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.