As we considered purchasing a proper sailboat to begin our adventure we quickly discovered that we would have to travel to ???? to find “The One”.

We found what we thought was the perfect vessel to carry us around the world, location- Rio Dulce.

Since Fuego has exploded a week prior, we felt it would be safer to fly into Belize City and make our way from there.
Because we left June 1rst the fear of purchasing a vessel during hurricane season in the eastern Caribbean was out. Tropical storms begin in Rio Dulce= no fear of hurricanes. That was a big one for us since we are novice sailors.
In Rio Dulce there are several large fresh water lakes. So we thought it would be a great place  to learn how to use our new sailboat and meet other sailors for advise..
Rio Dulce, meaning, Sweet River, is just that. Beautiful! The river and lakes are vibrant with birds and fish. The air is sweet and clear. Surrounded by jungle and bustling with boats, water taxis and children playing.
The Guatemalan people here are not wealthy, but they are kind, honest, and helpful. Even to those of us who have not learned Spanish before we came (more on that later).

It is amazing during the daytime in Rio Dulce, but the nights cannot be compare to anywhere else. Surrounded by mountains, the evenings come with lightning storms that light the night sky. The lightning reveals clouds and reflects on the water to create visual effects that one cannot describe except to say – magic.

The Myans work hard and are proud of their town. We stayed at several hotels and all were exceptionally clean and well cared for. Pride exudes from everyone, in their personal hygine, work, and cleanliness.

There are challenges for those of us who are used to creature comforts. No hot water in Rio Dulce, not at the hotels we stayed at anyway. But hey, when you’re hot and sweaty from the day, a cool shower is much appreciated and more desired that a hot shower.
Wifi is not very good unless you purchase a Tigo plan.
To get around. The Took Took is the local taxi service, or you can get a water taxi and visit the many marinas here.
The food in the restaurants is inexpensive compared to the eastern Caribbean, and especially the US. The food here is wonderful. Fresh fruit juice, fish and vege’s, so good. With seasonal fruits ripe off the vine.
If you prefer going to the market to shop for food, a pleasant surprise awaits you. Main street is lined with produce stands, shops of every kind. Get cash here, not many places to use a credit card. But the BAM locations have ATM’s, exchange is US$1 to ..13 cents in Guatemala.

Walking through town seems a little chaotic at first. With one road through town to the largest bridge in Guatamala. Running right through the market, dodging cars, motorcycles, Took Tooks, and Semi Traktor Trailors can be challenging and rewarding. With occationals backups that are intertaining to watch. Life here bustles and the people cooporate to make it all work. If you spend any time here, you quickly adjust to the pace and are rewarded with wonderful memories.

OK, how did we get here? There are no airports here, quite honestly I’m glad there is not one. An airport would spoil this paradise.
But we got here from Moore, Oklahoma right after El Fuego blew. Guatemala City was out for me, the uncertainty of the volcano was too much risk. So the obvious was Honduras, but it was more expensive and the crime is said to be pretty bad, I’ve never been there. So we flew into Belize City. It was $589 for Jeff and I one way. Belize is a English speaking country so moving around was easy for us.
We checked into customs (be sure you have a specific reason for the one way flight). I  had arranged for a room in Punta Gorda, in southern Belize so from the Airport we got a taxi to the James Bus Terminal in Belize City, $20US. Be careful, there are taxi pirates….only use union taxi to get to the Bus terminal. Belize takes US dollars, that was good. In Belize City we felt safe at all times and was steered away from certain shadier characters by locals. We didn’t venture outside of the Bus Terminal as we were advised to not do so by the Taxi Driver. He said the bus terminal area was a rough part of town so just stay inside where there is ample security that is friendly, helpful and quite funny. There are 2 buses that go to Punta Gorda. An Express that is Air Conditioned costing around US$35 for both of us and it takes around 5hours. The other bus makes many more local stops without the AC (6 ½ hours) for about half the price. We took the express with locals, business people, and families. Everyone was very friendly, honest, and helpful to us ignorant United Statesicans. Bring your own food and drinks on the bus(you can buy food and drinks at the James Bus Terminal). The express has a bathroom on the bus but also makes several pit stops along the way so you can relieve yourself or get a soda.

I  arranged for a room in Punta Gorda, St Charles Hotel…nice rooms, very clean, nothing fancy but with excellent AC.
Woke up the next day to a great coffee shop with food across the road and quickly made a friend that was helpful to where the water taxi was located, about a block away. We walked to the water taxi with all the school kids in their cute school uniforms and they laughed at our confusion. Our limited experience in Punta Gorda found a quaint small town with friendly smiling people who were eager to help us with our journey.

We found the water taxi to Puerto Barrio, $19 each, and they helped direct us to customs to “check out” of Belize and pay $20 each to exit the country. The Customs agency opens at 9am. The Taxi driver sells tickets while sitting on a retaining wall across the street from customs. So at 9Am we went through customs who allowed us onto the docks to catch the taxi at 9:30am. The Taxi was running a little late and it created an issue with another passenger hoping to catch a bus to Honduras later…

Travel by water taxi was great, although we noticed debris in the water that we had to steer around. I think it was from a big rain storm.
We landed in Puerto Barrios. Amongst the confusion of getting out to a new place, we allowed a taxi driver to load our bags into a taxi to take us to customs to check in (about 150 feet away). Pirates. I did ask how much to take us to Rio Dulce, he said “the same as water taxi” my mistake…
After checking in with customs in Guatemala we loaded back into the taxi and headed out. Puerto Barrios is a major port for imports and exports. VERY busy and said to be dangerous in some areas. I don’t know about that since we were travelling with pirates. (Taxi Drivers – The real pirates of the Caribbean)
Be sure and stop for pineapple, you’re in for a treat, have them put a bit of salt on it..so good the taxi pirate paid, I think it was his grandmother).
Once we got to Nana Juana Marina , Rio Dulce, cost US$100 :(, life slowed down, whew.
Although quite a whirlwind 2 days of travel, we arrived safely and a bit wiser. Overall the travel was wonderful and allowed us to start our world adventure by way of planes, bus, taxis, pirates, and water taxis. There must be a better way to get here, but Jeff says he would do exactly the same way just to immerse us into the real world.

Hotels:

We arrived at Nana Jauna Marina where the boat was located. Extremely nice resort. Peaceful, well kept and friendly. They have a great restaurant and bar. We got a reasonable rate (US$80 per night) as we were there to purchase a boat stored there. (on the hard, meaning its out of the water and on jacks). Unfortunately our dream boat, a 38ft Contest, had bees living in it. Even though the marina men had tried removing them the day before, the bees were not leaving. We couldn’t actually see the boat. After 3 days of waiting for the bees to vacate, we talked to the marina guy and he got a better rate of $50 per night. The rooms are amazingly comfortable, they have a gorgeous pool and grounds. There are many other yachters there who were quite curious about the new sailors looking for a boat to purchase. 3 people approached us regarding their sailboats that were for sale.
Day 4 we finally climbed up the ladder to see the boat. Unfortunately, this boat had been on the hard for 4 years, very dirty, not upgraded for many years and the beds were not what we were looking for at the price of $45,000. Ugh.

So back to Yacht World to look at other available sailboats. It didn’t take long to find Chris at SeaKist Broker Services. There was another boat next to the bees inhabited one that we really liked, a Moody 38ft Sloop, Cutter Rigged for $52,900. He had just reduced the price by 15%.
We wrote to Chris and he quickly responded with a few questions to help him line out some boats for us to look at in our price range, with the wish list of things we were looking for.

The next morning Chris picked us up in his dingy at Nana Jauna and off we went. We looked at 4 boats before lunch in Rio Dulce and 2 afterward. None of them were the one.
So we met Chris the next day to see 2 more. In retrospect, Chris had a hard job, we only wanted to spend up to $50,000 total, and of course we wanted a lot for the money. Oddly enough it was the Bye Bye Blues next to the Bee boat we found online.

The Courtship began. We made an offer of $42,000. Chris provided us with the offer contract and allowed us time to read the small print. We signed off right then, but Chris had to present and sell the offer to the seller. That happened the next morning. Next we had to send the offer letter to ASAP Escrow Services, once we signed their agreement we had to wait for them to create an escrow to deposit the 10% down payment. While waiting Chris provided us the information to the local surveyor to schedule an inspection. Chris was very transparent about the condition of Bye Bye Blues, she needed new batteries and standing rigging ( the standing rigging would cost approx.. $6000 and take a month get the materials, 50% down required. We didn’t let this upset us. In fact were quite happy, the standing rigging is a critical to a sailing vessel. We knew once completed that it would last the rest of our days sailing. As well, it was an expected cost verses lots of small upgrades that could have cost much more.

At  Nana Juana Marina and Resort, we began to realize that it was the same cost as in the US. As well we felt a bit isolated because we didn’t have transportation to Rio Dulce on the other side of the bridge. We really enjoyed lunch at Armando’s café, so we decided to move to a Hotel in Rio Dulce.