Entering Guatemala and the Rio Dulce

On Wednesday, May 28th, the wind is calm and the seas behind the cape are calm as well. As we hoist the anchor at 0800, the skies are darkening and on the radar I see that rain is advancing toward us from astern. We have a rising tide around 0815 and want that to cross “The Bar” about two hours away. We get some light squalls and as we approach the buoy I find that it is not where it is charted. Consequently I have to decide, do I follow the course in the cruising guide or some other heading. Jupiter’s Smile needs 4.33 feet of flat water and “The Bar” has a reported controlling depth of 5.8 feet at mean low water so I am not too worried for us, but I am guiding Pearl S. Buck and she needs 6 feet of flat water and I am worried for her. It is past mean low water on a rising tide so that is good, but the seas are no longer flat and that is not so good. I decide to head toward the river gorge opening, which is only two degrees different from the cruising guide heading, but it seems to compensate reasonably for where the buoy now lies. About 200 yards beyond the buoy the bottom rises to about 6.5 feet on my depth sounder and then less and less until I see 5.9 feet. I report this progression (recession) to Bryan on the VHF as we are both motoring slowly along. Yes, he bumps, but does not stop as he plows a shallow furrow across the bar and then we are back into deeper water. We line up the microwave towers per the cruising guide, then turn parallel to the city’s concrete dock about one hundred yards out and drop the anchor in the current of the river’s flow as it begins to rain harder.

It is 1030. We hail the Port Captain, but he does not answer. He hadn’t answered the catamaran captain who called earlier either, but Raúl did and arranged for the catamaran's clearance within an hour’s time, the captain told us as he was returning to his boat with his clearance paperwork in hand. We called the Port Captain one more time and Raúl responded, telling us to switch to channel 14 and there, that “the Port Capitan never answers the radio. Do you see any other boats coming?” We didn’t see any boats, just us two. Raúl would arrange for the boarding party to come out in about 20 minutes for their inspection. Then it started to rain very hard, and so we waited. Then in the rain I saw an approaching sailboat, so I took the opportunity to call Raúl to report this and he said, “good,” but that the officials would wait until the rain was not so hard before they came to the boats. In about an hour and a half the rain stopped, the sun came out; the boats had been well rinsed in the first rain we had seen in almost six months. The officials came to Pearl S. Buck first and took ten minutes. Then it was our turn, and I had all our paperwork and copies of documents for the Customs, Immigration, Sanitation and Health officers laid out on our saloon table; so they went below, picked up what they needed, asked a few questions, and left saying that we could pick up our stamped passports and permits from Raúl shortly. Then they departed. We lowered our quarantine flag as ordered leaving the Guatemalan courtesy flag flying and took our dinghy to the dock to find Raúl. A thirty year old “boat boy” said he would watch our dinghy, and a thirteen year old escorted us to Raúl’s office. Raúl said to return after lunch, and it would cost 1075Q ($145 USD) for our paperwork and permits good for ninety days. We found the bank and exchanged dollars for quetzales ($1 : 7.34Q) and walked around town, stopping to purchase some produce and some cold cervezas. We doffed our hats for a coffin-laden pickup truck leading a procession of mourners. Dorothy snapped a quick photo, and we went back to Raúl’s where we paid and collected our papers. Raúl explained that for 1100Q he could expedite the extension of our permits to a full year. We would consider that, but not now. We had ninety days to see how things went.

We returned to the dinghy, tipped the boat boy, and were underway at 2:45 PM up river with great anticipation!

The photos speak for themselves, but capture only a hint of the exotic beauty of the gorgeous gorge.

At 4:30 PM we were anchored in Texan Bay off the Marina at Texan Bay. At the marina, the crews of the two boats went ashore and celebrated our wonderful day and arrival with a good dinner; and we each had a couple of drinks, all for about $20 per couple. That Wednesday night it rained again and it rained off and on heavily enough that we filled our water tanks and jugs quickly and then read a few books, did some puzzles, watched some movies and talked. We got off the boat for a few hours on Friday and explored the area by dinghy before it rained again. On Saturday we raised our anchors; and we motored up El Golfete, stopping to eat lunch behind Cayo Juan before anchoring first near the marina at Hacienda Tijax, but too near Rio Dulce’s water taxi landing, and then finally back around the point in a quieter spot for the night. We had Bryan and Dorothy aboard for dinner and planned for the 1st of June arrival at Tijax Marina.