El Relleno

Today we get to part ways with a place that taught us more than we could have ever imagined.

Rio Dulce became our home for the past three months as we moved through this years Hurricane season. We made some of the best friends in our little sailing community. Some that we hope to meet up with again in the Bahamas this next sailing season and some that we hope to cross sailing paths again. I will always love the part about meeting other sailors doing what we do and how quickly we become family friends. Our favorite part is hearing everyones stories about where they come from. We now have friends from Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Canada and list goes on and on...

The locals of Guatemala and culture was unbelievable. These people have very little yet they are always happy and helpful. Our favorite weekend in Guatemala was when we traveled out to Antigua to hike and camp on Volcano Acatenango with views of the active Volcano Fuego. Hands down, hardest hike we have ever done. We hiked over 10,500 feet up a straight vertical volcano. Once we got to the top, it was absolutely breathtaking. Fuego was erupting every 20 minutes. We could barely sleep through the night it was so loud and not to mention how chilly it was too! Fortunately, we had a campfire with hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows. The next day we hiked down the volcano and got to spend time exploring Antigua which Carson and I both decided is our favorite town we have visited so far. The town is completely surrounded by volcanoes, cobblestone roads, historic sites on every corner and the people and food are incredible. We fell in love with this town.

The past month our boat was pulled out on the hard. The laborers were incredible and the work was affordable and they did a fantastic job. We discovered several nice cracks on the sides of the boat that they have to cut out and re-fiberglass. During that time we stayed in a little jungle cabana that literally was floating over the river water. It was nice to live in a house for a little bit but after a couple weeks we really missed out boat. Not to mention we really missed exploring in the open ocean. We have been itching to get out!

During our time here, we learned something new about ourselves. We have realized how much traveling completes who we are. There's nothing we enjoy more than completely immersing ourselves into culture. Before we would talk about how we needed to make money to buy the next best performance catamaran but now all we talk about is where we can travel to see more culture. We now know thats just how the American culture is. We always want the next best thing in life and Americans will work their entire lives to get there. You meet other sailors out here and they don't have the nicest sailboats or nicest clothes. They have what they have and that allows them to see the world and meet new people. That resonated deep with us. We feel we have everything we need in life right now. We feel so fortunate.

We have set sail to Belize in the midst of Hurricane season. WIth only being 30 miles away from Rio Dulce still we felt comfortable leaving knowing we can always go back to our safe little hurricane hole. We are so excited to be in the islands again and get back in the water to do some spearfishing!

Honestly, it has been hard not feeling a sense of guilt living our lives out here while we watch family and friends suffer through what hurricane Ian did to our hometown. We will be back in a couple months and its going to be even more heartbreaking to see how things have changed.Read more