bimini in the Bahamas in time to celebrate Stu's 50th there and chill out, to recover from the stress of it all. We struggled against the trade winds through the Bahamas and re-repaired the engine in Nassau - thanks to the incompetence of one of the mechanics in the USA, we nearly lost it for good - it's a long story!
After fighting more upwind we made our way down to Cuba and spent 2 months sailing and biking around the north and west coast. The blog will appear eventually, I promise.
To recover from that exertion we spent 6 weeks in Belize sailing and snorkeling the magnificent reefs.
Completely worn out from the constant travel from Turkey over 2 years, and quite fed up of watching weather and worrying about hurricanes, we decided to spend hurricane season in Guatemala, up the Rio Dulce. There are about 15 small marinas up here, and the country was highly recommended to us by other cruisers. We have been moored at Tijax marina (check it out at www.tijax.com) for 6 months, working on the boat, doing some land travels and loving the simplicity of being able to step ashore. It has been as hot as hell at times, and we've made good use of the swimming pool to stay sane.
It was time for us to leave on a high water to cross the sandbar on 12th December, but we'd ordered a new anchor chain a few months back, which should have arrived in November. Well, it is Christmas eve and we are still waiting for it to be released from customs. Customs thought they would try and get a nice big bribe for the shipment to be released in time for Christmas, but the importers are refusing to play that game, so a huge container of West Marie stock continues to sit in customs, and we continue to wait until they get bored of the sight of it. Since the old chain has turned into a sad pile of rust, we feel we have to hang on for it and enjoy Guatemala for Christmas.
Yesterday our friendly marinero, Oscar-Abel, took 10 of us gringos to his home to 'help' make traditional tamales, which is what the locals eat instead of turkey and brussel sprouts. They cooked us breakfast, lunch and gave us take home tamales too. What fantastic generosity!!!! Can you imagine us inviting 10 Guatemalans to our house to teach them how to make British Christmas dinner, and feeding them 3 meals too??? I hope one day we do......
Here's some more pictures of Guatemala to keep you going until the next post.
It's time to replace them with something new.
2013 started with us leaving in a rush from the USA on expiring visas. We made it to Bimini in the Bahamas in time to celebrate Stu's 50th there and chill out, to recover from the stress of it all. We struggled against the trade winds through the Bahamas and re-repaired the engine in Nassau - thanks to the incompetence of one of the mechanics in the USA, we nearly lost it for good - it's a long story!
After fighting more upwind we made our way down to Cuba and spent 2 months sailing and biking around the north and west coast. The blog will appear eventually, I promise.
To recover from that exertion we spent 6 weeks in Belize sailing and snorkeling the magnificent reefs.
Completely worn out from the constant travel from Turkey over 2 years, and quite fed up of watching weather and worrying about hurricanes, we decided to spend hurricane season in Guatemala, up the Rio Dulce. There are about 15 small marinas up here, and the country was highly recommended to us by other cruisers. We have been moored at Tijax marina (check it out at www.tijax.com) for 6 months, working on the boat, doing some land travels and loving the simplicity of being able to step ashore. It has been as hot as hell at times, and we've made good use of the swimming pool to stay sane.
Moored in the jungle |
It's hot in the rain too! |
Jungle walks |
Leaf cutter ants busy, busy, busy |
View over the Rio Dulce |
It was time for us to leave on a high water to cross the sandbar on 12th December, but we'd ordered a new anchor chain a few months back, which should have arrived in November. Well, it is Christmas eve and we are still waiting for it to be released from customs. Customs thought they would try and get a nice big bribe for the shipment to be released in time for Christmas, but the importers are refusing to play that game, so a huge container of West Marie stock continues to sit in customs, and we continue to wait until they get bored of the sight of it. Since the old chain has turned into a sad pile of rust, we feel we have to hang on for it and enjoy Guatemala for Christmas.
Yesterday our friendly marinero, Oscar-Abel, took 10 of us gringos to his home to 'help' make traditional tamales, which is what the locals eat instead of turkey and brussel sprouts. They cooked us breakfast, lunch and gave us take home tamales too. What fantastic generosity!!!! Can you imagine us inviting 10 Guatemalans to our house to teach them how to make British Christmas dinner, and feeding them 3 meals too??? I hope one day we do......
Banana leaves from the garden are softened over a fire. |
Gladys (mum) stirs the cornmeal dough over another fire |
Jerie finds out how hard it is to stir with a canoe paddle |
Judy helps to chop 15 pounds of chicken |
Everyone has their fingers in the pie |
Production line, the pile grows |
Nicole makes her first tamale |
With secret ingredients! |
We made 2 pots like this. They are steamed over the fire for 2 hours. |
Stu samples the product. |
Here's some more pictures of Guatemala to keep you going until the next post.
Simple living on the river |
River shops |
Public transport |
Funky pants |
Lovely fresh fruit and veg |
Lake Atitlan |
Lake of flowers |
Subsistence fishing |
Howler monkeys |
Hot springs |
Cold springs |
Luggage being rearranged underway on a collectivo bus |
Chicken buses |
With a real Chicken on top |
She's 76 , kneels there all day to sell a few wares |
Baby on board |
Beautiful Antigua |
Boys and their toys....the work goes on |
Its a hard life for dinks too, Guat is not kind to glue |
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