Good Friends....Sailboat...Open waters...New places to visit...the recipe for making very good memories!! And that we did!
We did take "normal" planes to get out of the country...
From Sheveport to Placencia, Belize. And back home from San Pedro to Belize City to Shreveport.
But every other form of travel was by boat and puddle jumpers!!
May be hard to see but the arrow is pointing toward the VERY NARROW TINY RUNWAY!!!
which is what every single runway looked like that we landed on!!! Yikes!
but the scenes were oh, so awesome!!!!
Between some of the flights...oh no!!!!!! Our Cap'n couldn't have been locked out....we needed him!
We picked up our sailboat in Placencia which would be our home for the next 6 days!
the marina where Fish Tales, our boat, was docked.
I'd forgotten how beautiful the sights are in the sailing world!
We slept first night in the marina on our boat so the guys could go into town to check us out of Belize before we took off. While they were "working", julie and I went off to explore and, of course, stop for refreshments!
Off we go.....into the wild blue yonder...thru the cut and into the Caribbean Sea!
with a little dancin' along the way!
We were headed to the island above to anchor for the night. Gin & Tonic & camera & wide open spaces. Breezes and Sunshine. My hubby and best friends. What else did we need?
A completely uninhabited island to spend the night!
Cap'n spent the whole week teaching the newbie Cap'n/Dr/exMayor Steve how to sail...he was an attentive student!
After anchoring, the evening was spent laughing, eating, cocktails and reminiscing about all the years we've known each other.
And having the moon watch us!
Next day, we check into Livingston, Guatemala and walk a bit of the town. Had to ride in a tut-tut too!
Then we were off to Rio Dulce, a lake and river system that has become a popular cruising sailboat destination. Cap'n has sailed it several times before and absolutely loved it. He wanted to share his experiences with us. It's a beautiful lake that is surrounded by cliffs of lush forests.
School Bus!!
Once we were thru the river, we headed to Catamarans Marina where we would dock for a few days so we could explore the area.
(the temperature was um.....how do I describe??? oh yes....HOT!!!! very hot with no wind so there not a lot of hoisting our sails...)
It had a very nice pool area...
and restaurant and bar area..
where we had a delightful dinner one night..
under this tent...beneath the moon!
The wildlife was pretty nice too!
Next day, we were off to explore the town of Frontera.
Scenes from the streets:
Fish Market
The art of tortilla making!
Cap'n LOVES a pollo hot box!!
and he LOVES making deals with the tamale lady....see her looking at him!!!! hahaha
best tamales you'll ever put in your mouth!!
Always time for a beverage break!!
next we cruised to another spot that Cap'n knew about and had a friend that he had met on an earlier cruise....once we had docked, this group went in a Panga back to Livingston to check out of Guatemala so we wouldn't have to do it on our cruise back down the river next day.
Mini Mikes Juke Joint!
and doing a lil bit of shopping...that long wooden bowl had to come home with me!
That night we dinghied over to the neatest restaurant where we were the only ones there. Two ladies cooked everything from scratch just for us!
Next morning, we were once again going back thru Rio Dulce to get back to the sea!
where my friend, all of a sudden, hollered LOOK!!!
what a beauty she was!!
It was dark as we cruised back close to the marina in Placencia where we had to turn the boat in so we just anchored in the sea for the night and went into town for dinner.
This baby lit our way in!
We found WENDY'S restaurant on our walk thru town and the food was awesome
the first of many lobster dinners to come!!
Next morning, we turned the boat in and headed to the "puddle jumper" airport in Placencia!
Flying to San Pedro/Ambergris Cay where the next adventure was to begin!!
Four nights at Ramon's Resort!!!!
Come back to read "the rest of the story"!!!!!
