Guatemala and Honduras January 14-22

We arrived back in the Rio Dulce on January 6th and spent a week straightening out the boat. This consists of Orin tearing things apart looking for the items that he "stowed" last season and then Mary picking up and organizing after she shows him where he left said items.

Our friends from the old marina in Biloxi came to visit...Joyce and Frank and Judy and David. Unfortunately, it rained the entire time they were in the Rio, but we showed them the sights and we had a good time despite being wet.

Above is a picture of Edgar, the great white egret that hangs around our slip at Mario's Marina.The beautiful little girl in the dugout canoe, or cayuca, we encountered on our trip through the Rio Dulce gorge on the way to Livingston which is a small town lying at the mouth of the river. The gorge is beautiful, with sheer walls of lush vegetation rising hundreds of feet above the river. The original Tarzan movie with Johnny Weismuller was shot here on location.

The next day we traveled to Copan, Honduras. Copan is a magnificent Mayan ruin site and is the only such site in Honduras. It is close to the Guatemalan border and is a 4.5 hour van ride from Rio Dulce. The 6 of us were joined by our friends Kathleen and George, from s/v Deja Vu. The small town of Copan Ruinas is quite nice, with several good restaurants and is only a short walk from the ruins.

While in Copan we visited Macaw Mountain , a beautful area devoted to housing and caring for tropical birds , all of which were at one time pets, and have been donated to the preserve for ongoing care.

After two days in Copan, we went on to Antigua, another 5 hour van ride. The weather in Antigua was beautiful, with sunny warm days and cool nights. Mary and I were here for a week last year "learning " Spanish. ( See that blog) There are many things to do here and the town is a lovely colonial city with many shops and good restaurants. The coffee grown in this area is some of the best in the world and we had a chance to visit a coffee finca, Finca Filadelphia. Some 90% of their production from 900 acres goes to Starbucks. The remainder is sold under the family name "R. Dalton" and is available in the US.

We left our Biloxi friends in Antigua and returned to the boat. They were to travel on to Lake Atitlan for a couple of days before returning to the states. Our plan is to await a favorable tide for crossing the bar at Livingston and then on to the Bay Islands of Honduras......more later.