March 31 - April 2, 2009 The three day, two night passage to Huatulco went without incident. We spent most of it under sail. The only weird thing was the wind picked-up in the evenings and faded during the day. Pretty much the exact opposite of all the weather we have experienced during our passages in southern Mexico. We arrived in Huatulco Bay at 11 a.m. and decide to stop at the second of the nine bays, Bahia Chachacual. The chart offers little detail and our guide book is no help either. Some guide book. Charlie Charts says "Most cruisers stop at the two main anchorages. You can anchor in the other bays, but why risk it?" Why? Because we want to stop there, that's why. Do we really need a reason? But as such, Margo, the author, doesn't provide any detail for the other seven bays of Huatulco. With the errors we have been discovering in her charts, it is our guess that she hasn't really spent any time down here and is compiling her limited, and sometimes erroneous, information from others.
April 3-4, 2009 We take the day to rest up following our three day passage from Acapulco. The bay is just a bit rolly, not being quite deep enough to dampen the swell as it rolls by Eastward. Plus, we are right in the middle of the bay, being restricted by the rock reef to the West. The catamaran anchors during its stay in between the rock reef and the Western edge of the bay, but it is too narrow for us without us setting a stern anchor to keep us from drifting when the wind dies down. Plus, we wouldn't want to take the spot that he uses each day. That would be poor form.
We come into the narrow bay and can see that a cruise ship is docked on the pier. Located on the opposite side of the pier is one sailboat anchored close in, just off the beach. As we try to decide where to anchor, I tell Jodie to steer us behind the anchored sailboat thinking we will anchor in between him and the beach. Well, we get inside there and while there is room for us, there is very little water under our keel. We draw 6 feet and the depth sounder is telling us we are in 12, then 10 feet of water. Whoops, bad idea. We quickly do an about face and anchor further out. We are still in only 17 feet as we drop the hook, but feel much better with our location. There are two words that are associated with "cruise ship". That is "jet ski". And we have them here in lovely Huatulco. I guess we should have known. A jet ski is like an above ground swimming pool. After 20 seconds, the fun stops*. They are so fast that's about how long it takes them to get from the beach to the end of the bay. And they are not allowed to leave the bay and enter the open ocean. So, what to do after that first initial blast? Um, go back? Ok, zoom. You're back. Now what? Hmm. There's a sailboat. Let's do rings around that for the remaining 29 minutes that we have left of "fun time". People on jet skis are bored. They must be. What other reason would they have to go around and around us? Maybe it's time for us to get one of those "super soaker" guns and start having our own little bit of fun. * Courtesy Mitch Hedberg April 5, 2009 Technically we are in the city of Santa Cruz. But this whole area is known as Huatulco and the city of Santa Cruz is only two blocks square. So I am going to refer to us as being in Santa Cruz Bay in the city of Huatulco. Don't get me wrong, Santa Cruz is very cute, with a little plaza and harbor. There is just not much here and it's an easy ten minute walk to the actual town. The harbor and its adjacent plaza are bustling with activity. This is where people come to sign up for all the ocean excursions like the catamaran that would anchor by us in Chachacual Bay. We ask around for the autobus. No autobus here. "Really?" we ask. "No autobus. Taxi only." But it is only 20 pesos for a taxi into town, so no big deal. We grab one and tell him to take us to centro, not really knowing where centro is or what we will find when we get there. We ask him about a super mercardo, like Soriana, Mega, etc. Our driver points to the right and slows down at the "Super Che". "Do we want off here?" he asks. "No, no. Centro por favor." we reply. One left turn and one block later we enter centro and get out at the centro mercardo. We might be just over a mile from where we got the taxi, but it was worth it to get a quick lay of the land.
Huatulco is really nice. It's smaller than Z-town, but it is still large enough to feel like a city. We stroll around town, passing the plaza and meandering up and down the city streets. We are looking for lunch and find it at a small restaurant serving a comida corrida for 40 pesos each. I get the beef and Jodie gets the fish, both are excellent and we end up sharing each others. We walk back to the Super Che to see what they have for groceries. Though the building is quite large, they do not have much of a selection of groceries and the produce section leaves much to be desired. However, we spotted a small tienda (store, shop) selling vegetables and fruits in centro and will return to purchase them there before we leave. We did get a few basics and headed back to Savannah, walking the return trip. Back at the harbor, we meet Edwin. Edwin is a panga operator and initially approached us to offer his services to visit the local bays. We tell him that we are on the sailboat in the bay. He says, "The one with the surfboards? I just broke mine yesterday. Do you want to sell yours?" "Yes (the one with the boards) and no (you can't buy mine)." I reply. Edwin is really nice and we learn from him that you can catch a bus on the corner. And we are talking the corner that's right over there. LOL. Never ask around the taxi guys if there is a bus available. "Nope, buses do not come here." Translation: No bus will enter the two square feet we are occupying this very instant. We end up seeing Edwin nearly every time we come ashore. Either at the dock, in the plaza or in his panga when he is out on the water, Edwin will be nearby and give you a friendly hello.
April 6, 2009 Today we awake to find a cruise ship coming into port. Only this time they are coming into our side of the bay. Doesn't he know to park on the other side of the pier? You know, the empty side? There is no danger of them hitting us. The ship glides in and the bow thrusters force it over to the pier as we get pushed back from the wake. The line handlers secure her to the pier and all is well. It is just that now we feel like we are sitting next to a skyscraper. People wave to us and take pictures of Savannah from the ship and we wave back. It's kind of neat, and kind of not. That ship is a huge monster and less than a hundred feet from us. Oh, here come the jet skis!
April 7, 2009 Yesterday the cruise ship left at dusk and today another came to take its place. Our side of the pier again, but this ship was a little smaller than the previous one. Not quite so daunting as the last ship. We head into town, leaving the dinghy in the marina basin. We are still trying to find a good spot to leave it. Last time we tied it up we had to crawl across an old panga and climb up a small concrete wall to the pier. Today we are going to leave it tucked behind a floating dock, under a gangway ramp that connects the dock to shore. Hopefully we won't return to find it blocked in from the sides by other pangas and commercial boats. We walked down to a marina that is located in the next bay to the East, Bahia Chahue. This is the marina that most cruisers stay at when passing through Huatulco. We will be checking out of the country here in Huatulco and the Harbor Master, Enrique, is well known for assisting in the checkout process. When we arrive however, he is not around. We'll have to go back another time to catch him. While there, we do meet Crazy George. He is an old timer with a hundred stories to tell. You've been warned. We got out on story number 11 or so. A quick side trip to Super Che. This time we take the short taxi ride back, it is just too hot to carry the heavy groceries the half-mile back to the harbor. We come back to find that the dinghy hasn't been blocked, which is good. But the tide has risen and its nose has been caught under the ramp. No real damage (glad it wasn't punctured somehow), but we are going to have to figure out a different spot to tie up next time.
April 8, 2009 We went into town today and did a formal check-in with the Port Captain. Jodie said that if we were going to check-out of Mexico here in Huatulco, we had better check in here first. I thought it was a bad idea, but she won out. We go into the office and the lady helping us doesn't seem very pleased that the last official paperwork we have was from Ensenada, where we checked into Mexico. We just keep telling her and pantomiming a radio signal over and over when she asked how we checked into this port or that port. Another woman behind the counter is much more agreeable with us. She seems to understand that that's how it is done these days. Grudgingly the first one accepts our paperwork and tells us to come back when we are ready to check out next week. Later in the day, a small port boat comes by Savannah and tells us we need to move to the other side of the pier. "Why?" I ask. "It would be better" he says and leaves it at that. I'm quite sure it is because we have checked in and alerted them to our presence. Now that he officially knows about us, he can order us around whenever he wants, I tell Jodie. "We should have never checked in". However, she is convinced that it is because we were caught driving the dinghy under the cruise ship pier (which is clearly marked "˜Restricted Zone') instead of going around it to go ashore. Whatever the reason, we have to move. The other side of the bay is much better in regards to jet skis as they don't seem to come over as much, but slightly worse for incoming swell. We are just a bit more exposed to the prevailing swell direction. Worst of all, we have lost our internet connection (gasp!). That really blows. So unless we bring the laptop to shore, no internet. We might get a weak signal from time to time, but it is very unreliable.
April 9, 2009
April 10, 2009 At dusk, we went into town to eat out for our anniversary dinner, which was on the 8th. We found a great bbq pollo restaurant that had a half a chicken with two sides for a whopping 60 pesos. 7 pesos for a soda and 9 for a beer brought the grand total to 76 pesos, $5.43 USD. We go big on anniversaries (LOL). Plus we got to watch "Finding Nemo" on the restaurant T.V., in Spanish of course. Oh, we did stop for gelato near the plaza for desert. Chocolate for Jodie, strawberry and coconut for myself. Just outside of centro they were having a crafts fair which we wanted to check out. Most of the same stuff that you find in the tourist shops excepting some really fine hand made rugs. The rugs are made from vegetable dyes and the families who own lambs provide the wool. They have a complete picture book that shows the entire process, from extracting the dyes to spinning the wool yarn, dyeing the wool in boiling pigment and finally the creation of the rugs themselves. We didn't get one since we have no real place to put another rug or even a wall large enough to hang one. We did however help them make another sale by explaining the process to some Canadian tourists. They ended up buying 16(!) hand made drink coasters (?) for 25 pesos each! Hey, to each there own, and they now have some really fine wool coasters.
April 11, 2009 We took a walk back to the Chahue marina to try and make contact with Enrique this morning. Once again, he was not around, but our friends John and Sean from Active Transport (we had met them in Z-Town) were back onboard after a week long excursion across mainland Mexico. We discussed traveling with them as we cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec and it looks like we are leaving on the same day. So we will buddy boat with them, a first for us. We have never buddy'd up before with another cruiser. Mostly because it seems we go a little slower than most, especially when motoring. But John said that it would be no problem for him to slow down a little for the security of having us around. He is worried that if he is forced to motor the entire 500 plus miles, he might run out of fuel before he can enter the estuary of Bahia del Sol, El Salvador. We can carry an additional 20 gallons in jerry jugs on the deck of Savannah, and that might make the difference between him getting there under power and avoiding a tow-in across the breakers at the entrance to Bahia Del Sol. John said he would get in contact with Enrique and handle the coordination required for checking out with the local Port Captain, Immigration and Customs. After getting back to the boat, I decided that Savannah could use a bottom cleaning. With 500 miles planned out ahead of us, it would be nice not to drag any extra weight the entire trip. Also, we want to get there as quickly as possible. Crossing the Tehuantepec will be the most dangerous region weather wise that we have yet to encounter. So quicker is better. The forecast is looking good for a Thursday and Friday crossing. No 50+ knot winds on the horizon and no real headwinds to slow us down. That's about as good as it gets going south across the Tehuantepec and we are going to take advantage of the weather window. So two hours later, the bottom is "race ready" as I like to call it, and its official nap time.
April 12, 2009 Today I headed back over to the Chahue Marina to clean Active Transport's bottom. His thinking was the same as mine; a clean hull is a fast hull. After the job was finished, I tried to convince him to not haul out in two weeks when we get to El Salvador, as was his plan. Firstly, the bottom paint was still doing its job, not a lot of barnacles were attached on the hull. Second, and most important, he is planning on heading to Australia in 2010. Australia requires you to have a haul out with fresh bottom paint less than a year before entering their waters. So if he hauled out in two weeks this year, he would then need to haul and paint again the following year to meet the Australian requirements. So, seeing that I just saved him 2 grand in boat yard fees, my cleaning fee today would only be $500 dollars. Seems like a good deal, I think.
April 13, 2009 Another day, another boat project. Just not on Savannah. Jade, a 48 foot Fuji sailboat, has anchored next to us in Santa Cruz Bay and needs some work. Pedro (not his real name, the dude is white, but whatever) has been sailing around without a depth sounder since he left La Paz 2 months ago. He has a new one, but he needs a diver to place the transducer in the hull. Now this is going to be fun. He is going to drill a two inch hole in the bottom of his boat while I am submerged outside with the depth transducer. When he finishes with the hole, he is going to place his hand (!) over it while I prep the hull for the transducer. Basically, I need to give the area a quick cleaning before seating the transducer up against it. Then I will feed him the end of a 30 foot cable that ends with the depth transducer unit. After a quick planning session, I jump over with the depth transducer puttied up with sealant. I dive below and wait for the drill to punch through from the inside. Except I don't see anything but smooth hull. Pedro (not his real name, no way) should be done by now. Or at least I should see the center bit poking through the hull. I look around, and about three feet away there appears to be a bit of something missing over there. Yep, that's a hole for sure. He's all done drilling and is just waiting for me, hand cupped over the 2 inch hole. From my view underwater, it's all quite surreal looking. I feed him the line and he pulls it through, pausing just before the transducer to allow me to position it forward facing, per our plan. It all goes smoothly and we're done. I clean the excess sealant and come out of the water. Pedro (whatever) is pleased as punch. Hey, who wouldn't be after just self-inflicting a two inch hole in your hull and then getting put back together on the first try? Plus he now knows for certain he is sitting in 12 feet of water. A quick look in the bilge shows that he took on 2-3 gallons of water throughout the process. Not too bad. At dusk we head into town to do our final provision run. We head into centro to buy some tamales for the passage. We had some the other day for a quick snack, and they were so good that we wanted to buy more before we left. We get them from a street vendor located at one of the bus stops in town. We take our booty and head over to the Super Che. After a short run through the store we walk back to the harbor and run into Edwin. We drop our load on the dock and spend some time talking with him. During this we meet his cousin and partner running the panga "Northwest". We find out that both of them spent a few years in New Jersey before coming back home to Huatulco. Here are some more pictures taken during our time in Huatulco.
April 14, 2009 Check out day. It has been 178 days since we checked into Mexico. Our visa will expire in two days, so it is time to leave. We are ready. Mexico has been great, especially the southern portion. At 9:00 am we met Jon from Active Transport at the Port Captains office. We will be buddy boating down to El Salvador (by-passing Guatemala) with him and his crew, Sean. Checking out was a test of patience, made more difficult due to the counter-person. We got the distinct impression that she really doesn't enjoy her job. And it's not just us gringos, she treats the local fishermen with the same distain. So it's the Port Captain office, then over to Immigration, then back to the Port Captain for some missing paperwork, then returning to Immigration. All that is left is Customs, but we are going to get some assistance from the Harbor Master, Enrique, on this last bit of paperwork later in the afternoon. Technically we are not allowed to be ashore anymore, but we head over to the marina at 6 pm to pick up our paperwork from Enrique. Also, we head into town to get some Al Pastor tacos with the last of our remaining pesos. After dinner, we have just enough money left for some ice cream. Pesoless, we return to Savannah, stepping off Mexican soil for the last time.
April 15-18, 2009 We depart Mexico at 8 a.m., meeting up with Active Transport a few miles offshore. We have decided to
proceed directly across the Tehuantepec on a direct path towards El
Salvador. This decision was made due to the mild weather that has
been forecasted over the next 5 days. By traveling on a direct
route, vs. following the shore, we will be able to shave off 60 miles.
About ten miles out we run across Desperado, a small fishing boat that Tom and Myrna from West Virginia keep down in Huatulco. They travel down each year to spend time in Huatulco during the winter months. They promise us some fish and an hour later return with some Mexican bonito (tuna). A quick handoff via the boathook at the stern of Savannah and we have some yummy meals ahead for us. Thanks Tom and Myrna! They were delicious!
We are able to have a pleasant day sailing and make good time, heading southeast on a beam reach. We must have had a current running with us as we reached 8.3 knots on several occasions in only 13 knots of apparent wind. Unfortunately the wind slacked off during the evening and we motor sailed through the night.
When sunrise came the next morning, we were greeted with a stunning blue sea. The green water of Mexico had transformed itself into a clear sapphire cobalt blue. It was the clearest and bluest sea that we have encountered and it was beautiful to gaze at during our trip. When the dolphins came to play in our bow wake, we could see them clearly as they dove down deep.
Also, the phosphorescence's were present each night and outlined the dolphins as they swam by, which was a spectacular sight. Something else that we had not seen before; seemingly spontaneous burst of phosphorescence would occur in the water. Bright enough to light the main sail in a refractive glow. Sometimes it seems that we are traveling through some alien world only slightly similar to our own. The next two days pass without incident. We only ended up seeing two cargo ships in the distance and one other sailboat traveling northward. The only thing that broke up the monotony was when a cluster of charter fishing boats passed us returning to Guatemala. Fifteen boats suddenly appeared to our starboard and then passed ahead and behind us, each boat waving as they cruised past. Then just as quickly as they appeared, they were gone, leaving us to the sound of own engine. We also spent some time creating our El Salvador curtsey flag. After six months our Mexico flag was a little worse for wear and tear. Thankfully, our El Salvadorian flag won't have to last that long.
The wind never did fill back in, even during the afternoons, when it would be most likely. So we ended up motoring for a full two and a half days. That is a record for us for continuously running our engine. If we were not buddy boating with Active Transport, we might have shut down the engine for a couple of hours during the night and drifted, just to get some peace and quiet. Speaking of Active Transport, they started behind us and then moved ahead, always staying in sight. Sometimes they would be on our port side, then slowly cross in front of us and head way out to our starboard. They might be as much as five or ten miles further out to sea, and then slowly make their way back to us. We never asked why they seemed to be meandering back and forth. We assumed they had their autopilot on, just as we did. On the final day, we were able to shut down the motor and sail the remaining 30 miles. When we finally arrived at the entrance to Jaltepeque estuary, we had to anchor and wait till the following day to cross the bar. The Jaltepeque estuary has a channel that connects it to the ocean that is constantly migrating as the tides and currents shift the underlying sand at the entrance. The Bahia del Sol marina provides an escort across the bar to gain entrance into the estuary. We arrived at 2 p.m. and at the time the waves were quite dramatic, crashing with white foam all around the entrance. So we had no desire to enter under those conditions. We knew in the morning that things should be calmer. If not, we would just by-pass this anchorage and head directly to the Gulf of Fonseca. So we anchored off the beach in 40 feet and set out both flopper stoppers. All we needed now was a good night sleep, and those stoppers were going to help guarantee that.
April 19, 2009 As it turns out, the next morning things were much quieter at the bar. So we pulled up anchor and headed to the meeting location with Active Transport. We were told to that a panga would guide us in over the bar at 9:00 a.m. So we go there a little earlier, at 8:45. Each time a panga would head out of the bay, we would get excited. Then they would pass us by, heading to their fishing spot, no doubt. By 9:30, we began to wonder where our panga guide was at. John on Active called in and they reassured us that he would be coming to get us at the right time and we should just wait for his arrival. At 9:50, we got the call telling us that Rogelio was leaving and would be there in 10 minutes. Rogelio arrived and told us to follow him in, making sure to keep an eye on him and follow his lead. We headed into the channel, keeping Rogelio just ahead of Savannah. The entrance seemed to be a half mile long, as we made our way in with wave forming on each side of us. We were through quickly enough with no problems at all, with us powering Savannah at 7.5 knots through the channel. Rogelio returned for Active Transport and lead them through next. They also made it through, though they said they touched bottom at one point when they drifted out of the channel momentarily.
We pulled into the Bahia del Sol Hotel and Marina slips and quickly went through customs and immigration. We soon find out that El Salvador doesn't participate in Daylight Savings like Mexico and the U.S. So we were actually an hour early to meet with Rogelio! Whoops! He wasn't late, we were early. The whole checking in process took less than half an hour and we pulled out of the marina to anchor on the other side of the estuary, 100 yards away. We paid the Marina fifteen dollars to join their Cruisers Club. This allows us to use their secure dinghy dock and hotel amenities, i.e.; the pool and internet. Also we would get 30% taken off any food and drink ordered from the hotel. Seemed like a good deal and we were able to get the wifi signal while on anchor.
So we are now in El Salvador, baking in the tropical sun and using the pool almost daily. Hot, hot, hot. It's not too bad if there is a breeze.
April 20, 2009 We were told about pizza and a movie night at the hotel tonight. We decided to definitely do the pizza and definitely not do the movie. It was "Captain Ron" and you can only see that so many times, like once. On the way over our dinghy engine decided to act up on us halfway to the hotel and we had to paddle the remaining portion with the oars. After pizza (yum!) we claimed exhaustion and headed back to the dinghy. When we tried to start the engine, it just wouldn't fire, leaving us stranded at the dock. Being anchored in an estuary, the tidal current can get going pretty fast as the estuary fills and drains twice daily. At this time, it was flowing in quickly; to quick for us to attempt to row back across to Savannah. So we went back up to the hotel and sat through "Captain Ron". We then got a tow back to Savannah from another cruiser anchored near us.
April 21, 2009 I took the carburetor halfway apart this morning and it seemed that there was a problem with the seal on the fuel pump. So I put it back together, being careful to get the seal set properly, and the motor fired right away. Jodie jumped into the dinghy and we went for a quick ride around the mangroves and returned to Savannah with no problems. So later in the afternoon, when we decided to head into town for the first time, we were shocked when halfway across the estuary, the engine died again. This time though, the current was heading out fast. We managed to get across, but we missed the marina dock by 100 yards. Luckily, John from Active Transport saw us from shore and came and got us in his dinghy to tow us back to the dock. We decided we'd still go into town, so we walked out onto the main road to find a whole lot of nothing. Well, we did see some cows walking around, and found some cashew trees filled with fruit. Cashew trees bare a fruit called jocote de marañón (or cashew apple), and at the bottom of each fruit is where the nut grows. You only get a single nut per fruit.
After eating we walked back to the dock to find the tide slack. So it was no problem for us to paddle the dinghy back across the estuary to the boat.
April 22, 2009 Today I completely disassembled the carburetor and thoroughly cleaned it. Nothing looked out of place or broken, so I re-assembled it. Once again, the engine started right up and ran perfectly. I also adjusted the air mixture and raised the idle slightly. We'll see if it makes any difference. Yesterday, we were invited to a chicken BBQ at Jan's, located on the mangrove island located just behind us. The island is home to about 100 people, mostly El Salvadorians, but a few ex-cruisers live there as well. We arrive at 5:30 (no problems with the engine) and meet Jan, formerly of Quantum Leap, who has resided in El Salvador for the last 9 years. Her property runs across the island and is approximately an acre in size. We get a quick tour of her place. It is filled with various fruit trees, including pineapples, mangos and bananas, as well as a few cashew trees. We enjoy dinner with the twenty or so other cruisers and then Alan from Effie pulls out his guitar and has us singing into the night with him.
April 23, 2009 I dove in today to give the hull a cleaning. There is quite a bit of algae growing along the waterline. The water temperature is around 96 degrees, so it doesn't take long for the growth to accumulate. The tide was flowing in and streaming past the hull but I thought that I could still manage to get a cleaning done. Wrong! I could just barely keep up with the current, and this was with my flippers on. So after a half-hearted attempt, I climb out and rinsed off in the shower. We didn't really accomplish much else during the day. We decided to walk down the road a bit further than our previous trip to see if we could find a town. After a couple miles of seeing nothing but deserted properties and fenced homes, we headed across a vacant lot to the beach. It was our first time checking out the beach and we were quite disappointed. There was trash and debris lying all over the sand. Occasionally the beach would be clean, usually in front of a hotel or restaurant. But for the most part it was not a very attractive beach.
April 24, 2009 It was time to do a small provision run, so we grabbed the number 193 chicken bus to Zacatecoluca, or Zacate to the locals. No, we haven't seen any chickens or any other livestock on the buses, but even the popular guide books still refer to them as chicken buses. A chicken bus is just an old retired school bus.
We arrive in Zacate a short while later and get off in front of the Super Don Juan Market. This is a chain of markets that Wal-Mart has purchased some time ago and the employees wear the Wal-Mart smocks inside the store. We take a quick walk through and then head back out to the street to walk around the town. We ask a friendly hotdog vendor for the direction to centro Mercado and he points the way. The vendors have taken over the streets in Zacate in the centro area. There is just enough room for a vehicle to pass between the vendors. We have to step back anytime a large truck or bus comes through. The vendors sell everything from vegetables to toys. There's not a gringo in site and the locals are very friendly to us. After walking around town and through the markets, we eat some lunch, pickup a few groceries, and catch a bus back to Bahia del Sol.
One downside of Zacate is the trash that lies everywhere. It is mostly litter; cups and plastic bags fill the gutters and block the drainage inlets, causing dirty water to puddle at the curb returns. Jodie points out that there are no trash receptacles anywhere for people to throw their garbage away. That is a poor excuse as we see people throw things out of car and bus windows as they pass. The government needs to do some major social education to bring these people around enough to keep their county free from litter. It is really sad to see how bad the litter problem is here.
April 25, 2009 Today we caught a ride with John and Sharon from Sunbow to a town located 4 miles up the estuary named San Luis La Herradura. Several of us head out at 11:00 for the 30 minute dinghy ride. We find a remote town that is home to several restaurants and small businesses. One business was a bakery located just off the main street. Ed and Cornelia from A Cappella knew about it and led us all there. They primarily produce sweet bread and cookies and then distribute them to the neighboring towns.
There were children playing and dancing and I stopped to take a picture of them. This caused a crowd of children to appear and they all wanted their picture taken. I think the best part of the experience was watching their faces when we showed the picture on the camera view screen. It seemed quite possible that it may have been the first time they have ever had their picture taken. When I had them in a group, I was just about to say, "Say cheese". But then I realized that would be in English. Then I froze, and all I could think of was pollo (chicken) instead of queso. So I said, "Say pollo pollo pollo!" At which they all laughed and repeated it over and over. Even after showing them the pictures, they kept on screaming, "Pollo, pollo, pollo!" on and on. As I passed their mothers working next to them, I muttered a "Lo siento" (I'm sorry) and we continued down the street.
After picking up some produce, we all returned to the estuary and had lunch, Jodie opting for the garlic shrimp plate.
April 26, 2009
Mauricio and his cousin, Alberto, pick us up at the hotel in the morning and we head out for lunch at the local surf town of La Liberdad. After a quick pass through, it would seem that La Liberdad is destined to be the prime beach destination for El Salvador, with new upscale restaurants and condos catering to the upper class.
We have a great lunch at one of the new restaurants in La Liberdad. Alberto orders several new items that we've never tried, including Pepescas (picarel) a very small fish that is fried whole and served with lemon wedges, Mussel ceviche with the mussels served still living, and Michelada's a spicy beer drink originally from Northern Mexico, but can be found almost everywhere in the country. The name loosely translates to "my chilled beer".
After lunch we travel to Cerro Verde National Park, located near the city of Sonsonate on the south-western corner of El Salvador and is home to three major volcanoes. We hiked up to the nearby Izalco Volcano. This volcano rises to 6,183 ft and has a perfect black lava cone, with a beautiful crater. Izalco was known as the Lighthouse of the Pacific because of the spectacular but benign eruptions that took place every 15 minutes for approximately 190 years. The last eruption took place in 1966, and now only wisps of smoke emerge from the cone.
We finish the day at the home of another cousin of Mauricio's who recently returned from the states to retire here. After visiting with them we drive into San Salvador at 10 p.m. We eat a quick meal at a pupuseria and then head to Mauricio's home where we stay the night.
April 27, 2009 Today we drove into the foothills southeast of San Salvador. Our first stop was in the town of Suchitoto. It is widely known throughout El Salvador for its church and for its cobblestone roads. Suchitoto is one of the few areas in El Salvador where there are still cobblestone roads and it has many cultural activities such as art galleries, cultural centers, and handcrafts. We walked around the cute colonial town, through the many art galleries and then took a tour of the Los Almendros De San Lorenzo hotel.
After this we drove down to Suchitlan lake, which is an artificial lake formed in the Lempa river by the Cerrón Grande dam. The lake was very low during our visit due to it being the end of the dry season.
Now we headed
off to another artesian town, Ilobasco. The town is known
countrywide for its clay craftsmanship and pottery. The clay work
includes the "miniatures", which are small representations of daily
scenes as lived by Salvadorans, no bigger than 2 inches tall. One
version of the miniatures are the "surprises", which are basically a
scene covered with another piece of clay shaped and painted in the form
of a fruit, an egg, a house or other things. The cover can be removed
and then the scene can be seen.
April 28- May 3, 2009 We spend the next few days performing various boat projects. First we designed some rainproof hatch covers that will allow us to keep the salon hatches open during the rain showers. Next we installed a new water filter system, supplementing our existing filter located in the kitchen. Now the entire boat is being served by a 5 micron carbon filter and the drinking water faucet has an additional 0.2 micron solid carbon filter. It used to gross me out to use the rear bathroom faucet to brush my teeth, knowing that it was unfiltered water. No more. I also added a galley fan to cool down Jodie when she is cooking. It was either that or she threatened that were going to be eating out from now on. Lastly we wired the electric cat litter box. The automatic litter box will allow us stay away for the five days during our Guatemala trip. We have used this box for years on the boat, but it had run on a 120 volt AC adapter. So for the last year we have still used it but had been cleaning it manually. I knew for quite some time that it runs on a 12 volt current but have never had the need to wire it into the boats electrical system till now. We then had to figure out what we going to see during our trip to Guatemala and how we were going to see it. Jodie wants to visit the Tekal Mayan ruins, located in the northern region of Guatemalan rainforest. So we have to balance seeing as much as possible with as little time spent away from the boat (and Logan). We decided to give ourselves two travel days and three site seeing days in Guatemala. We will be leaving tomorrow, May 4th for our five day trip and are very excited. It will be the first time leaving the boat on an overland expedition. The weather is stable right now, with light winds and occasional brief showers and we will be leaving Savannah anchored in the estuary. We hope all goes well during our trip and we return to find Savannah and Logan safe.
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Anyway,
Google Earth to the rescue. Their satellite photos have provided
us much needed detail with these more remote anchorages. The
photos often have enough detail to show rocks and underwater conditions
that are not shown on our nautical charts. We slide into the bay
and drop the hook in 30 feet. We are comfortably set in between
two rock reefs, the sea breaking and frothing continuously over both
during our stay. Later that afternoon, a large commercial
catamaran brings 50 or so people into the bay. They anchor over
on the western portion of the bay and ferry people into shore using a
panga that they towed behind them. This is a daily event during
our stay here and we encounter no problems sharing the anchorage.
