Greetings,

I know, you are probably thinking, I go for months without an update, and now I am overwhelming you with information. I just wanted to make you all aware of problems that have occured here on Lago Izabel. This lake is the source lake for the Rio Dulce, which is the river on which we are living.

The night of August 5th we had a huge amout of rain, so much, that at 0400 I had to go out and pump out my tender. It was nearly full of water, and could have capsized. On the night of August 6th the same thing occured. I had to go out at 0400 and pump out my tender. What I found out a little later in the morning was the guardian, Efrain, was out at 0200, and pumped out my tender because it had almost capsized. I figured we had between 8 to 10 inches of rain over night.

I did not find out until the next day of the terrible flooding in our area. Many people have lost everything, as the floods have washed many houses into the lake, many people have been killed, and some are still missing.

We have our online newspaper here called the Rio Dulce Chisme. Chisme is the Spanish word word for gossip. Anyway, please click on the Rio Dulce Chisme URL and read about the disaster.

I have checked, and cannot find a word about it on CNN, CNBC or the BBC. No terrorists, drugs or politicians involved, so it is not news!

The cruising community here on the Rio Dulce are joining together and helping out all we can.

regards,

jimk

Member Seven Seas Cruising Association

WEB page http://www.dreamaway.net