22 October 2011 – Not much has been happening the past few weeks, Jessi returned to Hawaii, four days after she got home Benja called and said she brought home a souvenir she wishes she didn’t get, a case of Dengue Fever. At first the doctors thought she had contracted Malaria, but when they examined the symptoms the bone ache was a dead giveaway, otherwise the symptoms are very similar, much like flu symptoms. She is doing much better now and seems like she has about shook the disease.
One of our favorite places to visit for a dinner out or just to stop by and visit is Bruno’s in Fronteras. While Jessi was here we were talking to Roy McNett the manager, a real nice guy and the owner of the Rio Dulce Chisme, the local online news paper. During the conversation the subject of Blanco, Texas came up. My family lived there many years and Jessi grew up there. Blanco is a town of 1,505 people according to the 2005 census, probably less than 1,000 back then, a small town about 60 miles north of San Antonio. As it turns out Roy McNett was the owner of the Blanco County News the newspaper for the area. He knew my mother, my father, I believe he even wrote my mother’s obituary, and watched our daughters grow up. His son even played football with my oldest son Paul in high school.
Met a guy, Tom Allen at Ram Marina across the river, on the stern of his boat he listed Canyon Lake as its home port. As it turns out we knew the same people used the same sail maker when we used to sail on Canyon Lake years ago. Talk about a small world!
Last weekend the marina, Tijax, sponsored a poker run fund raiser for a local school to raise money for the “senior class” project. They wanted to purchase the necessary supplies to make a “sex education” information center. Here in Guatemala like many Central American countries, this material is not taught in school or at home. Many young women are married with children by age 16, there is little to no information on how to avoid sexual transmitted diseases, the owners thought it a worthwhile project and so it happened.
They contacted local businesses as well as all the marinas and ended up with several great prizes like both boatyards donated haul outs to include “block & lock” valued at $500.00 USD. In this environment those are great prizes. Several donated overnight stays some including meals at their hotels; all the restaurants donated meals and on it went.
The cruisers came together and entered the event. The course was about 6 miles by dinghy to pick up their cards; each participating marina would hand out a card and had a snack and a beverage for the contestants. When everyone returned to the marina there was a meal, raffle, and silent auction, yes I was asked to “MC” the event. Several of the students made a small speech which was interpreted to English so we could all get the full understanding. The final total of funds raised was about 11,000 Q or $1,384.00, the goal was 3,000 Q or around $377.00 USD. We had 51 players out of a possible 52. It cost 125 Q (around $15.75 USD) to enter. I’d say a job well done and we all had a blast. I wanted to get pictures of the whole event but our new camera died that morning, still trying to find a way to get it to the official Canon repair location.
Our friends who lost their boat at Puerto Aventures are finally getting communication with the insurance company, if I had their agent I’d writing letters to every cruiser media in the world telling them how bad the service was. It does look like they’re going to total the boat and J & Jerr are [planning to come to Rio Dulce to look for a replacement.
Rose and I went boat shopping for them last week to pick out the better boats in their price range so they wouldn’t be wasting their time running around the river. We found 2 that were a possible and one that was perfect. J & Jerr will be driving down from Isla Mujeres, Mexico next week to get a firsthand look.
Sorry no pictures haven’t been anywhere new.
