Originally we had planned to leave the boat in Barillas at the end of an extensive river estuary in El Salvador while we returned to the US to work for the winter, but we were enjoying Bahia del Sol so much that we were waffling on those plans. We did sail the 35 miles south to spend Christmas in Barillas in the company of a half dozen boats that we had met at various stops on our cruise south, and we all enjoyed a pot luck Xmas dinner in the jungle, but finally we decided to return to Bahia del Sol. We will spend some time traveling in El Salvador and Guatamala before we put the boat to bed for the winter. In El Salvador December to April is referred to as summer even though we are still in the northern hemisphere. The rainy season from May to September is referred to as winter.
While in Barillas we got to visit the town of Usulutan which was a 45 minute bus ride on unpaved roads to a fairly large town with an outdoor market that seemed to specialize in “Chicken in a Basket”. Apparently with little refrigeration available the best way to insure fresh chicken is to buy it live and squawking. As many as twenty chickens and turkeys were stuffed into large baskets with nets over the top and displayed for sale at the market. The old ladies were happy to grab a chicken by the feet and pick through the feathers to show you the plumpest parts of the poor fowl. Pick your favorite and take it home for either dinner or as a new pet.
We returned to Bahia Del Sol shortly after Christmas and then left the boat for a week of travel by bus through El Salvador , Guatamala and Honduras . I should mention that both El Salvador and Guatamala were the sites of civil wars as late as 1997 and there are many, many guns in evidence. Here at the “most exclusive resort in El Salvador ” there are armed guards at all of the gates and armed security (shotguns or automatic weapons) wandering the fenced in grounds. In the city of San Salvador EVERY modern business had armed security at the doors (read Burger King, Radio Shack, Goodyear, Ace Hardware, all restaurants, hotels, bus stations, etc.) and it is considered part of the price of doing business. With that said we have seen absolutely no evidence of crime of any kind while we have been traveling, but we do get lots of warnings in the travel guides.
We rode to San Salvador in the back of a pickup truck and spent a day exploring the city on foot and visiting the anthropology museum to get some history of the country. This is a very poor country (about the size of Maryland ) and approximately 1/3 of all Salvadorans live in the US . Fully 30% of the Gross Domestic Product is money sent back from the US to relatives in El Salvador . We see dugout canoes fishing with nets along the river and we can hire someone to work on the boat for as little as $1 per hour.
From San Salvador we caught the $15 TICA bus for the 5 hour ride across the border to Guatemala City , and then we shared a cab for another 15 mile ride to the town of Antigua , Guatemala . Antigua is the old capital of Guatemala , and they have preserved much of the colonial village with cobblestone streets, buildings opening directly onto sidewalks, a beautiful parque centrale, and the ruins of many of the 38 churches that existed when Antigua was the capital.
I am including a picture of the McDonalds in Antigua because we thought that this has to be the prettiest McDonalds in the world and it reflected the ambience of the town. No golden arches here, just a small plaque on the wall, a rustic door, and inside a tiled restaurant (that I would have loved to own as a bar/restaurant) with an open courtyard for relaxing. The picture is the courtyard with Ron McD lounging peacefully.
Antigua is a destination for all of the tourists in Guatamala and caters to the backpackers, hikers, and volcano climbers from all over the world. Antigua is also filled with many artisans markets featuring homemade Guatemalan goods. It is almost impossible to describe the vivid rainbow of colors involved in these markets as the vendors display woven goods (tablecloths, scarves, shirts, dresses), ceramics, leather goods, wood products, etc. Most of the women were of Mayan descent and dressed in the traditional colorful wraps of the country. Bargaining was de rigeur and original asking prices dropped as much as 50% just for saying “no, gracias” to any offer.
We arrived in Antigua on New Year’s Eve, and it was appropriately crowded with young international travelers and Guatemalans out for the holiday. After exploring the town for most of the afternoon and into the evening we found a beautiful restaurant with a Latin American house band (La Pena de Sol Latino) and enjoyed one of the truly romantic dinners of our entire trip. We wandered through the streets waiting for the New Year’s celebration, and as we gathered near Los Arcos (overhead nun’s walk from cloister to church) we were reminded of the crowds gathering at Times Square with little room to walk, lots of gaiety, restaurants emptying into the streets, random fireworks, etc. At midnight a “2009” lit up in bright fireworks above the arches and then fireworks exploded all around us illuminating the skies with color. On the ground two enterprising celebrants had strapped on their backs large quantities of fireworks on a wooden frame and were dancing along shooting rockets into the air (and walls, and crowds, and trees). Fireworks continued for another hour over all parts of the town and there was even a boisterous (and well organized) explosion of firecrackers and noon the following day. A great New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Bienvenidos 2009!!
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