May 4, 2009 We leave Logan at 8:30 a.m., after preparing Savannah for our five day absence. This involves closing all the thru-hulls on the boat, closing the overhead hatches, and turning off the pressure water system. We provided Logan with plenty of food and water to last him during our trip. We've also asked Ed and Cornelia from A Cappella to keep an eye out for any problems and have provided them with access to the boat and instructions on getting the engine started (unlike a car, every boat is unique with regards to starting the engine).
We arrive in San Salvador and unload at a bus terminal. We have absolutely no idea where we are in the city. But we do know we need to get to the Tica bus station. So we decide that it would be best to take a cab. Since we are officially on vacation now, we can loosen up the purse strings. We check in at the Tica bus terminal and have an hour to find some lunch. We are close to the "Zona Rosa" (Red Zone) area of town, which means upscale night clubs and bars. There are also a few nice restaurants and a Tony Roma's rib house. We however end up at a Subway and split a foot long meatball sandwich. The funny part about this meal was how I had to keep prompting the sandwich maker to add more sauce. She started with just light spread of sauce, like it was mayo. So I ask in Spanglish, " Mas sauce por favor". Then she adds a tablespoon of sauce. A tablespoon on a foot long sub! She just drizzled it along the length of the sandwich. It wasn't even a continuous line of sauce. "Mas, mas", I say. I had to ask her three more times and then I just gave up. She was nice enough about it, but she looked at me as if I was crazy. They must prefer their sandwiches dry here. The bus ride was uneventful. We crossed the border to Guatemala and quickly passed through immigration. I got took for 8 dollars by a money changer at the border while exchanging $40 U.S. for Guatemalan Quetzal. I made the mistake of letting my money get out of my hand before knowing how much money he was going to give back to me. He was the pro and I was the rookie. Lesson learned. We arrive in Guatemala City at 5:30 p.m. Rush hour. It takes us another 60 minutes to get to the bus terminal. The terminal is in a pretty bad neighborhood. Even the guide book says that Guatemala City is a rough town and you shouldn't be out at night alone. When we gather our bag we get rushed by taxi drivers. We tell them we need to go to the airport (we are renting a car) and get quoted 8. Here is the conversation (keep in mind the average taxi ride is $4 to $5 U.S.): "8 quetzal?" "No, 8 US." "No way." "Ok, 7 dollars." "No." "Ok, how much do you want to pay?" "Bye". We are out of there and walking down a sketchy street in a sketchy neighborhood at dusk carrying bags. Completely stupid, I know. After half a block, Jodie asks me what we are going to do and truthfully I really don't know. Flag a bus and ask if it is going towards the airport? Just then a taxi appears at the corner and we wave it down. "Airport, quanto?" we ask. "4 dollars". And off we go. We reach the rental car location (where there are eight different rental companies) and chose Budget as our first stop. We walk out half an hour later with a 23 dollar a day car. All the car had to have was air conditioning, that was our only criteria. You've heard of rent a wreck? This one will be there in a month or two. It had at least 30 dings and scratches on it. A portion of the front fairing was actually missing. The inspection walk around left the car printout covered with ink. It was perfect for us. No way could they try to claim we damaged this thing, and no one would want to steal it. Jodie thought they should make a photo copy of the inspection paper to save them from having to fill it out all over again the next time someone rented it. It was a lot of ink. Just as the evening rainstorm arrives, we leave the rental car facility. We head east and drive for the next three hours passing village after village. Up and down over a couple mountain passes before we reach our destination, Rio Hondo. We stop at the first hotel to find it open but unmanned. "Uh oh", Jodie says. "I was worried about this. This isn't Kansas, Toto. I hope we can find a place that is staffed at 10:30 at night." We do a short ways up the road and we finally settle down for the night. Luke warm showers and a double size bed. Heaven after the long day we had.
May 5, 2009 Our first stop today is the archaeological site of Quirigua just 20 minutes away. "Quirigua is one of the smallest Mayan cities, but one of the most notable due to its splendid series of monuments. Quirigua features a total of 22 carved stelae and zoomorphs (large boulders carved to represent animals and covered with figures and glyphs), which are among the finest examples of classic Mayan stone carvings. It is the home of the largest stelae ever discovered in the Mayan world. The largest of these, Stela E, is ten meters tall." "Unlike other Mayan cities, which for the most part used limestone, monuments in Quirigua are made of sandstone. Even though the Maya did not have any metal tools and only used stone chisels driven by other stones or wooden mallets, they still achieved a remarkable degree of naturalism and refined detail. Quirigua was probably founded in the Late Pre-Classic era and flourished until the 10th century, when it was abandoned for unknown reasons."
More pictures may be viewed at Jodie's Picassa site.
Quirigua lies smack dab in the middle of a vast banana plantation. The plantation owners created the reserve and provided security in the early 1900's protecting the site from looters. The blue bags that can be seen in the picture are placed over the banana fruit to control pests and help prevent rotting.
After exploring Quirigua, we continue on to the town of Rio Dulce. Rio Dulce is 20 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. It is a cruisers meca, with boats making their way up the river to stay at marinas or anchor in the lagoon. We find a disorganized mess with the main road being partially blocked by delivery trucks and encroaching merchant stalls. The road has been narrowed down to just one lane as cars and trucks stop anywhere and everywhere. While caught in traffic, some guy comes up and sticks a menu in the window. Then he wants to know if we want to go on a boat ride. Get out of my face dude! We had been planning on stopping here for lunch, but at this point we just want to get through the town and head down the road.
A view from the bridge over Rio Dulce
Most people stay in the city of Flores when traveling to Tikal. Flores is the location of the county seat for Tikal. It is a picturesque city located on a small island in Lago de Peten Itza. We chose to stay at the hotel La Casa de Don David ($38 dollars, breakfast included) on the shore of Lago de Peten Itza in El Remate. Another cruiser recommended it and El Remate is situated closer to Tikal than Flores. La Casa de Don David places us within 20 minutes of the park entrance.
View from our hotel room.
Another hotel of note is the Palomino Ranch Hotel. Although the most expensive rooms in town ($60 dollars), the hotel is also a horse breeding facility with a nightly show. Horseback riding can be included with your stay (just ask nicely). At the time of our visit, they were allowing the horses to graze around the lake shore in front of the ranch. Many of the horses had humerous names such as Coca-Cola. There were two colts, one born just two days ago.
May 6, 2009 We head out for Tikal after a quick breakfast at the hotel. A short ride and we approach the gate to the park. A ranger stops us and asks us if we would like a tour guide. The rangers seem to be pushing their own guides on us and it all seems a bit weird. We had heard that guides were available inside the park and we had already decided against using them. After several tries, the English speaking guide gives up on selling us his services ($20 for a 3 hour tour). We did however purchase the Tikal guide book that was recommended by our Central America guide book from him. He explained that it was for sale inside the park, but by purchasing it here, the profit would go directly to him and the rangers. We decided that since the park was getting our admission fee ($20), why not kick some money to the rangers. So we purchased the book and headed into the park. It was another 17 kilometers to the parking lot and they have a strict 45 kph speed law in the park to protect the animals. They give you a time stamp at the gate and then you must present it at the lot to park. Show up too early and you get fined. Now if you're typically accustomed to the mph standard, 45 kph is still like driving, but in reverse. It's pretty slow. However we get a break going in; our time stamp ticket was punched when we began talking to the ranger. By taking time to talk to the guide and then eventually purchasing the book, we can drive at a more normal speed into the park (watch out Bambi). We spend the next 5 ˝ hours exploring the park. We use the guide book to assist us, as well as listen in to the other guides as we pass by them. They seem to spend a lot of time talking about the edibility of the local plants, so we are really kicking ourselves for not hiring them. Just kidding, but when we did overhear them, they were repeating what we were reading in our guide book. Going guide free is not for everyone, but we enjoyed our visit more without one. Now a quick history lesson, then on to the pictures. Tikal (or Tik'al, according to the more current orthography) is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now modern-day northern Guatemala. Situated in the department of El Petén the site is part of Guatemala's TikalNational Park and in 1979 was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tikal was one of the major cultural and population centers of the Maya civilization. Though monumental architecture at the site dates to the 4th century BC, Tikal reached its apogee during the Classic Period, ca. 200 to 900 AD, during which time the site dominated the Maya region politically, economically, and militarily while interacting with areas throughout Mesoamerica, such as central Mexican center of Teotihuacan. There is also evidence that Tikal was even conquered by Teotihuacan in the 4th century. Following the end of the Late Classic Period, no new major monuments were built at Tikal and there is evidence that elite palaces were burned. These events were coupled with a gradual population decline, culminating with the site's abandonment by the end of the 10th century.
More pictures may be viewed at Jodie's Picassa site.
One thing to keep in mind when visiting Tikal is the this is a "restored" ruin site. Teams of archeologist and workers are rebuilding what they believe to be how the buildings and temples looked when they were originally constructed. There wouldn't be much to see without the restoration, just a pile of loose stones covered in vines. The areas that have been more recently restored can be identified by the white clay motor used to bind the rocks. An example of this is the "One of the Seven Temples" picture above. Crews were reconstructing the Seven Temples during our visit, only one being completed. Hence, a large portion of the Temple shown here has the white motor hue that will darken over time. Here's a bit of personal info: Jodie loves monkeys. This might be why she is so endeared to myself, but I digress. All day she has been looking and looking in the trees for any sign of wild monkeys. We could hear them in the distance and eventually we did spot some howler monkeys. Later we got a much closer look at a family of spider monkeys. Here is a short video of the howler monkey we spotted.
Some of the other friendly critters we encountered.
We depart Tikal in the early afternoon. We have decided to take a different route back to Guatemala City, through the central part of the country which will take us through the rainforest and many small villages. There are only two decent size towns along the route that receive any mention in our guide book. We hope to reach Coban and stop for the night. It will be impossible to make it all the way back to Guatemala City before dark.
After a long stretch of rolling countryside, we arrive at a river crossing with a ferry. We drive aboard and pay the crossing fee ($12 quezals, $1.50dls). Across the river is a town out of the Wild West. Roll up the windows and lock the doors kids, this town has bad vibes. Aside from the dusty streets, we can't quite put our finger on why this town gives us the creeps. It looked nice enough from the other side of the river. It's like the western movies when the stranger enters the saloon; you know there is going to be trouble. We quickly pass on though, following the flow of cars from the ferry, without any problems. There are no signs and no direct route out of town. We just keep ourselves attached to the rear bumper in front of us and make our way out.
The scenery begins to change from the rolling cattle country to the higher rain forests. Village after village pass by us as we travel southward. It is hard to describe the presence and feel of these villages. They are frozen in time. Young (3 year old) children are walking barefoot and without any supervision along the roadside paths. Women gather water at the central well, carrying the container home atop their heads (our chiropractor insists this is good for their neck and back muscles). There are a few men riding on horseback, carrying machetes. But mostly there are people walking from here to there, going about their daily routine. Nothing has seemed to have changed here since time immortal. Only the water containers are now made of plastic instead of clay. People are friendly and wave as we pass and we return the greetings. One must drive slowly through these villages for they have very tall speed bumps that scrape the bottom of our sedan even as we slow to a crawl to pass over them.
Most know that driving at night is much easier when following someone who knows the road. We get lucky here when an ultra small car leads the way through the night. I say ultra small because this car is way smaller than a compact. He is driving fast however, and it is all I can do to keep up with him as he snakes his way through the mountains. It is 8 p.m. now, quite dark and there are still people walking along the roadway. With no lights anywhere, we can't see where they might be heading or where they started from. Just random people from time to time appear out of the darkness. It is now that we begin to worry about possible bandits dragging a log across the road.
May 7, 2009 This morning we headed to the central plaza area in search of an ATM machine to replenish our quetzal funds and some breakfast. We find several ATM machines but they are designed to only work with local bank cards. We ask around and finally find a machine that will let us use our U.S. bank card. Having gotten money, we then stop for a quick breakfast. One staple of breakfast in Central America is the fried plantain or banana. It is served with most, if not all, breakfast dishes that we have eaten during our travels. I am quite a fan of the serving and its accompanying cream, but Jodie doesn't care for it and I happily remove the offending food from her plate. After breakfast we return to the hotel, checkout and head out of Coban. Today is primarily a travel day back to Guatemala City. We hope to pass through the city early enough to visit the colonial town of Antigua located to the west of Guatemala City. But we didn't exactly rush out this morning to leave, opting instead to enjoy our time over breakfast. So if we get to Guatemala City with enough time to continue on to Antigua, great. If not, we will find a hotel to spend the night and return the rental car before the 8 p.m. deadline.
The highway turns into a city street and we are forced to deal with stoplight traffic as we proceed to the west side of town. Street vendors, and by this I mean vendors actual walking in the street and selling their goods, stroll past as we sit in the traffic. We stop and eat lunch on the west side of town and by the time we are finished it's pretty close to 3 p.m. We decide the one hour trip to Antigua isn't going to happen and we should concentrate on getting a hotel room and turning the car in. So we change the plan to finding the Tica bus station (we didn't note the location when we arrived) and then locating the nearest hotel from there. We head back into town, having located the bus station from the address on our tickets. Here is where our nightmare begins. Guatemala highways are not designed like "normal" highways. IE: you don't leave the current route by staying to the right and getting off at the off-ramp. In Guatemala, the off-ramp maybe on the left or the right. Sometimes even the center lanes will suddenly drop and shoot you off in another direction. So you never know exactly which lane to be in at any given time to change freeways. You can't even be sure the lane you are in is going to keep you on the same freeway. In short, there is no safe lane. And that is what happened to us. Suddenly, without warning (signage is another Guatemalan issue), our lane dropped down at an interchange and we were taken north when we just wanted to continue east.
When we arrive at the address on the ticket, we find an empty building. It seems that they have moved but are still using the old ticket stubs. Oh yes, we are pissed. Mad, mad, mad. Not to mention that the rental car location is back the way we had just come. What can you do? Not everything is going to work out per plan or go your way. So we suck it up and head over to return the rental car. We arrive in short order (Guatemalan hint: head the opposite direction you want to be and you'll get there quicker!), and use the internet there to locate the actual Tica bus location. Here's a bit of irony; when we were "lost" and driving aimlessly around the city, we were literally two blocks away from the station at one point.
May 8, 2009 At 5 a.m. we wake to get ready to catch the bus at 6:15. We find a continental breakfast waiting for us in the dining room and we eat a fast meal. The taxi arrives on time at 5:45 for the 10 minute ride to the station. When we get in and drive away, the cabbie asks us if WE know where the station is. You're kidding, right? He says he knows about where it is and he can find it. Uh oh. Here we go. He seems to have us in the right area after a short ride and we start to relax. But then he starts having problems with the one-way roads, dead end streets, and center concrete dividers. At one point, he gets out and asks some locals where the station is and the conversation goes on way to long, with big sweeping gestures involving the hands and arms of all parties. Finally he gets back in and we head off in a direction. Without being sure, I think that we are going the right way. Then we spot the station across the road and yell at the driver to stop (he hadn't spotted it). We grab our bags and hurry across the four lanes of traffic on foot (traffic was light this early in the morning), not wanting to chance how long it would take him to find a road that would get us to the other side. When we enter the terminal, it is exactly 6:15. 5 minutes later we board the bus. 10 minutes after that, we depart the station heading "home". One disturbing part of the bus ride was the movies that were playing on the overhead screens. On the trip into Guatemala, it was all G and PG movies. The movie that was playing on the way back was the Notorious B.I.G. life story. Lots of nudity and sex scenes. I am no prude that is for sure, but there were three bona-fide catholic nuns on board for this trip. Sign of the cross. We arrive back in San Salvador after having been given a through examination at the border. Our passports raised a red flag because we had been in Mexico in the last month. Health officials wanted to know if we had any symptoms of the dreaded Swine Flu virus. Jodie had to fake it a bit here. The bus air conditioning system had caused her nose and throat to dry a bit, and she had a light cough and sneeze every now and then. I ended up doing most of the "talking" while Jodie did her best not to cough or sneeze. We signed some forms (who knows what they said) and the bus continued on its journey.
The bus was scheduled to arrive in San Salvador between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m., and we had made plans with Mauricio to pick us up around that time. We pull into the station early, around 9:30, and give Mauricio a call to let him know. He drops what he is doing and rushes over to pick us up. We then spend the afternoon doing some light shopping, which included picking up some new binoculars, and have lunch at his favorite restaurant. After lunch we head over to the bus station where we will catch a bus back to Bahia del Sol. As we approach the station, Mauricio drives past and just keeps on going; he won't stop despite our pleas. Turns out he never planned on letting us take the bus back, he was just humoring us. He really is too nice, giving up his whole day for us. Back on the boat everything is fine, especially Logan. The cat box worked marginally well, having "errored out" sometime during our absence. However, Logan was a trooper and kept using it. He did sit and watch as I cleaned it up and then as soon as I was finished he jumped in to use it. After taking care of Logan, getting the boat opened up and putting our groceries away, we toss our remaining travel bags into a pile in the salon and head into our bedroom to relax and give Logan some well deserved attention. We do nothing but relax for the next two days as we recover from our Guatemalan "vacation".
May 11-13, 2009 We've spent the last few days catching up on boat projects in the morning and lounging poolside during the afternoon. Several other cruisers anchored here are interested in traveling to Guatemala. Some want more private tours with a guide and some want to do what we did by bus and rental car. Either way, we pass on what we found during our trip.
May 14, 2009 Our dear friend Mauricio agreed yet again to play tour guide and take us on the "Ruta de las Flores" (the Route of Flowers). This scenic route passes through five El Salvadorian towns, each with their own unique character. We start by boarding an early bus to San Salvador, arriving at 9 a.m. Then we only had to wait 40 minutes for Mauricio (haha Mauricio!) to arrive and pick us up. He apologized 100 times for being late. We drove into the mountains north of San Salvador, slowly gaining elevation till the air began to cool a little. Our first destination was Nahuizalco, known for their hand made wicker furniture. We walked through town and its centro mercardo before stopping at one store to take a look around.
In addition to furniture, the store also had a nice selection of hats. I am a little interested in getting a Latin American woven hat. But every hat that I tried on was too small despite the owners' best attempts to find one that fit. She finally gave up and said that my head was too big. Not that the hats she had are too small, just my head is too big. So we, including my oversized head, left to the next town, Juayua. Juayua is best known for its weekend food fair that takes place in front of the church. At the church, the faithful worship the Black Christ. It is a cute town and after walking around a bit we stopped to eat lunch.
After lunch we continue on to Apaneca, where the highest grade of coffee in El Salvador is harvested. Apaneca is surrounded by vast coffee plantations and has billed itself as the most beautiful city in El Salvador. The scenery surrounding the city is beautiful with coffee plants and shade trees lining the hillsides. But the city itself needs a little work to live up to its own proclamation.
As we're driving around Apaneca, I ask Mauricio if there is a coffee plantation that offers tours. He quickly pulls over and asks a gentleman walking down the road. It turns out the only plantation that offers tours is back through Juayua, the town we've just come from. So back we go, and after stopping a few times to be sure we were headed in the right direction we find the Cafe Majada coffee plant in San Jose de la Majada. We got to take a tour of the plant despite the current policy against having them. The swine flu epidemic was in full terror mode and they had decided to stop tours temporarily. Mauricio explained that we were coffee lovers and simply loved their Oro brand coffee after tasting it here in El Salvador. And since we were Americans, it would be good for their export business to allow us a tour. We could then return to the states and have a wonderful Oro coffee story to tell all our rich American friends. Mauricio laid it on thick but it got us what we wanted. The coffee is hand picked and then the beans are sorted into grades. There are three grades of coffee beans. The very best beans are actually exported to Europe and the States and are not sold in the country. These are the largest in size, perfect in form and classified as bourbon gourmet beans. Next comes the gourmet selection grade. These are whole beans that are perfectly formed and sold to finer restaurants around the world. Lastly are the standard grade beans. These tend to be smaller and not perfectly formed beans. These are the beans that you find in the major grocery stores throughout El Salvador. There is one final category, if not class of bean. This is the 60/40 mix whereas 60 percent of the bag is standard beans and 40 percent is green or non-ripe beans. These unripe beans get picked during final harvest. The 60/40 bags are sold to locals at small tienda's and is served at greasy spoon restaurants and truck stops nationwide. Yum. There are three female workers processing the beans during our tour. They roast 150 lbs of beans per batch in the roasters. Then they package the coffee and place them in boxes for shipping. They repeat this process throughout the day, processing 1500 lbs of coffee. The smell inside the plant was incredibly good, if you enjoy coffee that is. We were able to purchase the gourmet grade coffee at the site for 4 dollars a pound. These bags were labeled "For export only", so some New York socialites will have to go without a cup after dinner next week.
We then retuned to Apaneca, where we stopped at the Santa Leticia coffee plantation. Santa Leticia, unlike Cafe Majada, is a small plantation that only produces gourmet coffee beans. They have constructed a small hotel on-site and have a beautiful log restaurant. We stopped for a cafe and dessert and soaked up the ambiance. Flowers bloom all around the building and it is an extremely tranquil environment. Also located on the plantation grounds are three large stone sculptures that weigh 7 to 12 tons each and date back 2,600 years.
Mauricio is a bit sneaky here as he secretly purchases two pounds of bourbon gourmet coffee and then presents them to us as a gift (just one of the many gifts he gave us during our visits). We are going to be a bit spoiled from all the fine coffee we have now. Will we ever be able to go back to drinking Costco coffee? Our last stop is Concepcion de Ataco or simply Ataco. As we near the town we notice that the power poles have been painted with flowers and animals motifs.
The town itself is set in a small valley and, once again, quite picturesque. We stop and pass through one of the artesian shops, this one filled with paintings, woven clothing and wood carvings. Really something for everyone here.
Ataca was one of the nicest towns on the Route of Flowers. Most notably, the absence of litter was striking in comparison to most of El Salvador.
Since we were on the route of flowers, we thougt it would be appropriate to include some flower pics...
It was getting quite late so we decided to head back to San Salvador. On our way back, we stopped in Nahuizalco, our first stop that morning. While I had been trying hats on, Mauricio had spotted a small wooden cart and after thinking about it all afternoon decided he would like to have it. We arrived at the store just as she was closing for the day and we had to move a bit of furniture around to get his cart out of the shop.
With the cart settled in the backseat we return to San Salvador. Mauricio kindly offered to let us stay at his place again. After a quick dinner we head back to Mauricos and crash for the night. In the morning we head out to do some final provisioning at PriceSmart, the El Salvador equivalent of Costco. Then back to Bahia del Sol loaded with goodies, wondering if we are going to be able to find a place to fit everything. Mostly we purchase heavy canned goods and soda. Soda tends to be difficult to purchase for it is normally sold by the individual can in stores. Rarely will you find a six pack and 12 packs just don't exist. So we buy a couple plats of soda to stock up. We give Mauricio a tour of Savannah (it took this long for him to get the nerve up to travel by dinghy to the boat, he is not a water person), and then treat him to lunch at the hotel. He was such a tremendous help to us during our stay and I know we would not have enjoyed El Salvador so much without all his help and assistance. We hope someday to see him again so we can begin to repay him for all his selflessness that he has shown us. Thank you Mauricio for everything!!
May 16-18
We also head over to Scream for dinner and drinks one night. Scream is a 44' custom double ender cutter that Steven and Darusha have sailed down from Canada. Their plans mirror ours; to sail in Central and South America for the next 10 months or so and then head across the South Pacific. It is nice to meet another younger couple going slow as we are trying to do. Up to this point, everyone we've met was heading to the South Pacific this season. Steven and Darusha are vegetarians, except when their not. And tonight they made an exception for us. Not only that, they broke out some real Johnsonville sausage and whipped up some jambalaya for dinner. My kind of vegetarians for sure. Wait it gets better. They have a Wii onboard. If you don't know what a Wii is, then there is no help for you, your done. We play Guitar hero for a couple of hours and then call it a night.
May 19, 2009 Today we were going to leave, but we didn't. We had been telling everyone that today was the day. Well, maybe not. We plan to stay another week. At least that is what we are going to tell everyone when they ask us why we are still here.
Then we find out that they don't know exactly how to get there. We ask if they would like to come with us since it's their first time there, they accept and quickly jump in our dinghy. We travel up the estuary the 4.5 miles to La Herradura and when we arrive I realize that I forgot my sandals. How could this have happened, you ask? Well I haven't worn socks in a year. Couple that with the fact that I don't really need sandals to walk from the dinghy dock to the pool. So you can see how I might have forgotten a small thing like footwear. Yes? No? O.K. I can admit it, I'm an idiot who forgot his shoes. We walk into town and show Steven and Durusha the hidden bakery and the mercardo. It's about a half a mile away from where we landed the dinghy and my feet are shot. The hot asphalt and just walking without sandals have done their damage. In the mercardo there just happens to be a guy who has some sandals for sale. They are even my size (12) which itself is amazing. Even the largest shoe store inventories down here don't usually go up to my shoe size. So me and my raw and damaged feet find a pair of sandals. So what do we do? Haggle. "Five dollars? I'm not paying five. How about four?" No, five. "No thanks", and I walk away doing my damnedest not to visibly limp. He gives in and I get them for four. The sandals help, but the damage is already done and I spend the day limping around. I get no sympathy from Jodie. She has been scolding me for not wearing shoes lately and figures this is sweet justice for me blowing her off.
May 20-31 We are in full cruise control mode now. The afternoons by the pool. The one dollar beers. Maybe play some card games on pizza night. Watch the basketball playoffs in Spanish on ESPN and TNT. It is so darn comfortable here. Why not stay another, then another, then another week? It's like the Eagles' Hotel California. This is bad, really bad. We decide it is time to go for real. We do a final provision run to Zacate. Have the Hotel wash our towels (they are soo stiff if we wash and dry them onboard). Top off the fuel tanks and fill the tanks on the rail. We say our goodbyes to everyone remaining and head out at high slack tide on the 31st. We cross the bar after spending six weeks at Bahia del Sol. This ties La Cruz for the longest stop on our voyage. El Salvador was a great time including our trip to Guatemala and all the time we spent with Mauricio. The country itself has a ways to go, still healing from the civil war just 13 years ago. But the people are exceptional. We head off shore to find some wind and at around the five mile mark, we see a foam line stretching in both directions away from us. It is the tide line for the estuary. Water flows back and forth during the tides and there is a distinctive line that has the dense sedimentary estuary water on one side and the clean blue ocean water on the other. Crossing that line is where we feel is the true exit point from the estuary. It is here, in the clear, clean ocean water that we feel free.
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We
are traveling light and catch the 193 chicken bus in front of the hotel
to La Arcos, where we will catch a second chicken bus to San
Salvador. Once we make it to San Salvador, we plan to catch the
1:00 p.m. Tica bus (considered a first class bus and is basically the
same as a Greyhound bus) to Guatemala City. It takes a bit of
time to get to La Arcos (the overpass in this case) due to the frequent
stops to pick up passengers heading to work. When we reach La
Arcos, we and few others get off at the stop. Following the group
(they must know where to go, right?), we head up a dirt path and reach
the overpass road that leads to San Salvador. It is our
understanding that every bus that travels along this route is heading
to San Salvador. When we board the bus we ask the driver and when
we take a seat we ask another passenger just to make sure.
We
drive for several hours, finally making our way back to the main
highway. We are now 30 miles to the east of Guatemala City and
the traffic has turned into a steady stream heading back into the
city. During the next hour and a half we are witness to some of
the finest driving ever performed by eighteen wheelers. These
guys pass around blind turns, use the right shoulders and generally
take the entire roadway to make their way past other semis. We
survive the trip and re-enter Guatemala City at 1 p.m. 
Things
get better for us as the attendant sets us up with an affordable bed
and breakfast hostel, the NovoHostal. He gives us a lift saving
us the cab fare, and when we arrive we find out that the hostel has
already arranged for a cab for us in the morning to the Tica bus
station, on them. We check in and then make our way to a private
activity/fitness club which the NovoHostal is a member. The
hostel guests have been granted reciprocal rights to the club during
their stay. That is all well and good, we are just glad it's an
easy one block walk to eat a nice dinner.
We
completed another boat project, this one being some sunbrella hatch
cowls to cover our salon hatches. I designed the cowls to
increase the air flow into the cabin, while also providing some
protection from the rain showers that have started coming almost daily.
