cruising up the Rio Dulce, Guatemala in our Eclipse 32 catamaran

Another video from our live aboard cruising days. And it's a complete contrast to the last one I posted, which was of us cruising through ice in Alaska. After sailing our 32ft Eclipse catamaran along the north coast of Cuba we headed south and after a bumpy "wind over tide" two day sail arrived in Belize. We stayed there a month, celebrating my 50th birthday with siblings, which included a trip to the famous ruins at Tikal. Then we headed south again, as we needed somewhere we could leave Eclipse during the hurricane season. Belize has no safe hurricane hole but fortunately Guatemala does, at Fronteras on the Rio Dulce. More here https://www.anywhere.com/guatemala/destinations/rio-dulce After clearing into Guatemala at Livingston we headed the 18 miles up the river to Fronteras. The river runs through the aptly named rainforest and a very deep gorge - the cliffs are up to 300ft high. It was the setting for some of the Tarzan films from the 1930s. And also home to howler monkeys, which are the world's loudest land animals and can be heard up to 3 miles away. The only houses are on the water front as there is no road access and so canoes are the main form of transport. Although safe from hurricane storm surges the river is very prone to flooding after heavy rain and all the houses are at risk, even when built on stilts. There are several marinas in the town, we stayed at the biggest - Marios - complete with a swimming pool and great bar/restaurant. (Our monthly bar bill often exceeded our mooring fees). The whole area is more developed now, but, even so, this was the first time anywhere that we had wifi on the boat. And this was YEARS before we had broadband in our home town in Cornwall. Despite being on the water it was very hot and humid, not helped by the fact that we had mosquito screens on all the hatches and doors. We had four large fans running 24/7 for four months. If we went there again we would buy a small AC unit. So we left the boat and travelled inland as much as we could, visiting the ancient Mayan sites in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. We also flew home a couple of times and found that Guatemala City's main airport is a tedious five hour bus ride and the city itself is a pretty scary place to be. As in most of Central America public transport is in old, highly decorated ex US school buses. Known locally as "chicken buses". I discovered why, when, on one trip, I sat next to a woman who had two live chickens dangling from her arm. We stayed at Marios until November when we headed east and then south. First to the Honduran Bay Islands and then south to Providencia, where Jetti once lived, and on to Panama. More on Eclipse here https://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/5-catamarans-over-40ft/184-eclipse And more of my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/user/WoodsDesigns