Rio Dulce 2014

Five Islands
John & Sue
Tue 11 Feb 2014 00:44
Well we are back on Five Islands in the Rio Dulce after an extended trip home to Australia. A catchup of our last 6 months follows:

We left the boat tied to the dock at Mar Marine with Olivier (S/V Maryanne) keeping an eye on the engines, bilge etc and the Marina doing twice monthly cleaning of the outside ($US25/mth).  We purchased a dehumidifier and ran it to keep the mould at bay.  With 4 suitcases, 2 of which were full of boat parts being taken to the USA or Australia for repair, we left the dock in the early morning and headed to the Litegua bus station for the 5/6 hour trip to Guatemala City.  We stayed over night at Los Torres, a basic cheap but clean hotel in Zona 10 near the airport.  As the plane was leaving at 6.30am we left the hotel at 3am to give us the required 3 hours before departure.  The TACA (airline) booking desk did not open till 4.30am, so we stood for 1.5hrs before we finally got to check our luggage in.  Central American time - what can i say.  Upon reaching customs, a very officious man refused to allow the raw water pump (going home for repairs) to be taken on the plane as hand luggage (I had done a re-organisation the night before).  We must have been showing signs of distress (the pump is worth $500) as another man came to our aid and rushed John back to the book in desk and assisted in getting the bag/pump checked in as luggage.  There are nice people everywhere. After an uneventful flight to LA, we booked into the Radisson Hotel near the airport.  We had organised an extra day in LA to see some 'sites' over a wine and beer we decided to do a food tour of Pacadena the next day.  The hotel organised a car (very flash black 4 wheel drive) to take us.  The getting to and from turned out to be the most expensive part of the day (the airport is a long way from the hills).  This was a great 4-5 hrs sampling delicious food from all over the world, including Mexican, Lebonese, Asian and Peruvian (our favourite).  Tea and olive oil tasting as well as handcrafted soap and chocolates made the tour varied and fun.  Pasadena is one of the oldest parts of LA and they are renovating a number of the buildings and promoting a food/artistic atmosphere to attract visitors. Really worth a visit. 

 One of the many restaurants on the food tour - LA

 Starts as a round tea bag and opens like a blossom to infuse the water. This is a white tea.

 The streets of Pasadena.


Then onto Qantas for the 14 hr flight to Brisbane, then a few hours before catching the flight to Rockhampton, Queensland.  The cost of living always hits us when we get home and the airports are the worst. We visited friends and family, saw both our girls and had our little boy, the 'designer mongrel' or 'knob head' as John affectionately calls him, with us for the six months we were home.  Mind you, when he escapes, I'm sure Glen & Wayne (his other Mum & Dad) call him knob head as well.  We experienced cool/cold weather, heat waves but not too much rain. The country side was dry, but lots of Kangaroos, Emu's, Plains Turkeys and even a few Echidna's & Brolga's.  Queensland was a lot dryer than NSW. Wonderful to see our family and dear friends.

 Tanby Point, Emu Park on a glorious day. We went to check on our house, which is currently rented. All good.

  John in the process of extracting a snake from one of our storage boxes. We were in the process of rearranging and cleaning the storage shed when John found the snake. Not sure what it was but you will note that i took the photo from a distance while he dealt with it's removal from the box.

 The Jerrico/Blackall road on our way to see Kev, John's Dad.

 The country was so dry.

 Sheep feeding opposite Kev's house in Blackall. 

   My sister Tan and her husband Mark (John in the centre and Rhodes in the foreground) in their Blueberry patch on their property at Puddledock, near Armidale, NSW.  They sold their first crop at the end of 2013.

 Hay bales were a common site in Central NSW

 Patchy rain at last for inland Queensland

 Where ever we travel Rhodes travels comfortably.

 Even on Kev's ride on lawn mower

  Peta (our eldest) and Kev (John's Dad)

  Ashton (our youngest)

Whilst back in Australia this time we had decided to do some reno's to a little rental house we own in Rockhampton. The plan was to redo the kitchen and bathroom and replace the flooring. This was accomplished with the help and expertise of our builder (also cousin in law and Rhodes second Dad) Wayne and his offsider Matt. We also laid new lawn and are happy with the outcome.  Now all we have to do is re-rent it!

 The 'before' photo of the kitchen

 The finished kitchen and floor

 The 'during' photo of the bathroom (i didn't get one before we started).

 Finished bathroom

 The 'before' photo of the lawn

 The finished lawn

We left Australia on the 18th January 2014 and after 14hrs reached LA. Booked into the Radisson and slept for several hours, then another early 3am trip to the airport.  This time the checkin desk was open but because we didn't have a return trip booked (to prove we intended leaving Guatemala) and having a boat didn't seem to be adequate proof, we were kept in limbo for over half an hour while the TACA representative checked with a number of supervisors.  In the end we had to produce a credit card to prove that if customs/immigration required it, we could pay for a flight. No-one further along the process, either in the States or Guatemala, required it of us, thank goodness.  We flew from LA to San Salvador (El Salvador) and when the plane landed all the passengers clapped the pilots. The airstrip is high and surrounded by mountains with a strong cross wind.  The landing was a bit bumpy to say the least. We changed planes and flew to Guatemala City and booked into the Los Torres again. Just around the corner is a Guatemalan restaurant where we had plates of different types of Guatemalan food and John was introduced to Moza beer, which is a bit more expensive than the local Gallo but is becoming a favourite of his.

 The light sculpture taken from the Radisson looking toward LAX

 Guatemalan restaurant inGuatemala City

 Guatemalan dishes including ribs, chorizo, chicken, rice and beans - yum

The following day (Monday 20th Jan) we caught the Litegua bus back to the Rio Dulce. We couldn't believe our eyes when Jens & Dani (our German friends form S//Y Arwen) climbed onto the bus at the second stop. We knew they were due back in the Rio soon but didn't realise it was the same time as us.  We arrived back at our boat in the afternoon. The outside was clean and had obviously been washed the day before (we let them know we were coming).  Inside had a few mould spots but all in all not bad. The batteries on the starboard side were flat and the fridge would not get cold but everything else seemed to be in working order. Our thanks to Olivier and Jeff for taking care of her in our absence.  The next week or so was spent getting the electrician (Chris from SeaKist Services) to re-gas the fridge and help John install the new battery charger, cleaning, washing, installing new LED lights, getting the dinghy in the water and the outboard running. The dinghy has a slow leak and had deflated while we were away.  This led to it tipping on its side hanging from the davits and filling with rain water. It was extremely green and slimy and took some scrubbing clean.  We still haven't located the leak but it is on the 'to do list'.  We hauled the boat out onto the hard at RAM Marina last Monday and have had the hulls sandblasted to remove the many years and layers of anti foul paint. She had been painted in red, black, green and blue, and it was also apparent that the current waterline is about 10 inches higher than the original.  Louis is very capable and did a good job and now the workers are sanding the spots off to get to the original gelcoat.  It's interesting to see the bottom 'naked' so to speak as a couple of areas have been repaired in the past. These will be re-enforced.  All looks good though and there is no osmosis or blistering any where.  We will have a new barrier coat then 3 layers of anti foul applied.  We will also change the cutless bearings and the PSS seals and have an observation clear/window sewn into the bimini.  We replaced the wind mast head unit last week and will run new cable down the mast in the next week or so. Once we have our jobs done we are off to Spanish School in Antigua and do a bit of looking around.