Back in the Banana Republic ~Deja Vu All Over Again

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Welcome back to you and to us!

Where are we?

Latitude: 15 degrees, 40',72"N
Longitude: 88 degrees, 58',37"W
(I have to write out "degrees" because I don't have the symbol on my keyboard)

George and I returned to the good ship Deja Vu on January 13. After spending a beautiful summer and fall...and too much of winter...at home in Maine, we arrived at Mario's Marina on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala. For those of you who are location challenged, we've added a map of Central America. We are relieved to report that our floating condo is shipshape and none the worse for wear since we returned to Maine in May. For cruisers who are considering leaving a boat here for months at a time, it is essential to have some kind of dehumidifier system on board that will operate while you are off the boat. It's a jungle down here ~ with huge humidity levels, particularly during the summer rainy season. We also vacuum seal all of our linens, cushion covers and other items that would be damaged by moisture but that's another story.

The Rio Dulce is a beautiful freshwater river whose entrance is on the Caribbean Sea at Livingston, Guatemala ~squeezed in between Belize to the north and Honduras to the south. A long shallow sand bar stretches across the mouth of the river, making it imperative for us to come and go only at a very high tide with our 6ft. draft. It's almost 20 miles upstream to the small town of Rio Dulce.

We will stage here for our next adventure in early March when we will sail to the Bay Islands of Honduras and, hopefully, on to Panama sometime in April. Check in occasionally for updates of our adventures, including our recent trip to Copan, the extraordinary Maya ruins in western Honduras.