206: WHAT YOU MUST KNOW BEFORE YOU CHECK INTO GUATEMALA!!!

In this video we pick up anchor early in the morning and head into the town of Livingston to check into the country of Guatemala. It's our first encounter with the culture, language, and bureaucracy. We share all that we learn as we struggle to cut through the red tape. We even get to meet the town scam artist. We've received our documents and headed up the river. Our destination was Texan Bay and the famous Texas Mike's Restaurant, our anchorage for the night. Our first morning in Guatemala and the sun is up. It's a beautiful day. We are headed over there to go check in in Livingston and it should be about a two-hour sail to get there and then well head to wind unfortunately so two-hour motor beating into it and then we'll head up the river. If you are leaving the United States to come to Guatemala we have three suggestions for you and the first is if you are a U.S. flagged boat leaving the United States get a zarpe before you leave. Now you're probably saying zarpes are not available for pleasure crafts leaving the United States and you would be right. So go on the U.S. Customs site and download the commercial vessel document for departure from the United States, complete it, have it signed and notarized and that will be more than acceptable. I also think you could probably make your own document as long as it's signed by a notary and they will accept it here. If you don't bring that document you will be charged an extra fee for them to create a bogus document by a lawyer in Livingston which basically says nothing and you pay for it. So bring that document with you. By having the zarpe you also have the possibility of going through the process of checking in yourself versus using an agent because to try and get to a lawyer in Livingston is a bit complicated so make sure you bring that document. The second piece of advice we have for you is get an ATM card that has no fees for withdrawal. If you don't get this you will be paying about four U.S. dollars per transaction at an ATM. It adds up because this is really a cash society and you're not going to be able to use a credit card here so ATM cards with no fees, it's absolutely essential. The third suggestion that we have for you is learn some basic Spanish. Get on Duolingo, buy Rosetta Stone but learn some basic Spanish so that you can have at least some understanding of what they are talking to you about and be able to communicate with the locals. It'll make a huge difference. When you arrive in Guatemala, typically unless you arrive in the morning, you will drop anchor at Cabo Tres Puntas and stay there overnight. If you arrive in the morning and you know that the tides are on your side then you could go straight to Livingston. In a catamaran it's probably never an issue but if you're on a monohull the time of high tide is really important. Check your tide tables. So there's the local tow boat towing this monohull off the sandbar. It seems like all the monohulls get stuck coming in. We're gonna drop anchor here and check in. Drop your anchor in front of Livingston and put up your yellow quarantine flag. Call into the harbor on channel 68. No one uses 16 in Livingston or in the Rio. Say that you are a vessel in the harbor that you need to check in and hopefully within an hour or two someone will come out and help you check in. That person is typically Raul or his nephew. Raul and his nephew are an agency that can check you in. It's for a fee of about 50 US dollars. For some people it's worth it. For other people who are trying to pinch pennies then that's high rate especially when the average Guatemalan earns about ten dollars a day. So the other option is you can check in yourself and as long as you have that zarpe it's really not a very hard process. Ask Raul for a map of the town and he will tell you where to go for immigration and the port captain. We've just arrived in the town of Livingston. Tamarisk has been really nice. The monohull in front of us they have kind of walked us through this. We're gonna just chill out here and wait for the authorities to come. The sailboat out there has such a deep keel that it can't get through the channel without being turned sideways so they are towing that boat in right now. It was caught on a shoal earlier. The coast guard is working on our friend's Gypsy Moon's boat right now. So immigration just left or it's an agency that wants to get our business. We declined. Maybe a stupid move on our part I don't know but I think that we're gonna have a better experience if we do this on our own so maybe maybe not. It's time to find out. You have two options for your dinghy. Leave your dinghy either at Bugamamas or leave your dinghy at the public dock. If you go to the public dock you're going to want to pay someone to watch your dinghy. If you go to Bugamamas I believe they charge you 15 quetzales or you can eat there later for lunch and your dock fee is free. This is the town of Livingston. It's a bit edgy. All cruisers check in here so the locals are used to seeing westerners and are quite friendly. We got to the immigration office and immigration says we first need to go see the port captain so we are headed to the port captain's office. Philip Flores. We settled this from the early 1600s. But 1970 civil war they came fleeing and totally since we were only a handful of blacks they pushed us completely out. And where are you from originally? Born here. Born here. I am Garifuna. Okay. This is my culture here. We're trying to save ourselves from extinction. We're just a few handful here. Just beware of Philip. He is interesting to talk to but he will tell you he's working with children. The reality is he's a scam artist. All right well we gave up. We walked all over little Livingston to try and take care of our own entrance papers but the problem was they are requiring a zarpe from America which doesn't exist. Hey hey. Because we're a pleasure craft and a pleasure craft doesn't get a zarpe. So they're insisting on having that and we called the coast guard and they said there's nothing you can do. Basically you are at the mercy of the agency to hire them. All right guys so what's the uh the lesson of the day? My solution would be throw money. Would you have thrown it from the beginning? Yeah. So when they came to the boat and said it you would have just said fine no problem? Yeah. Okay. However what we ended up doing is seeing really good people. We got a sim card. We went to the bank. I think the moral of the story is throw money at it. We were successful. We have our documents and it's time to head up the river before the river nets come down so we need to get moving really quickly. Here are the costs of checking into the country. First of all the cost is 1860 quetzales for three months. That is for you and your boat. To receive a nine month extension that's an additional 2260 quetzales. If you use the agency then you will pay about 2200 quetzales. So you're being charged about 50 us dollars for Raul's work. When you check out of the country you will pay 450 quetzales plus 80 quetzales for the zarpe. When you're in town buy a sim card. We bought Claro and are very happy. Claro is fantastic for everywhere on the river. The only place that Claro does not give you any service is at Texan Bay. Most people don't spend a lot of time at Texan Bay but if you're planning to be there for a couple weeks maybe buy Tigo. But again we have used Claro and have been very happy with the Claro service. No matter what happens don't stay in Livingston overnight. The bay is not safe and petty theft occurs all the time. Get down the river go to Texan Bay even if you're not checked in and then come back and check in the next day if you need to. Goodbye Bugamama. Start up the first time. Here we are changing the flag. The admiral's got it on. Changing from a quarantine flag to the Guatemalan flag. Something we thought was never gonna happen finally is happening. In the background is the Rio Dulce river going through the valley. It's a famous place that goes all the way back to the Spanish galleons back in the 1600s, 1500s. We have just said goodbye to the town of Livingston and we are in a little bit of a rush to head up the river because it is 4.07 and around 5, 5.30 the locals throw fishing nets over the river. So any boat traveling up and down the river has to be really careful of these nets. So they said as long as we move prior to darkness we should be okay. Off to Texicana. We can't make it all the way to the Rio Dulce the village because we got such a late start from Livingston. After a long day we finally arrived to Texan Bay, dropped anchor and headed to Mini Mike's to meet the locals and grab some dinner.