1 February 1996 Antigua, Guatemala
We went for a pleasant breakfast and then walked down to the local market. It’s a huge area of covered stalls about ¼ mile square. We wandered around the edge and came across a big open air vegetable market. What a fantastic sight – vegetables laid out on mats on the ground, being sold by Indian women dressed in beautiful woven skirts and embroidered blouses in a riot of colours. We walked among the vendors and marvelled at the sight. I tried to take photos with my automatic camera without looking through the view finder, all devious-like! - I hope that they come out.
We tore ourselves away from the vegetable market and went inside where Glenys indulged herself and bought lots of traditional fabric and textile goods to give to family when we get back to the UK. We bought a belt for Craig and other souvenirs and then went back to the central square where we had another picnic lunch. After lunch, we bartered with the girls and bought a rug, some shirts, a table cloth, etc.
The next stop was the jade factory. About 20 years ago, an American archaeologist discovered a source of natural jade “rocks” – presumably while trying to find the source of the Mayan jade mines. She proceeded to mine and process this jade and now has a factory employing 50+ people making very expensive jewellery and copies of Mayan jade artefacts and masks. It’s the kind of success I’d like to have! There was a big feature about the Mayans and their jade in the National Geographic Vol. 172 No.3 Sept 1987. When we walked into the shop, a man came over and gave us a small bag each, containing a few small pieces of jade. We then had a short guided tour, during which we were shown various exhibits of Mayan masks and artefacts, before looking at the raw material and the grinding shop. Very interesting, but the jewellery is so expensive considering that jade is just like an opaque stone - looks like malachite to me.
We walked up to a monastery called Santo Domingo which is owned by a hotel. They have built a very tasteful hotel within the Monastery grounds and are in the process of restoring the rest of the ruins – a very pretty place. We went back to the hotel, packed our rucksacks ready to leave tomorrow and went out for dinner.
2 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
We got up early and went down to the bus station to catch a bus to Guate. We didn’t have time for breakfast. We got on a bus at twenty past seven and wanted to catch our bus to the Rio Dulce at nine o’clock. The bus didn’t leave for 15 minutes because the driver wouldn’t leave until the bus had at least 3 people per seat and 20 standing! We then hit the Guate rush hour traffic. It was interesting to see yellow school buses for sale along the way – they must buy old school buses from the States and drive them down here to sell.
We arrived in Zone 1 of the city at twenty to nine and got off at 13th Calle, 6th Avenida. (The roads are organised in “Calles” running east-west and “Avenidas” running north-south). We needed to get to 15th Calle, 10th Avenida and we only had 20 minutes. I guessed on the direction and two blocks later we were at 13th Calle, 4th Avenida. Damn! – wrong way. We ran through the streets dragging the boys (Craig said he was going to die), and arrived at the bus station at eight minutes to nine. Just enough time to buy tickets, buy some drinks and crisps, go to the toilet and get on the bus before it left -phew! We just made it, but still hadn’t got any breakfast.
We expected the driver to stop for short breaks every hour, as we had done on the trip to Guate, but no such luck. The driver only stopped long enough to unload and load passengers and then roared off before we could buy any snacks. He eventually stopped at a café for 15 mins at noon by which time we were starving! We had barely enough time to wolf down a plate of beef, rice and tortillas and buy some sandwiches before we were roaring off again. We arrived at Fronteras at twenty past two and then had a two hour wait in a bar for the marina pirogue. We got back to Glencora at half past four and went to the bar for dinner.
3 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
We got up late and did a bit of tidying up. It was a “swop meet” in the bar, so I tried to sell a set of diving gear and the windsurfer. One guy may be interested in the dive gear. We picked up two of our gas bottles which have fortunately been filled. I ran the engine for an hour with no problems. I started to play the clarinet after lunch, but was interrupted by an excited Brett telling me that “Star Trek 2” was on TV. We sat down at three o’clock and didn’t get up for six hours – there were three Star Trek movies back to back - great. Glenys was suitably disgusted by my laziness and cleaned down the decks!
4 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
School work in the morning. I then spent a couple of hours with Randy and Dawn on “Rights of Man” going through charts of Florida and places to visit. We’ve decided to miss out Cuba, visit Key West and then miss out the Florida Keys, doing one long trip up to the Fort Pierce inlet. I put the domestic batteries back in place and ran the engine with no problems, played the clarinet and went to a pot luck dinner in the bar. Back to a routine! Filled up with water.
5 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
We got the boat ready to leave the marina, paid the bill (groan!) and escaped at quarter past ten. We motored down to the fuel dock and filled up with diesel. We then went and anchored off Fronteras while Glenys went to buy a bit of food.
After lunch, we motored up river to the Castillo De San Felipe. This fort was built in the 1600’s to protect Spanish warehouses in Lake Izabel from blood-thirsty pirates. The Castillo was destroyed, captured and rebuilt several times until 1688 when relative peace returned to the Rio Dulce. The fort was reconstructed in 1956 and is very pretty. There are lots of small rooms and ramparts and a couple of unlit “secret passages” underground. The boys and I had a wonderful time playing hide and seek.
As usual in Guatemala, tourists pay five times the admission fee of locals. To add insult to injury, the ticket collector only gave us one ticket – I assume he pocketed the other Q5. We then motored back down the Rio Dulce to anchor for the night, just outside Mario’s Marina. It was a very cold night with temperatures down to 65°F – we got the duvet out again!
6 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
We did school work in the morning. Glenys was feeling a bit ill, so she relaxed in the cockpit while I played with Band-in-the-Box and Powertraks to make some songs to play along to – 15 of my favourites. A very quiet day.
7 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Glenys went into Morales on the van from Mario’s Marina. She managed to send a fax to Ceris and bought some food. She also bought a couple of courses of worm tablets for us to take. Intestinal worms are very prevalent in Central America and we have been advised to de-worm ourselves every 3 months. Round worm are the worst because they are 30cm long! Hook worms are about 10 mm long and the tiny larvae infect people by penetrating the skin of bare feet or legs. They then travel through the blood stream to the lungs and thence travel via the windpipe, the gullet and the stomach to their habitat, the bowel, where they produce eggs which are passed out in the stools of the carrier. Yuk!
I spent the morning working out, or trying to work out, what we are going to do when we get back to the UK. I just keep going around in circles – should I set up a company? Who am I going to work for? Etc, etc. Glenys is still suffering from some viral infection and had an afternoon nap. We went out to the bar for Taco night and had a good time with Jack and Lynn from “Southern Cross” (US).
8 February 1996 Marios Marina to Finca Paraiso, Lake Izabal
We did a few errands in the morning and then went up the river to Lake Izabal. We went in company with Graham and Suzanna on “Boston Scrod” and Paul and Melinda on “Sand Dollar” because there have been quite a few thefts recently from yachts that have been left unattended – outboards and a couple of break-ins.
We first went to Denny’s Beach Bar so that “Boston Scrod” could get some water and had lunch there – quiet little place. We then motored across to the western side of the lake and anchored just off the Fincha Paraiso, so that we can visit some hot waterfalls tomorrow. The holding is crap with very soft mud, so I hope that there is no wind tonight!
9 February 1996 Finca Paraiso to Rio Sauce, Lake Izabal
We went ashore after breakfast and walked along a path for about 30 minutes to the Agua Calience. This is a beautiful place. A river flows down into a big pool at the same place as a hot waterfall. It’s amazing – we’ve seen quite a few hot springs that have a dribble of hot water, but this is a real waterfall with hundreds of gallons per minute! The waterfall is so hot that one can barely stay underneath it. The pool is deep enough to swim in and is kept very clean – they have a guy who looks after the place – all for Q5/person.
While the others played in the pool, I walked up the river to find the source of the cold river. It took me 15 minutes of wading through pools and clambering over rocks to find the cave that is the source of the river. I went back to the others and reported in. While we had lunch, I tried to talk to the “caretaker” about the Cuevas, but couldn’t understand what he replied!
After lunch, Paul, Melinda, Graham, Brett and I decided to go up to the cave and the “caretaker” started to guide us – obviously, I had asked him to guide us! He took us along a path and then along the river. Brett, Graham and I swam into the cave for about 200 metres until we came to the end where there was a mini, 3ft waterfall (fortunately, I had brought 2 small dive torches.) It was quite exciting to hear the roar in the pitch black.
When we got back to Glencora, we motored to another anchorage, explored a small river and went to “Sand Dollar” for a sunset beer. We had left our cockpit light on, and when we got back we had hundreds of flies (including fireflies) zooming about the light. We had to have dinner below – it was hot!
10 February 1996 Rio Sauce to No Name Bay, Lake Izabal
We motored over to the small town of El Estor. Saturday is market day so this pretty town was fairly busy. We walked down to the town square where they have a small pool with 3 crocodiles which are the species that live in the Rio Dulce! Boring things crocodiles - they just seem to sleep. We then went to the market and bought some food, beer and Glenys bought some more traditional material – the type that the Indian women use to make their wrap around skirts called a “corte”.
We waited until “Sand Dollar” had been into town, then our flotilla sailed to an unnamed bay on the extreme south end of the lake. We went for an explore up the Rio Palochic where we’ve been told that groups of howler monkeys can be seen. The river is very wide and the banks are covered with tall dense reeds and other vegetation, so the whole trip was rather uninteresting. The current was very strong so it took us over an hour to go two miles upstream to a split in the river, then 30 minutes back. We saw a large kingfisher but, alas, no monkeys.
As the sun started to go down, we heard three separate groups of howler monkeys from the anchorage. What a strange guttural roar it is – some people think it sounds like the roar of a large cat. “Boston Scrod” and “Sand Dollar” came for a beer. At six o’clock, a huge cloud of black mosquitoes descended on us and we had to retire below. Graham and Paul like to argue, so we had a very loud evening, with neither of them willing to back down on a point!
11 February 1996 No Name Bay, Lake Izabal
School work in the morning – we’ve only done 3 lessons this month and we need to do another 16 to hit our target for this month – not much chance of that at this rate! The other boats did their river trips and in the afternoon it started to rain.
We had tortillas for lunch (again!). Glenys has gone native with her cooking and I find it amusing to see Brett and Craig happily tucking into tortillas with beans and salsa sauce! At about three o’clock, Glenys and I went back up the river to find some monkeys that “Boston Scrod” had seen in the morning. We, of course, didn’t see any! But we did have a very pleasant, peaceful drift down the river.
When we arrived back at the anchorage, we discovered that the others had been watching a family of monkeys in a tree right next to seashore – we finally got to see one! I took a picture but I expect that it will just be a black blob in a tree. We had a quiet, hot night, trapped below by the marauding mosquitoes.
12 February 1996 Puerto Refugio, Lake Izabel
We motored across the lake to the mouth of the Rio Obscuro, then went exploring with “Sand Dollar” while “Boston Scrod” watched the boats. We went up the Rio Obscuro for about ½ mile until we came to the Rio Zarchita, which is only about 15ft wide and is a light turquoise colour instead of the usual mud brown. The river is fairly fast flowing and meanders through jungle, complete with overhanging trees. It was good fun drifting back, avoiding hanging vines and listening to the birds and a group of howler monkeys in the distance – very “Indiana Jones”!
We motored over to a bay called Puerto Refugio (in the pouring rain). Huge sheltered bay. We had a quiet night, isolated by the rain.
13 February 1996 Puerto Refugio to Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
The wind picked up from the SW during the night and we were pitching in the 2ft waves. We motored down the lake to Denny’s Beach, where we went alongside his dock and filled up with water. We had a mediocre lunch there which took ages to cook.
We motored down river and anchored outside Mario’s Marina next to “Pipe Dream” – we caught up on their gossip and had a quiet night. I’m looking forward to going to Riotel tomorrow to pick up a fax from our accountant (Paul Preston) – I hope it tells me that I’m non-resident!
14 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
I went and picked up the faxes – one from Paul Preston and one from Ceris. Ceris is flying into Orlando on the 19th April at six o’clock in the evening.
The fax from Paul includes a letter from the Inland Revenue saying that we were non-resident from 3 Sept 1992 to 5 April 1995 which is good news. They then say that we are provisionally non-resident for the 95/96 tax year and this will be reviewed after 6 April 1996. This provisional business is a little worrying and the fax doesn’t explain, or tell us that we can move capital out of the Trust. I spent the morning composing a reply fax to Paul while Glenys did school work with the boys.
I grabbed a quick sandwich and then, at half past one, set off to Morales to send a fax. It’s a bit of a mission - one and a half hours to get to Morales, 30 minutes to get cash and 30 minutes to send the fax. I spent 30 minutes shopping for Glenys, one and a half hours to get back to Fronteras arriving at dusk and just made it to Glencora before it went pitch black – phew!
This country is a mixture of beauty and squalor. The countryside is so beautiful with lush vegetation, hills and valleys and wonderful bird life. The towns are scruffy and dirty and poverty is all around. People still live in small houses made from sticks and palm leaves - they grow small patches of maize and carry water from the rivers and streams. Children of age 6 start work hustling in the bus stations, selling popcorn and peanuts.
I’ve just finished a book called “I ….. Rigoberta Menchú” (ISBN 0 860991 788 6), which is a bit hard going, but gave a good insight into the problems that the Guatemalan Indians have had with repression from the government and the “Ladinos”, the non-Indian population. In the 1970’s the Indians were treated as low class people. They worked in small communities clearing and cultivating land to grow maize and beans. Mostly they ate tortillas and sold the beans to earn a little money.
Every few months, a group from a village would go to the plantations (“Fincas”) to pick coffee, cotton and cane. At these Fincas, the landowners treated the Indians like animals and only paid them 75 centenos per day (15p at today’s rate!). In 1978, a guy called Garcia Lucas came to power and started to repress the Indians even more, taking their small plots of land. When the Indians started to rebel, Garcia used the army to stop them and widespread brutality, rape, torture and mass murders took place. I must read more about what has happened since – the Indians still seem to be regarded as second class citizens.
15 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Back to routine again. We did school work in the morning which took ages because Glenys kept nipping off to the launderette. After lunch, Glenys took the boys into Mario’s to play in the pool. I picked up my clarinet but only managed one scale before Keith from “Gooseberry” turned up for a chat. He stayed for an hour by which time Glenys and the boys had returned and we had to get ready to go to Taco night at the Marina. Good evening in the bar.
16 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
I just HAD to get up at half past six and write a sales specification of Glencora. We are going to place adverts in the UK yachting magazines in July, so I want to send the specs to Carol so that she can send them out when people respond to our advert. It’s amazing how far ahead we have to think while we are in the back of beyond.
We did school work in the morning. Graham and Suzanne from “Boston Scrod” called by with some Jazz CDs and a tape of a Pan Pipe Band which they bought in Antigua. I spent the afternoon recording and we had a quiet night in.
17 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
We went to the swap meet at Mario’s and I picked up a fax from Paul Preston which says that he would be very very surprised if the Inland Revenue refused to give us non-resident status for 95/96 tax year. He says that we should take the opportunity to get the capital out of the Trust. But should we completely close the Trust or just take most of the capital out and leave the Trust open?? Decisions, decisions! Apparently, there is a fax from John Barrett (who runs my off-shore trust) in Guatemala City, so we will wait for that before making our minds up.
Mario’s have this little custom where cruisers make a small model of their yacht and hang it up in the marina’s TV room. Brett bought a wooden hull for $1 to make a model, so when we got back to Glencora, we spent an hour starting the model. Eric (9) from “Viking” came over and asked if Brett and Craig wanted to go and play on his boat – of course!
After lunch, while Glenys did some upholstery, I went to see Alan and Didi on “Aves Periguina”. Alan owns an alto saxophone which I had a quick go on – it’s very different from a clarinet. The fingering is different and the embouchure is different. God knows how people can play both instruments well! I borrowed some music books from Alan.
The boys came back at four o’clock with Eric and asked if they could spend the night on “Viking” – course they can! It was so unexpected, what were we going to do that evening, by ourselves? We ended up on “Southern Cross” for a beer and eventually stayed for a chilli and a few bottles of wine.
18 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Glenys had a major hangover, surprisingly I was OK. The boys came back at half past eight in the morning and got us out of bed – typical! They had stayed awake until midnight. “Viking” has a big pet tarantula loose on their boat which worried Brett and Craig, so I don’t think they slept too well!
Glenys continued with the aft cabin upholstery and I read Alan’s music books. We had roast chicken for our Sunday lunch and then went to watch a cruiser’s soft ball game. After that, everyone went to an anniversary party at Rosita’s Restaurant. I filled 1 dive tank.
19 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
I picked up the fax that we were waiting for, but it turned out to be from Carol with a copy of the last fax that we got from John Barrett. We decided that we would go ahead and close the Trust completely. So while Glenys did school work, I wrote two faxes to John Barratt and Paul Preston.
We then motored up to Fronteras and I dashed off to Morales to send the faxes. After the lady at Guatel had sent the faxes, I noticed that one had a transmission error. I asked about it in my pigeon Spanish, but she assured me that it was “Muy Bien”. I left hoping that both went OK.
When I got back to Fronteras, we went to a small Marina called Tijax (“Tee-Hash”) for a beer. They have a volleyball court and some badminton racquets. I played badminton for the first time in 5 years – I lost. God, I hate losing!
20 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
We got up early and caught a bus to Quirigua (“Ki-Ri-Gwa”), which is the remains of a small Mayan settlement. We travelled with Keith, Tina and Tom (2) from “Gooseberry” (Can). The ruins are very well maintained with a small acropolis and some beautifully carved stellae. Apparently, the people who lived there originally came from Copan. A very nice, small site.
When we arrived back in Morales, I went to Guatel and sent the fax again – I was worrying about it not getting through! We had a good day out. Part of the fun is eating the local snacks on the buses. They sell two tortillas with chicken, rice and another tortilla on top for $1US! The ladies sell this food from baskets covered with cloth towels.
21 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Glenys did school work, while I spent the morning doing admin – working out our finances and writing a few letters. Brett was desperate to go and play badminton again, so we went to Tijax after lunch. We must have been mad to play it at two o’clock in the blazing sun! We then motored back to Mario’s anchorage and went to taco night (again!). The trouble with going to regular events like this is that it shows the passage of time – and it’s quick! Jack from “Southern Cross” loves playing with the boys, but he tends to get them very excited and they run out of control - it took us ages to get them settled in bed!
22 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
School work in the morning. After lunch, Glenys went out to see Suzanne from “Boston Scrod” mostly to get away from us. I messed about recording myself playing tunes on the clarinet. Bloody awful! I thought I was starting to sound OK, so it’s brought me back down to earth – I must record myself every time I start to get cocky.
Taran Tara! I had an evening without drinking any alcohol, it’s a miracle. I sat up until eleven o’clock, working on plans for our grand return to the UK. I’m trying to make sure that we do as much as possible in the States to ease ourselves into the UK. I’m also trying to think of ways to earn money back in the UK. So far, I’ve got a four pronged attack – permanent job (groan), working investor with up to £50K to spend, do contract work, set up a business (but what product?). It’s very much an iterative process, but very difficult because we don’t know what is going on in the UK, both economically and technically. I’m now starting to look forward to getting back, so that I can get stuck in!
23 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Still waiting for word from the Trust, I feel like we’re trapped here on the Rio Dulce! I picked up a fax from Ceris which is just chat. I then went to pick up some water in jerry cans from Mario’s, but they ran out of water! Nothing’s going right today!
We motored down to the fuel dock and filled up with diesel. We then anchored by “Gooseberry”. I was in a grumpy mood - I’ve been feeling guilty about not doing any jobs on the boat. We’ve got a slight water leak in the pressurised water system that makes the water pump turn on and off randomly, which is very irritating.
After lunch, I decided “sod it”, and sat down with a good novel. Glenys went out and did a bit of shopping. “Gooseberry” came over for a beer. They met “Wise Cat” last year in the intra coastal waterway. Apparently, Robin and the boys had flown home and Phil was sailing the boat back to Australia by himself - 15 years to sail from Australia to Florida and 6 months back!
24 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
We dropped the boys off at “Boston Scrod” so that Suzanne could babysit while Glenys, Graham and I went horse riding. We picked up the horses at the stables at Tijax at about quarter past nine. Glenys had a feisty little horse, I had a nice responsive stallion and Graham had an awkward, old mare. We were let loose to roam around the 300 acre Finca (Farm). The horses were good and we had some good canters as well as pleasant walks along paths through teak plantations. Graham’s horse took a different path to us at one point and he had to get off and lead it back! I swapped with him halfway through and agreed that it was bloody minded. Glenys looked relaxed on her horse and I was quite pleased with my efforts although it was awkward with short stirrups, which couldn’t easily be adjusted.
After picking up the boys up from “Boston Scrod”, we went to Mario’s Marina for a late lunch and then had a relaxing afternoon, watching TV and chatting. “Filia” turned up and it was nice to see Ollie and Margaret. The last time we saw them was in Grenada, August 1994. They spent 5 months here last year and then went down to the San Blas Islands and Panama. They were hit by lighting in Panama and had £25,000 worth of electrical and electronic equipment damage. I finally received a fax from Paul Preston acknowledging my fax of the 19th.
25 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Craig got up four times last night because of nightmares; he slept all night with his light on. We watched a film called “Starman” last night. It seemed pretty inoffensive to me, but something bothered him and it’s hard to get him to talk about it. He’s going through an age of vivid imagination – Brett went through the same thing. Craig has even had nightmares about an old James Bond film “You Only Live Twice”. He didn’t like the bit where a Ninja crept into the ceiling over James Bond’s bed and then dribbled some poison down a thread. Craig is now worried about someone creeping about on the deck and opening his hatch - the strangest things bother children!
Glenys did school work in the morning while I did some jobs. The pressurised water leak eludes me. The stern gland has been leaking badly again and because we have been slack running the bilge pump, the engine bilge sump has flooded, so I cleaned that out. I also tightened the stern gland by ½ turn – I wonder if everyone else has to adjust their stern gland as much as me?
After lunch, we went over to Rositas hoping to play soft ball. For some reason the game wasn’t on and we had to go back to Glencora. “Boston Scrod” dropped by for a beer and we then went to “Pot Luck” at the Marina. At ten pm, we all settled down and watched “Time Cop” and didn’t get to bed until after midnight.
26 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
We couldn’t raise ourselves until nine o’clock! School work in the morning. No fax from the Trust, so we just have to wait. I may send them a fax tomorrow, asking them to acknowledge my fax of the 19th. Brett and Craig have invited themselves to stay the night on “Southern Cross”.
After lunch we all did our own thing, but as five o’clock approached, the boys got more and more excited. I dropped them off and Jack took them to the swimming pool. Lynn says that Jack is as excited as the boys! I made a lasagne for dinner and we had a very quiet evening drinking wine, listening to music and ...
27 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
I picked the boys up from “Southern Cross” and it sounds like everyone had a good time. We did school work in the morning and then motored down to Fronteras, so that Glenys could do some shopping. Still no fax from John Barrett, I’m going to send him a fax tomorrow – I can’t stand the suspense!
I spent the afternoon playing the clarinet and doing some music theory. I’m trying to suss out how to ad-lib and I’m starting to learn the chords so that I can play in the background to accompany people (I think!). We had a quiet night.
28 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Glenys did school work in the morning and I went into Morales. I sent three faxes, one to John Barrett asking him to tell me what’s going on, one to Ceris to get her to bring some things out to us and another to Carol in reply to her fax.
In the afternoon, Glenys went out to do some more shopping and I played clarinet. I recorded some songs again – one of my biggest problems is that I don’t finish notes off positively but they kind of slide away, going flatter as they go!
We went to Tijax in the evening for a beer. John, who runs the bar, has managed to acquire a subcutaneous worm which is moving about 1 inch per day under the skin of his foot. It’s leaving a thin red wavy line on his skin as it tunnels its way along – yuk! We all stood in a bucket of Savlon and had a shower when we got back to Glencora!
29 February 1996 Mario’s Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
It’s a leap year. We did Test 60 today which has been a minor accomplishment this month – thank goodness for the extra day! I received a garbled message that a fax has arrived from John Barrett. It apparently says they are trying to get hold of Paul Preston. This waiting is very frustrating!
In the afternoon, I finished off our small model of Glencora so we went to the marina to put it up and have a swim in the pool. In the evening Jack and Lynn from “Southern Cross” came for dinner. “Boston Scrod” popped by and had a quick drink with us. We had a pleasant evening and drank lots of wine.