Work and Play RAM Marina & Antigua Guatemala

Five Islands
John & Sue
Sat 5 Apr 2014 18:48
Life in Guatemala continues to be a mix of work on the boat, meals with friends and a trip to attend Escuela de Espanol (Spanish school).

Living 'on the hard' (land) in a working boat yard is generally a pain in the butt. There is constant dust/dirt and noise. The height of the boat means that to get on board you have to step onto wooden blocks to be able to reach then climb up the swim ladder which has been tied off to a heavy metal stand to give it some stability. Alright for those of us who are 6ft tall and have long legs, but a bit more challenging for others. The sun radiating off the cement in the middle of the day takes the temperature from hot to stinking hot. How the yard guys cope is astonishing. The bathroom is a reasonable walk away, which is fine unless you are in a hurry. We were chocked at an angle with the bow slightly up. You felt like you were walking up hill to get to the bedroom and when it rained we had our own swimming pool in the cockpit, as the drains are toward the front not the back. There are some advantages - there is no rock and roll from passing boats, the West Marine store is located here and of course we are getting maintenance done. Speaking of which, we have been successful in barrier coating and anti fouling the bottom which is now a nice blue and successfully changed one cutless bearing. The other cutless however has caused some grief. It refused to budge after several hours of 'encouragement' with pipe, block of wood and hammer followed by a 'puller' attachment. All to no avail. After returning from Antigua we decided to drop the rudder to allow room for the prop shaft to be removed. This entailed taking the coupler off the end of the shaft which it just did not want to do. But after some gentle persuasion and lots of WD40 it was removed. The boat was hoisted in the travel lift again and both rudders were removed, also after some gentle persuasion and lots of penetrant. When they lowered the boat back down we had them level us out so no more walking uphill to get into bed. It then took 2 hours of cutting to remove the stubborn cutless bearing. The new one was inserted without too much difficulty. The shaft and the coupler were sent off with Dennis to be machine faced and the coupler was bored slightly to make fitting back onto the shaft easier. We were happy with the quality of this work. The shaft is back in and the coupler has been fitted and we are now at the point of doing the initial engine alignment. Going on past history we are not convinced this will go without a hitch, but our fingers are crossed.

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If you hadn't realised it occasionally rains in The Rio Dulce. These guys were caught in a tropical downpour while fuelling their launcha

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Cutting the reluctant cutless bearing out of the strut.

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Followup on the last blog re the boat that had its mast taken off to be loaded on a truck. Travel lift supporting boat as truck backs down the ramp to get underneath, then co-ordinated driving as truck & travel lift move forward to line up the boat on the trailer. Backhoe delivers the mast & with the help of the 'Guatemalan Crane' the mast is lifted onto the boats deck. Once secured it drove off to be transported across Guatemala to be launched on the Pacific coast. The rumour is that the owners travelled in the yacht while it was being transported. Hope they made it.

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This is a 'Guatemalan Crane' moving another mast. Backhoe at the rear with the mast tied to the bucket proceeds slowly while 10 or so workers support the front section of the mast. It's amazing how many things get lifted in a similar fashion here.

Ok, so as often happens with this blog, other things came up and i am now settling back down to continue the story. Just to let you know I have had a glass of wine so if you think that I ramble normally it could get worse.

The highlight of our season so far was heading off to Spanish school. We selected Antiguena Spanish Academy in Antigua on the recommendation of Michelle & Joe (S/V Peregrine) who had spent 2 months studying there. They were hauled beside us in RAM Marina. Dani & Jens accompanied us as Jens felt he would like to have a better grasp on the language just in case Dani was not there to interpret. Not sure if i have mentioned it in previous posts but Dani has a tendency to be our main source of Spanish. She is one of these people who have a gift for language, being able to speak 4 or 5. I must admit as the world becomes smaller and we are exposed to different cultures it is a bit embarrassing that we only speak English. Well i say that but after living in Spanish speaking countries for 3 years (on & off) and 2 whole weeks at Spanish school we have a vocabulary beyond hello, goodbye, coffee,beer and wine. Anyway I transgress, we hired a mini bus/van from OTI tours in Fronteras and with our driver Carlos we headed to Antigua. Maureen and her son Brendan travelled us. They left Charlie and Beth (daughter) behind to look after their boat S/V Kamaloha, also on the hard at RAM. We left Rio Dulce around 10am and arrived in Antigua around 5pm. First impressions were colourful walls and bumpy roads due to the cobblestones but really positive. Carlos finally found the school and after signing up, paying for tuition and home stay ($200 each) we were met by our home stay 'Mum' Olga, who proceeded to lead us through the cobblestone streets to her home and ours for the next 2 weeks. How lucky were we. Olga and her family were just amazing and my eyes are misting even now thinking of them. She led us ( not too far from the school) to a door on the street which opened onto a little lane with 3 doors leading off it. Olga's brother and sister also live in the building.

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Looking toward the 'front' door (street) at Olga's

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Our (and Olga's) living room. As you come through the door into Olga's home, you enter into a central courtyard. This is very typical of Spanish designed homes. Surrounding the courtyard are the bedrooms, bathroom, kitchens and an area for washing up and storing cutlery, cookery etc. Our bedroom was upstairs and on the right.

The room was larger than the other rooms on the second level. Dani and Jens moved into Olga's after 3 days. Their host ran more of a hostel than family stay and the meals were from the microwave rather than typical Guatemalan. Olga and her husband Hermundo, were converting the 2 bedrooms next to ours into 'private bathroom' and Dani & Jens moved into one of these. Dani lasted one week at Spanish school before dropping out as she thought she was teaching the teacher more English than she was being taught Spanish.

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Vulcan Agua from the veranda outside our room - how special.

Our next 2 weeks consisted of up at 06.30am, breakfast at 07.00 then a 5 minute walk to the 'garden' where we spent 4 hrs trying to learn the rudimentaries of Spanish. By the 4th day all i wanted to do was cry and John had given it up as hopeless and this was only our first week! Ilma (my teacher) and Lydia (John's teacher) were exceedingly patient. It helped that they understood and spoke English to an extent so when the hands started circling and you would say "what's the English for …." they would supply the relevant spanish word (in most cases). Reference to the dictionary also helped. The school had activities in the afternoon that, for the most part, were free. John and i took the opportunity to visit a convent, fruit wine producer and chocolate producer.

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Nun feeding the pet parrots in the San Juan De Obispo (convent & museum).

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Chocolate Antigua (San Juan) worth the trip on the 'chicken bus', mind you travelling home i have never been soooo squashed. John was pressed tightly up against my back and I was pressed up against the woman in from of me with my face in her hair for most of the 15 minute trip. Letting people off and on was a constant shuffle and more pressing of bodies.

Afternoon excursions also took us to the Jade factory (pronounced 'harday') and the ChocoMuseo (Chocolate Factory & Museum) next door.

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In the Jade Museum they have your birth sign under the Mayan Calander. This is mine - happy about it up to the bit about 'most likely to be mugged'!!!

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This is John. Not sure about the neat bit - the boat is constantly covered with 'stuff' he is working on.

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Cocoa beans

Another tick off my 'to do list' was a visit to a coffee farm which also housed the Maya Instrument & Traditional Clothing museum

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The coffee bushes/trees are grown in rows, under shade trees. In this plantation, as in most of the others we saw, the shade tree of choice is the grevillea tree. Yes the aussie grevillea.

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The coffee beans are picked (November through to February)…

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Washed…

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Where the outer shell/husk is removed and composted

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Fermented….

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Dried in the sun and raked by hand or…

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by machine to ensure there is no moisture.

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The coffee is then roasted. This photo shows 3 grades of beans and ground coffee at the back.

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Finally the coffee is packaged. Each of these bags are made from hand woven material - 'tipico' Guatemalan

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The music museum traces the history of maya musical instruments from pre-columbian times to present day.

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Drums still form a major part of music today

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As does the marimba (Olga's favourite instrument)

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Typical (tipico) clothing worn at a Maya wedding

Antigua is old Spanish and the 'Iglesias' (churches) are good examples of this architecture.

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Guatemala Cathedral, Central Park

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La Merced (main church near Olga's and our Hotel on our last weekend).

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Iglesia de San Francisco. Pilgrims travel to this church to ask for blessings from Friar Hermano (Brother) Pedro. One room in the museum to the side of the church is covered with photos of those people who received blessings. The following photos are of the grounds of this magnificent place.

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Where ever there is a church there are markets

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Looking down onto the central court yard

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Amongst the ruins we found a gum tree (eucalyptus)

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Even with old stone and bricks the modern influences and conveniences are present.

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The newer re-built parts of the church buildings blend fairly well with the older ruins. Most of the churches and grander buildings in Antigua have been destroyed by earthquakes several times and re-built either using or around the ruins.

I will close this blog now and commence working on the next one which cover the rest of our stay in Antigua, then I'll work on the one of our stay at Lake Atitlan.