Letter from the Indies- Rio Dulce and Guatemala
by Andrea and Ian Treleaven on 7 Jun 2009
01 Rio Dulce Guatemala.JPG Ian & Andrea Treleaven
Our entrance over the shallow sandbar into the Rio Dulce is unexpectedly dramatic and the captain’s blood pressure rises.
Twelve yachts assume the spring high tide to be enough water to cross but three of us don’t make it. Not an unusual happening as a local fishing boat stands by to come to the rescue and charge us plenty.
By hauling us over with a long halyard from the top of the mast, they are just able to raise our keel enough to skim the 200 metre length of the bar.
Livingston is our port of entry and six officials, wearing surgical masks in case we have swine flu, visit the yacht before we are allowed ashore. The heat is extreme and we can’t wait to enter the winding river that flows beneath the mountains.
As we enter the serenity of the river, gone is the whistling of the wind through the rigging; cicadas and birds are all we hear now. As the mountains close behind us, also gone is the blue Caribbean Sea and now we are dwarfed by a cascading lush jungle wall.
At every bend for six miles we see Mayans living at the
edge and fisherman casting nets from cayucas (canoes carved from logs), until we reach our first marina for the night in a lagoon surrounded by flowering white water lilies and rushes.
The next day we ride in the dinghy up and down the small creeks that lead off the river, watch children paddle their cayucas to school, listen to monkey calls and become bird watchers.
Motoring another 20nm up the river, we head for the section of the Rio Dulce where all the marinas are located. Hundreds of cruising yachts will spend the next six months here sheltering from hurricanes. A major bridge has
recently been built across the river but this is the only road access to the river.
Beautiful as it is we are mindful of our security. Thefts from yachts in isolated anchorages do occur and a cruiser was even murdered onboard one last year. It is wise not to anchor in the river and always in the company of other yachts. All marinas have security guards and a patrol boat cruises around at night but despite this an outboard was stolen from a yacht anchored beside us just off Mario’s Marina.
What has surprised us is that the wealthy citizens of Guatemala City have beautiful thatched roof homes
with open plan living and big powerboats on the river. From here they can access the Belize islands very quickly. After being invited into two separate homes for meals, one could almost be tempted to live here.
It is a small world; on chatting to a local on a beach he asked if we knew a guy in the South Island of NZ. As it happens Ian went to school with him. Or is it the South Island that is small?!
We are leaving Cape Finisterre at RAM Marina for six months out of the water but it’s not quite out of the hurricane belt. As none have ever come up the river and since we’re 26nms inland and
behind a mountain range, we feel comfortable with this even if our insurance company doesn’t.
There was an earthquake last night while we were still at anchor which registered 7.1 on the Richter scale and was centred 250nm away. Ian was woken by what sounded like someone coming along side the boat; but once on deck on hearing all the bird noise and dogs barking realized it was the earth (and the river) moving. So much for coming inland but at least we are safe from a possible tsunami out at sea.
The heat is exhausting and debilitating. We get up at 5am work till 9am and then hibernate in the air-conditioning till 4pm. When the yacht is packed up, we decide to tour the Mayan ruins of Tikal for a few days.
By bus we travel 300km north through green cattle country. Our only mission is to visit the temples of Indian Maya civilization and try to understand the rise and fall of a great empire. 2000 years ago, 10 million people lived in the area compared to today’s 300,000.
Howler and spider monkeys swing through a canopy of tall trees, a habitat shared with
exotically coloured birds like the big beaked Toucan. Below, temples rise, having been lost to the jungle for centuries until it was recently cleared.
What was their demise? General opinion is over-population in a barren area with assistance from prolonged drought (global warming as politicians call it today) and of course, the supposed failures of the gods. Long thought to be peace-loving it has now been realised they were very war-like and cruel with their neighbours and this also hastened their downfall.
The Mayans were very advanced in astrology, and in
numbers and dates of the year. All their temples are aligned to the sun for the seasons of the year; they calculated 365 days with adjustment for the leap year and also added 0 and the decimal point to the numbering system - all this before the Europeans understood any of it. But they never used iron and whilst they knew of the wheel, they never used them.
Guatemala is a beautiful country with a population of 12 million. 80% are Mayan Indians and the rest are mainly of Spanish origin and living in the capital, Guatemala City.
At the time of the Spanish
invasion in the 1500’s, Central America was divided into departments with Guatemala the capital. All the departments make up the various countries of the region. For years run by the military, it is now in a period of stability.
We have now cruised both the Mediterranean and Caribbean extensively and it is amazing to note some of the similarities in these two wonderful cruising grounds.
Both seas are surrounded by land and are almost identical in area; the Med is 842,125 sq nautical miles and the Caribbean 844,123 sq nautical miles. They have also both played their part in
history with the Europeans being heavily involved in the Caribbean development. Of course the Med gave rise to a great many civilisations and also gave birth to the three great religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam).
The only great civilisation in the Caribbean was the Mayan Indians of the Yucatan Peninsula, which includes Belize and Guatemala. By the time the Europeans arrived, they were already in decline. They actually knew more about numbers and astrology than the early explorers who came after them and the pyramid type temples they built are as precise as the Egyptian pyramids. It is also worth noting that both areas have very little tide.
Our seven-month season in a coconut shell: the vivid colours rate first, and then the fantastic sailing conditions followed, not least at all, by how fit and healthy we feel by following this life-style.
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