2022 SEASON GUATEMALA, RIO DULCE, RAM MARINA, 28 JANUARY 2022

28th January 2022.

After a 6 hour taxi drive, we finally arrived, 4pm at Ram Marina. We had booked a room in one of the two shared accommodation Casa on the Marina, unfortunately we were unable to spend the first night there.

Karen, the marina manager advised us there was space in a small hotel/marina a short distance across the Rio Dulce, Hacienda Tijax, £43 pr night. Tijax is on the edge of the river, rooms are wooden cabins, ensuite, set in lush jungle trees and bushes, with a generous size pool, we didn’t get a chance to use it though!

Our room at the Casa would be available for us for a couple of nights, then we would move once more into the second Casa where we could stay till we were ready to get Sisu into the water. We would be gypsies for a few days yet!

Before we left we had to go and see Sisu. It felt quite emotional. Overall, she was in reasonable condition given the time and weather she had endured during our enforced absence.

29th – 31st January 2022.

During these days we began to take stock of what obviously needed doing. To try to look at all the work was a bit overwhelming, we tackled our job list the Guatemalan way. To look no more than two days ahead!

One of the first jobs was to get our dinghy and outboard functioning.

A quick test of our batteries proved our thoughts on their condition. They were pretty much goosed. We rigged lines and lowered the filthy dinghy over the side. My first job, clean the chaps. Terry got the outboard from the heads where we stored it, stripped it down, replaced throttle cable, new starter cord, impellor and general checkover. He also checked the fuel lines to the tank and filled it up. After a day or so we had our dinghy back in the water!

Our priorities were to obtain batteries. The delayed time at the Barcelo hotel wasn’t wasted and Terry made good inroads to sourcing batteries, saving us valuable time. We dinghied into town, felt good to be back on the water.

We love the buzz of Frontera town, it’s the main road through from Puerto Barrios, the main shipping port. Huge trucks jak brakes hissing heave themselves over the bridge and through the main shopping street of Frontera distributing goods & cattle onwards. There are no pavements to speak of, immense trucks roar past inches from us, making up 80% of the traffic, the rest is cars, smaller trucks, motorbikes and tuk tuks. There’s colour, music and voices constantly.

Fruit and veg is a joy here. A big bag of home grown produce off the street side stalls can be as little as £8. And the food! We ate a late breakfast heuvos rancheros, scrambled egg with refried beans, plaintains, warm tortillas, cooked at an outside bbq grill, delicious!

A simple trip to the shops is a real adrenalin kick. At the battery shop, the owner, Aroldo, spoke good English and was very helpful, saving us lots of time! We ordered 6 x Trojan 12V batteries, £1,715 for 6. They would be coming from Guatemala city the following week. Another tick on the jobs list. There’s plenty more to do however.

Sisu’s on the hard, so we have easy access to electricity and water.

Terry worked on the engine, jobs include flushing the engine water system with fresh water after removing the thermostat, flushed out the hot water tank heating coil. Removing exhaust elbow, clearing out soot from the exhaust manifold, internal inspections. Removing end caps from the heat exchanger, removing O rings from the heat exchanger core. Good to see there’s no signs of corrosion or scale, he then soaked the core & end caps in a strong vinegar solution. He then cleaned it all up, flushing with fresh water several times. Cleaned and de rusted the water pipe connector from the front of the engine and painted it. Matched all hoses with new ones we’d brought from home, cleaned bracket to the front hose and painted. Removed gasket for exhaust elbow. Cleaned faces on the heat exchanger and that’s just the start! We’ve never left Sisu for so long under such extreme elemental conditions, heat, rain, humidity all take a toll on Sisu.

Outwardly, apart from the dirt, she looks fine, but we don’t assume all’s well with her mechanical, electrical and general working parts. Terry begins to acquire a fine patina of oil……

FEBRUARY

Terry and I work to our strengths, Terry does electrical, mechanical amongst many others. I do expoxying, varnishing, fibre glassing, painting, scrubbing, gopher, looking for missing things and brow mopper. A job I enjoy is repainting the anti foul line along Sisu’s hull.

After a gentle scrub off of the old line, mostly onto me, then careful masking, I repaint her line, a dark blue this time. The best fun is peeling off the tape!

I spent too much time in the sun with the temperature around 32c doing this job, lesson learnt as I felt grotty the following day. We have to learn to pace our time in the sun.

2022 SEASON 20th JANUARY. RETURN TO SISU, RIO DULCE, GUATEMALA POST COVID

Terry and I haven’t seen Sisu since we laid her up at Ram Marina, Fronteras in May 2020 at the start Covid and the ensuing disruption to everyone’s lives. We made the best of the time at home in St Judes, Isle of Man, working on our cottage and garden. By the summer of 2021 we began to feel hopeful we could return to Sisu and committed ourselves to booking flights for October 2021 and crossed our fingers.

We packed and repacked our cases, mostly boat spares, teabags and gear we couldn’t get in the Rio, juggling items between the cases to keep their weight below 23kg. Then I discovered a lump in my neck….. “Get it checked” said Terry. I did. Sitting in the Doctors surgery, the young Doctor gently felt my neck. I could sense his eyebrows raise. “Hmmmmm…..” How much can be said in one Hmmmm. “We’ll get this urgently investigated I think” Buggeration. Briefly reader, we cancelled our plans and there followed two months of biopsies, scans and twice weekly hospital visits whilst several consultants looked for skin cancer. In December we were assured following test results confirm the lump is a schwanoma, a benign tumour in my neck which will be left and checked in six months. That’ll do. We rebooked our flights for January 2022. The good news continued, we could book an extra case, bringing the total to three cases chock full of boat parts!

We had 5 legs of travel. A ferry crossing from Isle of Man to Heysham, UK. We were picked up by Terry’s son and girlfriend and taken to an airport hotel where we would stay for a couple of nights in order to have PCR tests and a brief catch up with Terry’s mother and a meal out with his two sons and partners. Our tests were negative, at Manchester airport check in, we handed over our three cases, assured that they would be following us all the way through to Guatemala. It was a short flight to Paris with Air France. We continued with Air France to Mexico a 10 hour flight made very pleasant when the air hostess served champagne as an aperitif, followed by wine with our meal, rounded off nicely with coffee and cognac! If that was the service for us, then what do the first class enjoy? A stretcher after first class amounts of booze?

In Mexico we had a longish layover therefore we booked a hotel to grab a few hours sleep. An early start the following day, we swapped airlines to Aero Mexico and flew along with a small number of passengers into La Aurora airport, Guatemala, arriving Sunday 23rd January.

We had two rucksacks as hand luggage, containing ipads, laptop, toiletries, a change of clothes and I had a couple of penny whistles! Passing through security and immigration we had a final x ray scan of our rucksacks. Terry’s bag was pulled over. An official asked to search his rucksack for an apple. An apple?? Yes, apparently so. We were totally baffled. She emptied his rucksack and pulled out…… a chocolate Terrys Orange!! Ah… yes.. a belated Christmas gift from Tom, Terry’s eldest son. The x ray was partially right, it was a fruit after all! As the chocolate is wrapped in foil and round, it had flagged up on the x ray. It was a good laugh and makes for a sundowners in the cockpit story in the future. We waited with slightly nervous anticipation in the baggage reclaim. Cases were loaded on the carousel, the sniffer dog bounded over them, enjoying his job. Cases were claimed. We stood…..and waited. The carousel stopped…. The sniffer dog and handler departed….. The passengers had gone……..Oh damn and buggeration. No cases for us this was very worrying as they contained about £4,000 of boat parts and the Tea Bags! At our side immediately appeared a young man with a clipboard and forms in triplicate. In good English he asked if our luggage was missing. Clearly this is a common occurrence. He took our details, a form in triplicate for each missing item and assured us we would be reunited with them. Shoulders sagging we left for our hotel.

We decided to stop two nights at The Barcelo Hotel, zone 9 in the city. Tourism was still flagging post Covid, our double room with balcony view over the city, excellent pool & food cost a vastly reduced £55 pr night. We revived in the pool, which we had to ourselves and later revived even more with a huge beer!

Terry would begin chasing our luggage the day after. We needed to rest. Two days later and an extra night booked due to no progress with the whereabouts of our cases, we finally got word our luggage had enjoyed an extended stay in Paris, so much for the assurance our cases would be sent all the way through! The cases would be delivered to our hotel. Good news, we just hoped all the boat parts would still be inside. Cases delivered, we fell upon them like children opening Christmas presents. The cases had been opened but all parts were there. Phew.

We still had to receive news of our taxi driver coming from Fronteras. Due to unforseen circumstances down that way, we had to stay yet another night in a budget price top hotel. At this time my ipad packed up. Staying yet another night meant we could easily replace it here and bought one at Oaklands Mall, a huge shopping mall with full size carousel!

Following day things began to revert back to our original plan. Saul would arrive to pick us up after a 6 hour drive from Ram Marina, Frontera. Previously we have done this journey in a Litegua bus, and it’s huge fun. However, with Covid still present, we felt it would be safer for both locals and ourselves to use a taxi, plus we had 3 big cases, 2 rucksacks, 4 bed pillows bought in the nearby Cemaco store, us and a partridge in a pear tree. Well, it felt like it.

The Guatemalan Transportation Association had staged a protest against government policies, ie the requirement for them to purchase insurance by establishing road blocks throughout the country beginning 24th January. Our lost luggage proved to be a silver lining as by the time the cases arrived the protest ended!

Saul arrived at 10am on the 28th January, with a cheerful feat of logistic maneouvring, he squashed all our stuff into his car. We did a straight no stop run to Ram, arriving at just after 4pm. We’re finally here!!

Sections of motorway are under repair/construction, so stalls are set out along the way for the workers and drivers stuck in the many sets of traffic lights!