A HIDDEN CORNER OF THE WORLD (RIO DULCE, GUATEMALA)

DSC07839.JPG

Beautiful Rio Dulce

IMG_1197.jpg

Follow the birds

South ofBelize is a little known corner of the Western Caribbean. With the countries of Belize, Guatemala and Hondurus the Bay of Hondurus leads to the entrance of a beautiful, hidden river called the Rio Dulce. This river has become a popular spot for cruisers for years but we have just discovered it.Just a three-hour motor sail from our new home in Placencia, Belize we had a get away weekend to this spot recently. The entrance of the river has a town called Livingston where we are required to check in to the country.   We first have to get over ‘the bar’. Not a bar for a cerveza but a sand bar that is 5’2” at low tide. With the draft on Gypsy Blue at 5’9” we needed to go over at high tide. The cruising guide seems to have fairly accurate coordinates and approach details. The seas were choppy as we arrived late afternoon and we could feel a soft touch on the bottom. Luckily it is soft sand or mud.   We finally get through to the anchorage in front of Livingston. Unfortunately it is 5:00 pm when we drop anchor in front of the town of Livingston.   It is too late to check in so we will have to spend the night in this rolly anchorage. Uggh! We hate rolly anchorages.

We wake up early to a misty morning with at least a hundred local fishing boats returning from their night of fishing. Such a beautiful sight to see in the morning. We put the dinghy in the water to see the Port Captain and all other officials so we are legal in the country and can head up the river. We are on a rushed schedule as we only have a few days for this trip. Our purpose is to take the boat out of Belize after 90 days and also we want to check out the Rio to see about bringing Gypsy Blue there for hurricane season this summer.

(more…)

THE OCTOPUS WON! (CARIBBEAN)

 

images-3

Octopus

It was out first night dive of the week with Whitey, Max and Denise.  We had been out for about 3 days and done some fabulous diving and spear fishing. We were all comfortable diving with each other and at a perfect location to dive off the back of the boat for a night dive. We usuallystart a night dive as the sun is going down. 6:30 is night time – right? We find it difficult to do really late night diving as we are just too tired.   As we prepared our dive gear, Denise looked at me and said ‘you’re taking your spear gun aren’t you?’   I thought to myself ‘Well I wasn’t going to’ but instead I said to Denise ‘Sure. If you are, I am’.  So we took a giant stride in the water, Denise and I with spear guns and Max with the yellow game bag to carry the catch.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Arrow Crab

(more…)

BULLY! BULLY! (CARIBBEAN)

Hunting the wall

Hunting

Spearing a fish

Catching a fish

My nephew Adrian, from Australia, was crewing for us a few years back. We were doing a lot of diving and I was getting him into spearfishing. We were down about 65 feet and I pointed out a nice Hog Fish for him to shoot. He stalked it and Bam! I noticed that the fish went crazy and got off. Guess he just nicked it. Oh well, next time. While he was retrieving his spear and reloading the gun I saw a nice Snapper so I went after it. (more…)

WE ARE NOT IN UTAH ANYMORE! (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC)

Arriving in the Dominican Republic on the Ericson 35 was my first experience to visit a Latin country via a boat. We had just come from the Turks and Caicos Islands, which was practically a resort experience since we had friends staying on land while there. But as we arrived in Puerto Plata on the north coast of Dominican Republic there was a real feeling within me that now I am a traveller. I am now an explorer of distant ports. (more…)