Panama Here We Come… Soon

In case you missed the news we are off again for another 60 day sailing adventure. With any luck we will make the sail from Golfito, Costa Rica to Panama City, transit the Panama Canal, and get to spend some time in the San Blas Islands of Panama before we head home in January. Once again I will try to entertain you and maybe educate you about Latin America with some highlights of our trip. As always…. if you find our vacation boring feel free to hit the “Drop me from your e-mail list” button on your computer.

To get back to Golfito we were facing a long flight from CA to Costa Rica and then an eight hour bus ride through the mountains. Andrea, however, found us a $12 flight from San Jose, CR to Golfito. That’s right, $12. Skeptic that I am I had some serious doubts about the reliability of a $12 flight, but that’s cheap, could be an adventure, the pilot wouldn’t go with you if it wasn’t safe, so why not? Is this a second hand airplane? Do they save money on maintenance? Do they pack the plane with a little too much weight? Is it a scam? What are we getting into here?

First problem was that the cabbie at Alajeula airport in San Jose did not know where the airport was for the puddle jumper flight so we spent a few chaotic moments yelling in English at a Costa Rican who spoke about as much English as a sheepdog. He kept taking us back to the Alajuela airport which we knew was wrong, but we couldn’t explain where right was. He couldn’t read a map or the directions we had so there was quite a bit of “incomprehensible yelling” before we finally headed off in the right direction. When we did find the airplane we had to climb on a scale along with our luggage to see if we were light enough to fly. Fortunately I had been watching my weight all summer and we passed. Then we waited in line with several other thin people next to a sign that said “Wait here for Pilot”. Duh! We weren’t going to go anywhere without him, but it was reassuring to know that he was willing to go along with us. Actually the sign said “Favor espere por el piloto” which I had quickly mis-translated as “Please “hope” for the pilot… which I did.

 

 

The flight itself was anticlimactic. The very small plane got us off the ground with only a little hesitation and we were off to Golfito. Other than a runway full of dogs nipping at the wheels as we took off this was just like flying any of the big airlines, and the very slow speed landing was… different. The dogs might not have had to run to catch the plane when it landed.

The boat had survived the “green season” very nicely, thank you. Our friend Caesar had aired it regularly (after each rainfall) all summer and only faintest traces of mold/mildew were discernible. I will state flat out that “it rains a whole lot in paradise”. Someone in the Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce came up with a fantastic idea of renaming one of Costa Rica’s two seasons as the “green season”. Dry season and green season.  No bad seasons. It is green season now with no signs of letting  up. During the parts of the green season that we have seen the days start out hot and humid building towards the torrential rainfalls that start everyday at 3 PM and last sometimes all night. Buckets of rain. More rain than I have seen anyplace or anytime in my life. Likely more rain than Noah saw, although he started in a desert so it might have seemed like more to him. Green season, very clever, the touristicas will never figure it out. Put one over on them we did.

What caused us to stay in Golfito for the summer (rather than sailing to Panama last June) was a faulty transmission for which I needed a part that had apparently fallen overboard while I wasn’t looking. Armed with a new part obtained at home we were confident that it would take us just a day or so to be on our way south. Okay, maybe a few days. But no sooner had we fixed the starboard (right) engine that we developed a carburetor leak in the port (left) engine. Since we were fixing that leak anyway we decided to open up the fully operational starboard engine carburetor “just in case”. It seems that this now caused the good engine (starboard) to start leaking too. Worse… What could be worse you say?... since we only had one gasket we could only repair one engine. Yes, our one day, then a few days, is now one week. But at least it’s paradise. Pass the umbrella, Andrea.

Golfito Blues

We motored down river in Puntarenas at 7 AM to take advantage of the high tide in the estuary and sailed out into the Gulf of Nicoya . No sooner had we cleared the channel than the dark clouds of a rain squall started to form in front of us. Although we tracked the main squall on radar as passing a half mile north of us we still got drenched in a massive downpour.  The only saving grace was that the rain water was warm. This was as much rain as I had ever seen and visibility was absolutely nil. This squall passed in less than a half hour, and it was suddenly warm and humid for our sailing day. This was a pattern that we would see over and over again for the next two weeks as we entered the Costa Rican rainy season on Costa Rica’s wettest coast.  

We had planned a series of day sails along the coast between the Gulf of Nicoya and the Golfo Dulce (about 200 miles) that would allow us be at anchor each evening during the daily rain and lightning shows that began shortly before dusk.  Most of the anchorages were pretty little bays surrounded by steep hills and lush tropical jungles, and frequently we could hear the howler monkeys at night. Even though the lightning lit up the skies we felt much more comfortable with some hills nearby than we would have at sea with only our mast (read ”giant lightning rod”) poking up from the sea. The strategy worked as we bobbed peaceful and dry during the storms.

We finally reached Golfito which is only 30 miles from the Panama border.  We had planned a short stay in Golfito which is a cruiser friendly town with good supplies, entertainment, and a well protected bay sheltered from the wind and swells. This was also the first stop since El Salvador where we found multiple cruisers in the anchorage so we finally had a chance to swap stories about our travels and our plans. We heard that there are fewer than 30 boats cruising the coast of southern Latin America this spring, and in most of our anchorages we have been the only boat. 

 

Unfortunately our short stay in Golfito will now be an extended one. Once again a motor is the culprit.  A rather necessary part had apparently vibrated loose from one of our motors.  The missing part prevented the motor from shifting out of reverse, and no replacement was readily available. We could have had the part custom machined or we could have tried to get it shipped from San Jose or the states, but we have decided to leave the boat in Costa Rica for the summer (short of our planned goal of Panama) and bring the part back with us when we resume sailing next fall. To be honest… weather did play a part in this decision because the entire coast of Costa Rica has been HOT and HUMID!

 

Golfito did provide some entertainment however.  We took the death defying ferries to and from Puerto Jiminez on the Osa Peninsula across the Golfo Dulce.  We took the “fast ferry” over in the morning.  Although not the hover craft you normally associate with “fast ferry”, the monster 300 hp Suzuki outboards on a 30 foot open boat really did mean fast. I think when the boat was on plane only the propellers actually touched the water anyway. For the return trip we opted for the “slow ferry”.  The only difference was a smaller boat (with more passengers) that would have had water flowing over the gunnels if not for two more outlandishly big outboard motors that lifted us well clear of the water. Thank god for smooth water because this was not a stable setup, but it was a lot of fun. We also spent an evening in Golfito at a local bar that featured an all girl band called the “Tipsy Chicks”.  The highlight song was “Tequila Makes My Clothes Fall Off” if you were wondering about their musical talents. They were actually pretty good and are rumored to be very popular in Europe .

 

Our final trip of the trip (for this spring) was a seven hour bus ride (Costa Rican buses are worlds apart from the rolling wrecks they use for local buses in Mexico, Guatamala and El Salvador) from Golfito to San Jose where we rented a car to kill three days before our flight home.  We visited a coffee plantation and got a tour very much like visiting a winery (complete with instructions on how to taste test coffee), and we drove to some of the anchorages along the coast that had taken so long to reach under sail and that we had enjoyed so much. It was life from the other side of the tracks so to speak. Since it was a rental car we also drove the 30 mile dirt road from Manuel Antonio Park to the surf town of Domincal . I have been on worse roads in my life, but I have never been on a worse road for that long. The 30 mile trip took well over two hours. I was reminded again that although Costa Rica boasts the highest standard of living in Latin America , that standard is none too high.  At the very least I think any country boasting about its standard of living should be required to have toilet seats on all the toilets. Call me picky. Throw in the rampant theft problems (none of which we saw or experienced personally) that make razor wire as common as picket fences and you have something less than a “high standard”. Yep, we are very spoiled in the US , and we don’t always appreciate how much.

As usual I write this final e-mail from a small seat on a large plane.  We are headed home, tanned, happy, and sorry that the trip is ending. The heat was a drawback and the rain was a nuisance, but visiting El Salvador , Nicaragua and Costa Rica over the last six weeks has been awesome.  We are already looking forward to Panama and probably Colombia late next fall.

Costa Rican Cruisers

 

We finally said goodbye to everyone at Bahia Del Sol, headed down river at 6 AM and across the bar with a pilot boat leading the way. We were moving along nicely about 2 hours later in very calm waters running just one engine when the engine coughed, sputtered, and quit. It was our own fault because I had just mentioned how well the motor sounded. We sailed south for two more hours trying to decide what to do and finally decided that the best idea was to turn around, catch the bar at Bahia at high tide again and get the motor fixed before we entered the wilderness known as Nicaragua .

We crossed the bar back at Bahia Del Sol again at 5 PM after a beautiful day of sailing (but not getting anywhere) and the faulty engine fired right up. With not enough caution I took this as a good sign, but as we tried to approach the dock in a very strong current the engine suddenly quit again leaving the boat with little control on one engine and in fast water. We barely missed hitting several very expensive boats before slamming into the dock. Luckily we came to a dead halt when we hit and several friends grabbed the boat and hauled her in. We thought we had put a hole in her, but the damage turned out to be mostly cosmetic (scratches, small dent, and lots of creosote). This was the worst landing of my life and the scariest. Rule #1 in boating… “Don’t hit the other guy’s boat”, and we narrowly missed hitting several.

The next morning we got a repair guy aboard and cleaned our carburetors thoroughly. The winter storage may have allowed a varnish buildup in the carbs as the gas dried and evaporated. That varnish (or just dirt) was blocking the small gas tubes. With both engines running we made plans to head out again just 48 hours after our first departure.

 

We had a 24 hour sail to Puesta Del Sol , Nicaragua where we checked into the country. Puesta is a remote location, over an hour by bus to a town, and we were limited to exploring on foot and walking the beaches. The huts and homes surrounding the marina were the poorest living conditions that we had encountered in our travels and it reminded us that Nicaragua is the second or third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere . It looked like a terrible way to live, but everyone was smiling and waving as we walked along the dirt paths that pass for streets.

 
A second 24 hour sail brought us to the town of San Juan Del Sur , Nicaragua . The anchorage was a beautiful broad bay with white sand beaches. We spent our first afternoon aboard because of the heavy swells and winds in the anchorage, but the next morning we headed for shore for a pleasant day exploring this legendary surf town.

The town was full of young Canadians and Americans who use Nicaragua as an inexpensive base for exploring Central America by bus. Hotel rooms ran about $15 and beers, while more expensive than some places, cost about a dollar. We have a tax client/friend living here who showed us around town and then treated us to cocktails at a beautiful sunset bar on the beach. Justin also warned us to be back on the boat before dark to avoid the possibility of petty theft while we were ashore. He keeps his own small boat in the anchorage for charter use, and he pays someone to sleep on the boat each night. He said the locals know the thieves, but in Nicaragua the attitude is “I don’t have much, he doesn’t have much, so why make trouble?” so the stealing just goes on. We have been warned that this is a continuing problem in all of Latin America , but nowhere more than Nicaragua and Costa Rica .

 
Nicaragua is a short coastline on the Pacific side so Costa Rica was our next destination. We had picked a remote, almost landlocked anchorage (Bahia St Elena, Lat 10 55, Lon 85 48) for our first stop that was less than 5 hours from Nicaragua . We got hit with big winds on the beam so the trip turned into a 3 hour fast sail, and we were thankful that we could sail right into an anchorage that was so well protected. Only one other boat occupied the bay that was at least a mile and a half deep and a mile wide. That afternoon and evening we got drenched with our first real rainstorm of the season… buckets of rain washing the salt and dirt from our decks.

Another heavy weather sail around an exposed Punta and we arrived in Bahia Culebra , Costa Rica. Snake Bay. This beautiful small bay had at least 6 good sand beaches to anchor and lots of clear, turquoise water. Anchoring is complicated a little by the changing wind directions. We try to guess where the wind will come from in the evening and then choose a leeward anchorage that will allow the islands or beaches to block the wind. Unfortunately this is a little like building a snow fort as a kid. You build a crude wall of snow waiting for a frontal attack and when you are all ready… WHAP! Someone hits you in the back of the head with a snowball. Wind shift. We did spend three nights in Culebra (well protected in our snow fort) and one night ashore in Playa del Cocos where we explored bars and restaurants.

 

The Gulf of Nicoya was now 120 miles south and one more overnight sail away. We had a memorable hour near Tamarindo where the winds went from calm to 30kts in less than 5 minutes and then almost exactly 60 minutes later dropped back to dead calm. We sailed the hour blow with a triple reef on the main, a reefed jib, and we still saw boat speeds of 11–13 kts. Mr Toad’s wild ride while it was happening followed by a “where did that come from?” when the winds suddenly died.

We are currently sitting at the Costa Rica Yacht Club in Puntarenas , Costa Rica. It is quiet here with only two visiting boats in the anchorage. We have been enjoying pool privileges, some nice dinners, and even intermittent internet access. The weather for all of this trip has been incredibly hot and now the humidity is rising. The steaming temperatures fall slightly with the afternoon rains, but overall this is a very warm place to be in May.

We have one more destination in Costa Rica and several anchorages planned along the way. We will pass close to Isla Del Cano which is reputed to be the place most frequently struck by lightning in all of Latin America . We have already seen some spectacular nighttime lightning storms (none too close) that produce almost continuous daylight in the distance. We do have our fingers crossed.

Southbound Again

Hola!

We flew back to El Salvador last week landing in San Salvador at 7 AM after an overnighter from San Francisco . Our plans are to spend the next two months sailing along the coasts of El Salvador , Nicaragua , and Costa Rica and into Panama . El Salvador and Nicaragua are uninviting coasts with few shelters, but Costa Rica is supposed to be very nice and Panama is rumored to be a cruising paradise. Our insurance company does not want us visiting Nicaragua anyway. If all goes well we will leave the boat on the Pacific side of the canal in late June and return next October for a canal transit. June through September are the rainy months down here so we’ll try to avoid them.

El Salvador customs was easy and we realized we should have smuggled many more boat items into the country while we had the chance. We got a rental car for two days to help us move our gear and do some shopping for supplies before we headed to the boat.

We rented the car entirely in Spanish which is a good trick for two people who don’t speak Spanish (just sign here, contract in Spanish, gracias), but the rental was a lot easier than the job of returning the car. The El Salvadorans do everything a little differently. The airline terminal here is an international terminal (probably because there are no other airports in El Salvador ) and NO ONE is allowed inside without a ticket. When we arrived everybody meeting the planes (friends, limos, cabs, etc) was required to wait outside the terminal. However the car rental desk was inside the terminal. Two days later we try to return the car we see the problem. The car rental return is inside the terminal, but we can’t go inside the terminal. At this point Budget has an employee inside the terminal handing papers to an employee outside the terminal past the security guards at the door so we can pay our bill. Very amusing. Fun also was the bus trip back to the marina. The trip took a little longer than anticipated because we had to catch three different buses. I kept asking (in my not too good Spanish) when the bus would arrive. Always the answer is “ten minutes, ten minutes”. Always. Only later did I realize that I am probably the only person in the entire country wearing a watch. The buses were not there in “ten minutes”. Tempus does not fugit in Latin America .

The boat survived the winter very well tied to a mooring in the river, and everything seems to work. Our only mishap was the discovery that a colony of bats had taken up residence in our sails over the winter. We didn’t actually see any bats, but the quantity of bat guano was sufficient evidence. At first we thought we had mice, but there was no evidence of mice below decks or in the lockers, and of course we were out in the middle of a river. One of the other cruisers thought that they had very small mice here that were capable of walking on water (Jesus mice?) but I was skeptical. Then we found that bats are common, and we are not the first sailors with this problem. Fortunately bats do not eat sails as the mice would have, and we are none the worse for the wear.

It is still hot here (surprise?) but the humidity is reasonable. Sleeping is a little uncomfortable, and we do little work in the middle of the day. I have reached some compromises with Andrea regarding the quantities of beer necessary to stay hydrated in this heat. We crossed a major threshold when she noted that beer was probably better for me than Coca Cola anyway J. Then shortly into a day that started at 5 AM with me hauling Andrea up the mast early (before the sun and breezes made the trip uncomfortable) and lugging 50 gallons of drinking water to the boat plus 40 gallons of fuel, she suggested that we had earned a cold beer for all our work. I agreed wholeheartedly, grabbed two beers, and quickly drank mine before I pointed out that it was only 9 AM . Breakfast beer and my wife had suggested it. No wonder I love her!!

It has taken us several days to get everything put back together, and now we are waiting patiently for the huge surf at the river entrance to calm down enough to let us get out of the river and back into the ocean. We’ve got a good boat but it can’t handle the 20 foot rollers (remnants of a storm in New Zealand ?) that have been out there the past few days. We are not the only ones waiting. There are at least a dozen other boats here so we spend time talking about plans and enjoying the marina hospitality. The river is pretty and peaceful, especially with the boats floating at anchor and the stunning sunsets, while the surf pounds the beaches on the outside. The next leg of the trip will probably take us 3 to 4 days of offshore sailing to reach Costa Rica so we are resting, preparing and waiting. We expect to be able to cross the bar on Wednesday morning (April 29).

TACA Rocks

We are home. When last seen the boat was floating peacefully on a mooring in a river in El Salvador. Hopefully it will be in the same place, safe and sound, when we go back next Spring to continue our southbound trip.

We got a great flight back from El Salvador on TACA airlines. TACA still serves free cocktails and dinner to all of its passengers, has good size seats in the economy section, and they apparently give extra points for being good looking when they hire the stewards and stewardesses. Just the way it used to be.

For now it is cold weather (actually it is 75 degrees and sunny here so not too cold), taxes, golf, and old friends for the winter months. Sounds good to us.

We had a specatacular time over the past three months sailing from Puerto Vallarta, along the southern coast of Mexico, through Guatemala and into El Salvador. We got to anchor, swim and snorkel on exotic beaches and in remote anchorages, we played with dolphins, we caught fresh tuna, we made quantities of boat drinks, we sampled at least 20 different brands of Mexican, Guatemalan, Salvadoran, and Honduran beers, we spent dollars, pesos, quetzales, and lempiras on our trip, we hung out with sailors from all over the world (though mostly Canadians and Americans), we read a LOT of books, we got tan (and a little thinner, I think), we took wild bus rides, we shopped strange marketplaces, we ate pupusas and tacos and fajitas and ceviche, and we generally "cruised". The current definition of "cruising" is "making boat repairs in exotic locations". Yep, done that. Done a lot of that. But very best of all.... we think that the best sailing and the best beaches and the best adventures are still ahead of us, and we will be back on the boat in May to find out.

Never Leave the Boat

I’ve thrown a lot of stuff into this e-mail, but the past weeks have had some strange and entertaining glimpses of Central America . Hopefully you will be entertained also.

We are still traveling by bus through Central America . The visa we received when we arrived in El Salvador covers the four original Central American countries of El Salvador , Guatemala , Honduras and Nicaragua . Belize was a British territory and Panama was a part of Columbia so they were termed Central America at a later date. We will sail on to Nicaragua next spring and Belize will have to wait until we sail north from the Canal on the Caribbean side. This venture is taking us from Guatemala to Honduras to visit the large Mayan ruins at Copan . It is a long trip to Copan , but we figured if there are going to be ancient ruins anywhere they are going to be a little off the beaten path.

Almost all of the shuttle buses leave Antigua , Guatemala for the 5 hour trip to Copan , Honduras at 4 AM . Too early for Andrea who dug her heels in and insisted there must be a better schedule. So we shopped all of the travel services in town until we found a 1 PM bus. Even better… the bus was ½ the price of the other shuttles. Is that great? A promotion they said. And what do we all know about “if it seems too good to be true?”

We ended up in a beater van set up for 15 passengers (which is all we had if you didn’t need a driver, which we did), top speed 40 mph, and which finally left Antigua at 3PM (but not before all 15 passengers PLUS the driver PLUS the travel agent crammed into the van for a ride to the gas station and then right back to the office. Seems the travel agent had to load us in before she could collect the money for the gas and then she had to go with us rather than giving the money to the driver). 16 people in a van for a 5 hour trip is a very tight squeeze. Our scheduled arrival in Copan was 6 PM . We pulled in around 9:30 .

Along the way we had plenty of uncomfortable time to reflect on our choice of transportation. I was reminded of the gunner on the Mekong River gunboat in the movie "Apocalypse Now" who ventured into the jungle, got spooked by a noise, shot up the trees as he sprinted back to the boat, and then uttered the classic line “never leave the boat”.

But, no, that doesn’t tell it all. We had a reservation at a Copan hotel. We don’t usually travel with reservations, but we knew our arrival would be after dark and we were traveling during the holidays. Why not plan ahead. Of course when we were 3 hours late the hotel gave up the room. No, no other rooms available. No, all the other hotels are full. No, you should have taken the 4 AM van like everyone else.

We did find a friendly Honduran who said he knew of an inexpensive room. So we followed him out into the night, along the cobblestone streets, past the cobblestone streets, up the dirt streets and over the hill to the edge of town where he knocked on a small door set in a single story concrete wall. Inside was a very crude home of grey concrete. We walked past the living room, through the kitchen and out the back door to find four concrete rooms for rent. On the plus side the rooms were nicely decorated, had soft beds and clean bathrooms and suicide showers. By now it was 11 PM so we breathed a sigh of relief and shut the door.

The Copan ruins were worth (almost) all of the hassle. We saw the ancient Mayan temples, royal ball courts, houses and statues built by a society that occupied the Copan valley for over 2000 years and then disappeared in the 12th century leaving no clues as to why they would abandon a populous village or where they went. Three hundred years later the Spaniards wandered by and noted the works of an advanced civilization lost in the jungle, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that a real exploration began. Some of the most remarkable structures have only been uncovered in the past 30 years as they uncover layer upon layer of building. Each new royal family would simply build on top of the previous structures creating pyramids in the jungles that are now being uncovered from the top down or explored through deep tunnels.

We also had one of our more memorable meals in Copan , memorable because of the waitresses. We found a pleasant bar with a restaurant specializing in meats cooked over open fires. We ordered a couple of beers and were trying to work our way through the menu when the waitress reappeared with my beer on her head. Through the course of the evening we watched as all of the beverages were served with at least one glass balanced on someone’s head. Milkshakes, juices, beers, margaritas, even appetizers were transported throughout the room and up the stairs with perfect balance. No trays, no special head gear, just bottles and glasses picked off the bar and placed topside center. Nothing was spilled. The waitresses might carry four or five drinks for a large table, but always at least one drink for each table moved across the room at a higher level. Amazing balance and very entertaining.

We took a much more pleasant van (which we shared with three goofy ladies from Great Britain ) for another 5 hour trip out of Honduras , through Guatemala and back to San Salvador . From there we needed to catch a local bus back to the boat so we headed over to the dirt field referred to in San Salvador as “the bus terminal”. Now I know I have told some bus stories over the past two years, but I have not yet referred to the buses as “chicken buses”. No matter what others call them I do not feel you can refer to your bus as a “chicken bus” unless you have actually been seated next to a live chicken on the bus.

We took the “chicken bus” back to Bahia del Sol (most exclusive resort in El Salvador ) and what a trip it was. The total distance was only 30 miles, but the experience took over two and a half hours. First we had to find the bus terminal. No problem, we had a map. The terminal however turned out to be a large dirt field where the buses started their routes and no one had any kind of printed schedule, price list, or ticket booth. Try to find your bus, climb on, and wait. If it’s a long wait you won’t get lonely because a steady line of food vendors will walk in the front door and out the back door… and they all want to see you. The bus moved along well but the route quickly left the main highway for a circuitous visit to a large number of small villages. The bus regularly pulled over at small intersections so more food vendors could come in the front and out the back, and we even had a surprise change of buses along the route. The bus was packed and, yes, Virginia , there were live chickens on board.

Another aspect of local bus travel in El Salvador is the presence of small groups of cows in the roads and the total disdain the drivers have for the cows and that the cows have for the buses. Apparently the best grass in El Salvador is immediately adjacent to the blacktop because that’s where the cows gather. Of course it could be that this is the free grass and if you are a poor vaquero why should you have to buy land to graze your cows when there is free grass along the road. We also noted that the vaqueros all rode bicycles. You can see that it would be difficult to herd cows on a bicycle if the cows were in fields, but if keep you cows on the roads riding your bicycle is much easier.

We survived this excursion. We recharged ourselves with $1 beers at “the most exclusive resort in El Salvador ”, and we are now preparing boat and selves for our trip home for the winter months. We thoroughly enjoyed this trip through Central America . We have ignored the inconveniences and we have put it all down to “experience”. A very good experience.

New Year's in Guatemala

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!!