By Sea to Guatemala

From letter dated December 8, 1962

Last weekend we had another excursion…this time by boat to Guatemala. The new Guatemalan Consul-General, Alfredo Toriello (called Al), has become a good friend. He wanted to bring his wife Ellie (a charming, beautiful Peruvian), five children, car, and household goods to Belize. Bucher’s work boat, the Beliceña, seemed a good way to do it.

Al flew home to Guatemala City a week ahead to help Ellie pack up. The boat met them in Puerto Barrios. The trip was well worth it to the company because they saved something like $1,000 on diesel fuel they were able to buy in Guatemala. (Fuel is wildly high here for no good reason except gas company collusion.)

 

The two oldest Torilleo boys have been here in Belize with Al; we took them down on the boat with us so that they wouldn’t miss the trip. Alfredo Jr. is 13 and Carlos Eduardo (called Eddie), 11. They are lovely boys…active, attractive, with beautiful manners. They were a little shy at first…and I don’t blame them…adrift at sea with a boatload of foreigners! But it didn’t take long.

The small problem was that Alfredo and Eddie speak only a word or so of English. Alex had a friend, Tony Tattersfield, with him, and while those two are studying Spanish, they don’t know much. Somehow, the boys all got along beautifully. They carried on long conversations and seemed to understand each other and really had a marvelous time together. Carli and Eddie are about the same age and seemed to like each other in the little time that Eddie cut loose from the bigger boys. It was good for all of them.

My Spanish improved moment by moment. One of the men Bucher brought as crew speaks Spanish, so that helped. But I got pretty fluent talking to the boys.

You have to be pretty careful on a boat so that no one goes overboard. The Toriello boys aren’t used to boats and really weren’t aware of dangers, so I was issuing orders from time to time. They both responded perfectly. Alfredo is one of the most attractive boys I’ve ever known…fine looking, with mischievous eyes. He finally got to bracing himself up with his eyes sparkling and saluting when I finished my safety lectures.

 

On Friday evening Lupe Alamilla, the cook, fixed a lovely dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, etc., and we got all the children into bed early. Bucher was uneasy having them around the decks in the dark, particularly as the decks get damp and slippery.

One of the other men took the wheel, and Bucher and I turned in around nine. He got up around 3:30 am to stand watch and since I was awake, I got up with him. We had coffee and simply enjoyed the night. It was calm as a lake, the stars were spectacularly bright, and it was the nicest time of the trip. To our surprise, one by one the boys emerged about the same time. They sat on the catwalk in front of the wheelhouse and talked (somehow).

We made better time than we expected, so we slowed down and finally went into neutral and sat in the water just outside Puerto Barrios until dawn. Guatemala had had a revolution the weekend before and we didn’t want them thinking we were Cubans invading their ports if we went in while it was dark.

 

On Saturday morning the Customs and Immigration people couldn’t have been nicer. It was due to Al, I know. He has some prestige himself because of his position and furthermore, he’s brother-in-law to the Guatemalan Foreign Minister. Anyway, they even let our Beagle Pedro go ashore…which is unheard of.

The boys and Carli wandered around the docks; Ellie, the three younger children, and their Mayan maid came on board. It was a little dull except when they loaded the car. Took till 4:30 in the afternoon to complete loading fuel and then we left.

 

Let me tell you it was hair raising. I had forgotten how young the little Toriellos would be…3, 5, and 7. They were all over the place. Up and down ladders, around the docks. Ellie was almost in a collapse over her moving and the young maid didn’t have a clue. I chased those children till I was frantic and, after about thirty minutes, decided that was a losing job.

I told Al he’d have to assign a watchman to each child since they weren’t safe out of sight for a moment. This is a work boat. The rail on the entire after deck is only about waist high to a three year old and you can imagine how quickly one could tip over when leaning out to watch the wake. Around the top deck, there is a rail at adult waist height…which is above the children’s heads, so that there isn’t a thing between them and the water some 20 feet below. Rapidly Al took charge and I acted as “floating floor manager” making sure everything was in order. But it was a strain.

 

Our original plan had been to anchor at one of the cayes for the night, spend the morning swimming, and get back to Belize on Sunday, late afternoon. Ten minutes out of port, Bucher called me to the wheelhouse and said that, after watching the situation, he thought the best thing to do was head for home…so the little ones would be in bed most of the way.

Actually, we had only about three hours of that running around. And they are delightful children, just as polite as they can be. But busy! We were enchanted with them…but thought we might like them even better on dry land.

Again we were up long before dawn on Sunday and again it was the best time of the trip. Home safely, and even with the short period of fairly hectic performance, we all had a wonderful time.