We arrived back in El Salvador today, after a truly pleasant bus ride from Guatemala City. The buses here are not to be believed. We got breakfast, coffee, and sodas served by the bus equivalent of flight attendants. And this wasn't even first class!
So it has been awhile. Mot of the delay in posting was due to the crappy keyboard I have here - each time I type a sentence I have to go back and fix a ton of typos. And there were times I did not have internet access. But I am back. We will be in San Salvador today and tomorrow, to take care of some errands and to get some groceries as there is pretty much nothing on the boat. I finally broke down and called the shop with our winches (I say "broke down" because I hate to use the phone down here. It is hard for me to understand Spanish over the telephone.) and discovered all was well and hopefully they will be ready for us to pick up tomorrow. You never know until you get there. We also heard through the grapevine that our landlord is not going to be in any trouble. Nobody has the straight story yet. I can hardly wait to hear Santos's side of the story. It should be good.
Guatemala was absolutely wonderful. We went across the middle, from Tikal in the north to Guatemala City in the south. The ruins at Tikal were incredible. We stayed at a place called El Remate that was just outside of the Tikal area itself, in a hostel-type place. The place was full of Native Americans on a caravan from Alaska to help ring in the new Baktun. They were having all sorts of ceremonies on the grounds, and it was all very interesting. Tikal itself is huge may be even bigger than Chichen Itza or Palenque. (Truthfully, I have seen so many ruins now that they are all starting to run together in my head. I am no longer sure which ruin had what.) It is also a game preserve, and we saw monkeys, oscillated turkeys, toucans, parrots, coatimundis, and another large rat like creature who was very cute but whose name I have forgotten. It rained on us, which was nice because otherwise it would have been hot.
Since this keyboard is SUCH a hassle, I am going to tell about my trip in dribs and drabs in upcoming posts. I must tell you that at one of the hotels we visited, there was a resident parrot named Paco. For some reason, Paco fixated on Mike. He followed us to our room, and barricaded Mike in. At one point, he actually ran across the patio (I had no idea parrots could run fast but trust me, they can) and bit Mike on the ankle, actually drawing blood. Mike later befriended Paco (not that Paco deserved it) by buying and feeding him his favorite treat, cashews. This happened in Panjachel, on the shores of Lago Atitlan.
I am really glad to be back, however. I miss the boat and am really eager to get underway again. Most of our friends have left and are sending us updates on the anchorages they are encountering in Costa Rica and Panama. I am hoping that nothing went wrong on the boat while we were gone. If everything is okay, it should only be a couple of weeks before we can leave. There is a bit of mechanical work to be done,and Mike is hoping to get a new solar panel before we go. One of ours was damaged in one of the storms we had this summer - it still works but not as efficiently as before. If we have to order one, we could be here longer than we want. I want to take off as soon as we can - I miss my night watches.
Our brand new camera (one of them anyway, and the one I liked the best) is already broken. The lens cracked while we were swimming through a cave, holding candles to light our way as we swam. Mike figures he must have bumped a rock and not realized it (the camera is an underwater camera and was in his pocket). I am pissed because this kind of camera is supposed to survive a six foot drop. Our other camera has this weird wide lens and doesn't take regular pictures. Oh well - I guess I can get a new one.
Anyway, I am exhausted from fixing typos. The next time you hear from me, I will be writing from
the boat!
"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one." (C.S. Lewis)
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