On a dark and gloomy day in Houston my friend Roberta, sitting on the deck of her sailboat in Guatemala, called me on her cell phone and said, “…come on down the weather is great!” I was off and running…well, flying; flying to Guatemala and adventure. Despite the fact that I have traveled extensively around the world I had never been further south of the U.S. border than Belize. I was stepping off into unknown territory.
My friend Roberta who has been sailing and living a cruising life for the better part of the past year begged me to come down to Guatemala to help with a dive charter. The words ‘dive charter’ piqued my interest. When I inquired how much I had to pay and she said it was free, but I knew there was a catch somewhere. I was to be the cook. The COOK??? Anyone who knows me would laugh as I do not cook…I have a husband who loves to cook, so why in the world would I care to be introduced to a frying pan or a stew pot?? But there I was on the plane heading for a job as cook and dive instructor.
The flight to Guatemala was the easiest part of the trip. Trying to find Roberta and the boat was another story. The instructions I received were understandable enough. But as I was to find out only clear to someone who had traveled this way before and spoke Spanish. I know about 10 words of Spanish and they mostly deal with food items on the menu at a Mexican restaurant. Suddenly I was in the airport terminal of Guatemala City armed with 3 e-mails that instructed me on how to get to a place called Rio Dulce. My first stop was to the Information Desk. I inquired about getting a bus to my destination. The man rolled the name of Rio Dulce around on his tongue for a moment and then said that he had no idea how to get there. Oh great!!! The e-mail mentioned going to the central bus station so I asked about that. The look on his face was one of horror…’no senora you do not want to go there.’ What about a taxi, I asked. He pointed to the Taxi stand. When I inquired about my destination, the woman got out a pen and wrote $160.00 U.S. dollars. I nearly choked. I went back to the Information Desk, which I now viewed as a port in a storm.
