Cruising Nets of Rio Dulce
This week we will cover methods for learning information about Rio Dulce and traveling within Guatemala, along with some of our recent activities.
Friday, September 4 – Thursday, September 10, 2026
Since we are staying in Rio Dulce for six months, we wanted to get to know the area well and to meet other people to better enhance our visit. Our quest to learn more about the Rio Dulce area started with the typical guidebooks or online searches, such as:
The prior owner left behind a travel guide to Guatemala. Although outdated, it was a good introduction to the area.
Same goes for our Belize cruising guide, which included a chapter on the Rio Dulce.
Then online, sources like “No Foreign Land” provide information cruisers need, like where to find groceries.
Three Main Communication Methods in Rio Dulce
VHF
Before arriving, we learned about the local cruisers’ net. It is very similar to cruisers’ nets around the world where cruisers get on the VHF radio on most days announcing useful information. In Rio Dulce, cruisers share information starting at 7:30 a.m. every day but Sundays on VHF Channel 69, in English since it seems to be the common language spoken between cruisers. It seems to wrap up after 20-30 minutes.
Some if the information provided includes:
Weather
Local weather
Tides for crossing the bar in Livingston
Conditions in the Gulf of Honduras
Tropical weather outlook
Local travel information, like road closures around the country due to infrastructure or protests
Announcement of scheduled services by boat:
Veggie boat (Tuesdays and Fridays)
Casa Guatemala for meats, dairy, canned and boxed drinks, custom pies (Wednesdays and Saturdays)
Gaby’s Propane filling and laundry services (Weekdays)
Restaurant specials
Area activities (social or volunteer opportunities)
Buy, sell, trade
Opportunities to ask other cruisers about repair knowledge (how to do something, tools needed, where to get parts, which contractors are worth contacting, etc.)
Information announced on the VHF Cruisers’ Net is also found on a couple of Facebook pages: Rio Dulce Cruisers & Rio Dulce Net Events, Activities & More. Honestly, I think more cruisers are heading to Facebook than using the VHF for information. Not sure if it is just the time of day of the net, or if it is just a sign of how things are changing over time.
Person to Person
Then there is the person-to-person transmission of information. We find that we can learn a lot by talking to other cruisers or the staff here at Tijax. For example, while in the pool one morning this week, we received a great tip for clearing out of Guatemala while timing the tides over the Livingston bar. We have received good tips for where to buy parts for the boat, for traveling throughout the country from direct conversations.
Activities
In this past week we participated in a few cruiser activities:
Swap-meet, Mar Marine
Every other Sunday vendors and cruisers set up tables to sell items from clothing to boat parts, rotating between two marinas. Interesting side note, in June we purchased some duffle bags at the swap meet and the guy who helped us (Wilber) saw us in the grocery store this past week and remembered us!
This week local fire department was there as well seeking donations. Like Wakulla County Florida, they supplement paid staff with volunteer firefighters.
Margarita Monday, Sundog – Each Monday a different restaurant has margarita specials and this week we finally attended one.
Sondra at Sundog Utopia crew at a Margarita Monday Jimmy and his margarita
Music Jam, Hoppy House – Each Thursday night at Hoppy House Taberna invites musicians to join a jam session. After hearing great things about this event, we finally attended and enjoyed the evening even though not many musicians showed up this week. Even Jimmy joined our boat neighbor Tony for one song. He did great beating a cajon (a drum in a box that you sit on) to a song he was not familiar with! And another fun side note: Flor, one of the servers there rememberd my name three months after our last visit to Hoppy House!
Free lunch, Karlita’s – The VHF Cruisers’ net is trying to encourage more people to tune in by giving away a free lunch to listeners every week. Each day roll call is taken before signing off and listeners call out boat names. The free lunches are provided by various spots around Rio Dulce. Utopia was the lucky winner recently and we took the dinghy across the river to Karlita’s, a restaurant that I may not have visited on our own and we thoroughly enjoyed it and plan to return one day.
View from our dinghy going to lunch. We enjoyed a free lunch at Karlita's!
Then there are a few things we did not related to any of the Cruisers Net Activities:
Cards on Catnip – Our marina friends on Catnip has us over to play Wizard, a game that we had not heard of before.
Saturday Evening BBQ – Cruisers at Tijax meet up in the “cruisers lounge” on Saturday nights, each bring their own food to toss on the grill, along with their own sides and drinks. This is an event we attend each week. Sometimes it is crowded and other times like recently, there were just five us cooking, eating and chatting.
Pool Time – It is just so hot recently, and several boats at the marina do not have air-conditioning, making the pool a perfect place to catch up with others. We find ourselves taking either a pre-lunch dip, or a pre-happy hour dip, there is almost always another cruiser there.
As a side note, I have finally put a video on YouTube about our trip up the Rio Dulce in May. After I completed it, I watched the video of a real YouTuber and can definitely tell the difference between videoing with our phones and the cameras used by the “professionals”. The canyon was really impressive, which doesn’t quite show up as much in our videos as in others. So, feel free to take a peek at our page, but don’t expect awesome.
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