Tales from the Rio and house-sitting

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Tales from the month

Upon our arrival in Guatemala our driver William was there waiting and ready to go, 6 hours later and we were back in Fronteras and over, via Steve’s launcha, to Catamaran Marina and our Aeeshah. Chico was up at the bar, typical social cat that he is….

Life was pretty much back to normal within the first day. Getting Aeeshah sorted and cleaned, grocery shopping, walking around the island and such.

House sitting

We had agreed to care for Vickle and Jim’s dog Flaca and their lovely home while they went to the US for a few weeks. Their place is down river from Catamaran at the end of a tributary.

They have built it from scratch. Everything was transported there by water as there are no roads. There is a tiny airstrip behind the park that is behind their property and a few neighbours.

John’s day

John would leave daily to get to Catamaran early to feed the cats, Ginger and Tuk Tuk and of course our Chico. He would have his morning coffee with the regulars and then get to task on Aeeshah.

His time was spent preparing the cabin’s wood work for revarnishing. 1st, Stripping, sanding and filling the woodwork, which made a big dusty mess. Following was a clean up and then the varnishing of everything.

He finished within 10 days or so, the woodwork looks lovely! He moved on to a few other boat jobs.

Jen’s typical day

Meanwhile my routine………..

consisted of taking Flaca for a walk along the walkway that runs through the area where Vickie and Jim live. We would bird watch, sometimes squirrel hunt,

other times look for butterflies, exotic birds and of course plane spot if one was landing or taking off.

Next we would have breakfast, I would tidy up and Flaca would sleep. I managed to get all of the sewing repairs completed, plus a new gas tank cover made and alterations to other boat awnings completed.

Meanwhile I started a new project, scanning old photos. The scanner is a very good photo scanner and as most gadgets nowadays it is complicated, with so many variations and settings that it took me about three days just to figure out the basic software. However I started scanning and have learnt to use the auto settings for now as they bear good results and are easy. My objective is to scan all the old family photos….

John would often return for lunch and then head back to Catamaran for the afternoon returning again in the early evening. I would resume with my projects and head out for a late afternoon, or early evening stroll with Flaca.

We observed many different birds, Green Parrots, hummingbirds, migrating Orioles, Kiscadees and so many others, wonderful reflections, odd impressions……

On the few days that Chico the ground’s man and Maria the housekeeper came to the house John and I would head out to do our shopping or to visit Catamaran.

On my second day at Vickie and Jim’s I was asked, along with Chico the ground’s man, to attend to a funeral. A friend of Vickie called Kathie had lost her best friend and he needed to be buried. The launch arrived with Kathie, a little girl and her Dad from the marina where they live, plus the casket with Cotta inside. After some debate an appropriate spot was found, the hole dug and Cotta buried.

One night just after falling asleep we were awakened by a large bang, and then the power died. John went and put on the small generator so the fans would work. The next morning there was a dead possum under one of the utility poles. Poor possum was electrocuted, thus the power outage. By the afternoon a vulture had arrived.

On one of our last days at Flaca’s place we saw a very funny sight. One of the monkeys from the neighbour’s property was walking around as if he owned the place. meanwhile the folks from there were all swimming in the river…..

Steve had a birthday celebration and Zaida was given a baby shower,

Catamaran had a Friends of Rio Dulce River sale of second hand items to raise cash for the many good causes the charity pursues. John helped to set up and sell the goods. Plus we had our first Mexican Train Dominoes game since July.