We went to Fronteres yesterday to purchase bus tickets for Friday’s day-long trip to Antigua. Getting into town is a 20 – 30 minute walk from Ram – across the bridge over Rio Dulce and down into the ongoing commerce melee that sits at the bottom of the other side. At the top of the bridge, there is usually a few vendors set up selling cold coconut milk and small coconut candy patties. You might think the crest of a huge bridge would be a poor location for such business but not only is there plenty of foot traffic, there is also a number of cars, trucks and semi’s which park at the top of the bridge to get out for the view and cold coconut milk. Traffic is often one-way at the top of the bridge due to parked vehicles.
Buying cold coconut milk with chunks of coconut in it for munching.
The bridge vendors must do a good job of securing their temporary canopies. It is windy up there.
We walked around the park under the bridge for a few minutes. Lily has a few Q’s to spend so she wanted to check out the little Guatemalan crafts they sell in the park. She decided to save her money for Antigua. The park is right next to the dock where all the launchas park. We have never hired a launcha to travel anywhere but a lot of the backpackers come here to get a ride to Livingston when they can get another boat into Belize. One guy asked us three times if we needed launcha service to Livingston or Castillo de San Felipe. A lady carrying around a camera surely wants to see more than Fronteres, I guess.
Looking down on the launcha dock from up on the Rio Dulce bridge.
El Rellano woodworker cutting into a big piece of bamboo.
At the bus station, we bought our tickets for the 8 am bus on Friday. Then we crossed the street to buy boric acid to sprinkle around all the ant-prone areas on the boat. We are prepping the boat a little better than we did last time. We are wiping all surfaces down with vinegar to inhibit mold growth and leaving a couple of packs of a Formaldehyde-laced “Damp Rid” which they sell around here. We are also storing our bedding and clothes in trash bags so they will be a little more protected and we can move them easy for the major wipe-down which occurs when we return. We are trying to eat our remaining pantry items but we could not resist a bag of these little plums. They are so good and you can’t really snack on dry pasta anyway.
A little bag of plums lasts about 15 minutes around Lily and me.
Bus station at Fronteres
Today, we are doing laundry and all the interior cleaning. Randall is grinding down on two more blisters that won’t stop weeping – meaning the seawater is still trapped beneath it in the fiberglass OR that the blisters goes through the boat into the fiberglass water tank which is the bottom of the boat. We are hoping it is trapped seawater. Here are a couple of picks of his work and Foxtrot’s spot in the yard for the next few months.
The circles are the ground-out blisters which will get repaired when we return.
Foxtrot sitting in the Ram Boatyard – already looking lonely.
The boat looks small and sad out of water. Can’t wait to see you all.
Enjoy your time in the mountains! Will you have internet access there?
Yeap, internet is pretty decent here at the hotel.