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May's LogMay 1, 2002 The next morning in Antigua, Bill and Allan met on the roof of the hotel to try and view the volcano adjacent to town, but it was obstructed because of clouds. We then found a great place for coffee and ATM for our much needed Quetzals. We discovered after several attempts that we could not obtain money (maybe because it was Guatemala’s Labor Day) and the ATM ran out of money). We had breakfast and used our MasterCard at the restaurant and then Patty and Bill paid us for their breakfast so we would have some local money. At coffee we met two other cruising couples that had come from the Caribbean. One couple was on their third circumnavigation. Liz and I did sightseeing, had a couple of Gallo (Gay oo, meaning a Rooster)beers on the roof of our hotel, took a siesta and then met Patty, Bill and the other two cruising couples for drinks and dinner at an Irish Pub called Reilly’s. It had very good food, inexpensive and good Chilean wine. We were in seventh heaven. Antigua is a very international and provincial city that caters to foreigners with great food and drink. During the day we learned more about the history of Antigua. It was the 15th century capital for all of Central America including parts of Mexico, Guatemala, (El Salvador didn’t exist), Honduras and Nicaragua. The city was destroyed by earthquake in 1778 and the capital moved to Guatemala City. The old buildings and ruins date back over six hundred years. We have pictures of the Santiago Cathedral that was rebuilt twice and destroyed twice in Antigua. These pictures will get to Web Master Supreme Tom in the next month. May 2, 2001 This morning we were successful with getting money from the ATM. We did more touring of museums and sights and decided to check out of our hotel and head to Lake Atitlan. After checking at the bus station, we found that the direct bus to the Lake left once a day at 7AM. Therefore, we consulted our guidebook, Lonely Planet, and caught a chicken bus (not literally, but the local crowded buses that everyone who lives there takes to get around), and with 4 bus changes we got to Panajachel. During the trip we passed a military academy, some nice homes, but mostly small, primitive dwellings that the indigenous population live in. Our bus, like most local buses have six seats across and is not made for larger western bodies. We continued to change buses, hoping we had understood our bus drivers and were heading in the right direction. We traveled diverse landscapes, hills, high mountain plateaus, pine trees, mixed with tropical palms and flowers. We also saw beautiful vegetable stalls at the side of the roads, with huge watermelon looking gourds, as well as flowers for sale. We also saw cabbage, coffee, potatoes, squash, corn, apples and other crops growing on the sides of terraced steep hills. Once to Panajachel we took a launcha (small boat built for 12 but held 22) to a pueblo called San Pedro. The boats left a rickety, high dock for the trip around the lake, stopping at all the other pueblos. At one dock, a young German woman stepped off the launcha only to be suspended in mid air above the water. The boat had pushed away from the dock and left her hanging. She shimmied up the dock and her boyfriend helped her after getting her feet wet. Arriving in San Pedro, we met a local man, Freddie, who showed us where a family lived that we were delivering a letter to from one of our other cruiser friends. He also helped us secure a hotel that was clean, but noisy for $7 per night. By this time it was early evening, so we went to Nicks’ the local pub for drinks, costing .80 cents. As you can gather, Guatemala is very inexpensive. At Nicks, we met an Italian fellow who was taking a short week vacation at the Lake. He spoke excellent English and 4 other languages and we had a nice dinner together at a neighboring restaurant. May 3, 2002 The next morning we awoke at 5PM to truck exhaust coming into our room from all the trucks that come down to the docks to load supplies from the launchas coming from Panajachel. We decided it was time to find another place to stay if we were going to be in San Pedro another night. We walked up into the town, and around the lake to a restaurant called Luna Azul (Blue Moon), where we met Clark, a US expatriate, married to a Guatemalan woman (Anita) who cooked excellent food while he ran the small 3 room hotel. After eating a great breakfast, (including homemade biscuits and lemon honey, we looked at his room and decided to stay a night on the lake for under $5 per night. The room was very Spartan, but clean. Staying at this hotel was another guest who used to live in Waldport, OR. Liz’s grandfather has lived there until about 1988. Clark the owner had lived in Quilicine, WA and grew up at Point No Point, near Port Townsend, WA. Small world. We are at 5100 feet at the lake and the temperatures are very comfortable. This is a nice change from the hot, humid tropics of the coast. May 4, 2002 We decide to leave today and go back to Panajachel, as the guidebook says this is where the most reasonable, rugs, weavings, scarves and carvings are from the neighboring pueblos. We took the launcha back and during the trip across the lake, one of the native men’s cell phone rings. Technology, amidst a very subsistent standard of living is a surprise and we believe that the many forms of technology will even widen the gaps between the classes. To our surprise, while walking the streets in Pana to get our bearings of where we want to stay, we run into our friends (Andy and Gail) off the boat Question in a car. They have rented this car to come inland with their three dogs. Yes, you are reading correctly, 3 dogs and two large ones at that. We hook together and sight see, have lunch, stay at the same motel on the lake and watch HBO movies in our room. The TV is a nice bit of a diversion from the months of no television. May 5, 2002 This morning, Andy and Gail decide to leave their dogs in the hotel room and the 4 of us drive up to Chichicastengo (a very old, indigenous market village). We arrive as the first rains of the season come down. It is cold and dreary, but we brave the weather and shop till we drop. For a mere $100 US we buy scarves, 2 rugs, a tablecloth, 4 woven pillow cases, 2 wall hangings and four masks. We have a good lunch at a beautiful hotel with a central garden and rooms that look inward to this charming, old, Spanish style hotel. We talk Gail and Andy into dropping us at a central bus stop on their way back to Pana and we head off to Tecpan, a village close to a large Mayan ruin called Iximche. We arrive after a harrowing bus trip, on slippery roads, passing on blind corners with oncoming traffic and all we could do was hold our breath and not watch. The bus driver let us off ˝ mile from Tecpan and we walked into a very indigenous town, where people stared at us because I am sure they had not seen gringos for a very long time. We found a clean hotel and asked where the supermercado was and a good restaurant. We found the only real restaurant in town and had a good dinner, where the owner or manager was very pleased to have us in his establishment. We told him we would be back for breakfast. May 6, 2002 We had a lovely breakfast complete with café Negro and cappuccino and took a taxi to the ruins. The ruins, Iximche are very well excavated and fascinating. The ruin is surrounded by pines and deciduous trees and was very picturesque. See pictures when we send them. We then walked a mile to find a local bus back to Tecpan to gather our packs and take a bus to Guatemala City. We left at noon and arrived in Guatemala City mid afternoon. We took a little time to get our bearings and figure out our map to the city to find a budget, but very pleasant hotel in Zone 1 of the city. This is the central part and is where the government buildings are. It is also known for the crime and red-light district. The Hotel Spring recommends a Spanish restaurant, but it is closed on Monday and we decide to stay through Tuesday to get a lay of the land and have a nice dinner before leaving to head back to the boat. We call home and have a nice, but short chat. Our calling service is excellent, but the 2 countries it does not service are Guatemala and El Salvador. Once we are in Costa Rica we will be able to use it again. Therefore, we purchased phone cards at the hotel, which are 45 minutes of local service, which translates to 10 minutes per card to call the US. Trying to find a restaurant for dinner turned out to be difficult as the city center closes up at dark, because of the threat to personal safety. We finally found a deli (German style) and purchased wine, cheese, meats and crackers before setting back to the hotel to catch up on CNN news and movies. May 7, 2002 We awoke to the bustle of the city, watched the financial news and set out to go to several museums and see the government buildings and an old cathedral. Quite interesting. After a siesta, we headed to the Spanish restaurant, Altoona, and found wonderful service, great wine and a lovely Guatemalan gentleman who has recently retired early from a technology company to start his own Internet travel company and become the dean of technology at the local university. He joined us and even offered us a ride back to his hotel, but we declined since we were only 3 blocks away. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our conversation and made it safely back to the hotel. Thank you Edgar. May 8, 2002 We have the hotel call us a taxi to head to the bus station where we will catch the bus back to El Salvador. Allan awakes with a temperature, bad stomach and aching all over. We make it to the station and run into Patty and Bill on Good Medicine again, along with Randy and Lisa from Elskan, who are also finishing their inland trek. We walk to a nearby McDonald’s and pick up breakfast and await the bus. We have an uneventful ride back to San Salvador, where we take 2 taxis for 6 people to another bus station to catch the 495 back to Bahia del Sol. We are fooled by a more modern bus to take back, only to find that this trip took 3 hours where the other chicken bus takes 1 and ˝ hours. We arrive back in time for cruisers night at the resort. They bring in speakers; have free appetizers and $1 drinks. Heck of a deal. Allan thinks he wants to get cool in the pool, but realizes he is really sick and we head back to the boat. He is asleep in 10 minutes and hopefully will feel better in the morning. We are glad to see our friends, Greg and Meg off of Wet Bar, Ruck and Lindey off Siren’s Song and Doug and Lisa on Mamona. May 9, 2002 We awoke. Allan is feeling a bit better. I tidy up the boat and wash with salt water the outside to get the week’s worth of dust off. We do a few small boat projects and head to the pool at 4PM to cool off and talk to the other folks in the estuary. We now have 30 boats inside, with weather that has kept 6 boats from leaving for the past 8 days. Some of them are getting very antsy and afraid they will be stuck here through the summer. Everyone feels it is prudent to be in Costa Rica by June 15 to avoid hurricanes. We are not too concerned as we have talked to other cruisers that have been in this area several times who think May and June are the best times to leave this area to head south to Costa Rica. We are still hoping to meet Tom Perham our friend and Supreme Webmaster in Costa Rica mid to late June. May 10, 2002 Allan awakes early to listen to the Panama Pacific Net at 7AM. I lounge in bed till 8AM as I had read Under the Tuscan Sun until 11PM, while Allan was fast asleep at 8:30PM. His clock has definitely tuned to awaking with the sun at 5 or 6AM and falling asleep in the early evening. My clock still likes the opportunity to sleep in since that was a luxury I did not have at home. There will be many a future mornings when I wake to the alarm at 5 or 5:30 to start the day and will think back to being able to sleep in. We spend the day charting the next couple of weeks, bring the log up to date, making water, charge the batteries, emailing and tidying the boat. We will meet Greg and Meg at the pool this afternoon to discuss our inland trip to a wildlife refuge in El Salvador that sports, 400 varieties of butterflies, many deer, iguanas, pumas and tropical birds. We will probably do this Monday or Tuesday and will rent a car to travel. It should be fun. May 11, 2002 The day was great. Wet Bar and us headed to a town (San Marsileno) to make phone calls for Mother’s Day and to Tom Perham. Of course this town is on the ocean and the road ends at the beach. On the left side of the road is the expensive restaurant and on the right and the cheap spot. Beers are 70 cents and hamburgers are $1.50 with papas (French fries). After lunch we catch the bus to the Mercado (sort of a supermarket). Greg and I price the beer and eventually we buy enough cases of beer that the owner gives us a free ride with the ice truck back to the Hotel where we leave our dinghies. Liz and Meg have to catch the bus. Greg and I help the iceman unload some of his ice and then take a quick trip to our boats and unload the groceries. By the time we finish and arrive back to the dinghy landing the girls are back. After a dip in the pool, where I get a foot massage, Liz and I head back to Slainte and get ready to PARTY! I know you think we do that every day. Greg and Meg are planning a surprise birthday party for me. We are going over to Wet Bar (a good name to party on right) and 12 other boats are bringing snacks and Meg on Wet Bar has made JELLO SHOOTERs. The shooters are red and yellow. The red is made of Cherry jello and Mescal and yellow was Pina Colada jello and rum coconut flavoring. I make out great, a fifth of Tangeray and a pint of scotch (we have been out for a long time), and bibliography about Captain Cook and a beautiful card and picture. Yummy. Randy and Lisa bring their famous Pressure Cookers (Cuba’s) and we have a great time. See the pictures. We have been really cruising, or as Liz puts it, we are on a continuous adult spring vacation. May 12, 2002 I wake up feeling pretty well and Liz after doing the “net” sleeps for another two hours. We are getting ready for Quincy’s birthday at the pool tonight. I have made cards/pictures for both Quincy and her sister, Kendall B-day. Kendall’s is May 20th and she’ll be 9 and Quincy is 7 today. Both of them live on a catamaran with Bruce and April their parents on Chewbacca. Ted on Blue Bell drops by and says goodbye as they are crossing the bar and heading down the coast. We look forward to seeing them in several weeks. In the afternoon Liz and I hike down to the end of the peninsula and watch 5 sailboats leave and head over the bar. We are amazed as the waves are breaking and they are bobbing showing their keels more then we would like. They are, Blue Bell, Promise, Viva, Anitra, and Heidi, heading either to Barillas (35 miles south) or to Costa Rica. We should see them soon. After the two-mile walk we found the pool and spent our time eating three birthday cakes and hiding from the insects in the pool. What a day. May 13, 2002 Today I am sick with dysentery and finally decide to take strong antibiotics to rid my body of these aliens. By the end of the day I am not doubled over in pain with full body contractions. While I am under the weather, Allan re-caulks the teak decks where we think we have leaks in preparation for the rainy season. We think I am well enough to travel inland tomorrow. May 14, 2002 We left Bahia del Sol with Meg and Greg on Wet bar for a four day vacation. We are traveling by car. Our expectations are to visit the National Park El Imposible. El Imposible is one of the last places that has not been deforested in El Salvador. We traveled west up the coast past La Libertad and had a wonderful and expensive lunch. The restaurant is built on the bluff that overlooks one of the major surfing breaks. The restaurant has a 250-degree view and is covered by reeds or a palapa roof. The service was great and the fellow at the door with the guns was very friendly. We again loaded into our car and headed off. We passed Acajutla that is on the coast and headed north to Sonsonate. We finally found a motel, Agape that is coupled with a rest home. This motel was started by Padre Flavian Mucci, a Franciscan priest from Boston. The hotel funds social programs, such as a hospital for undernourished kids and there are lawn gnomes everywhere. The rest home participants resemble my many relatives that have been in similar facilities over the years and they also looked bored but would smile immediately when we waved. The hotel was tired but clean and we met a group of young Canadians building houses for the “Habitat for Humanity” at the pool. After dinner Liz and I watched TV. We caught up on the world’s news and are amazed at the pettiness of what are news stories in the USA and the always-reoccurring themes. May 15, 2002 We left early and headed for El Imposible, which is aptly named. The park’s entrance is barely marked and the 9-mile road to the park is on dirt or rock. The rental car met the road many times. We passed many homes that were combinations of corrugated metal, wood and mud. All of the people waved back and smiles. We climb 2000 feet and after 45 minutes found the entrance. After showing our permit we got a guide an continue the hike that again gave us a reason to believe why they named the park, “The Impossible.” We hiked up and down a ridge overlooking a river valley. The river was less than a half a mile away but we need to drop 1600 feet to the floor of the valley. At the bottom we watched fish that seemed to look like a combination between a trout and a sucker. The hike back out was hard. The steepness was amazing and the steps were cut into the rocks hundreds of years ago. We understood that this was one of the paths taken by mules loaded with coffee. We got back to Sonsonate and gorged ourselves at Pizza Hut. We hadn’t eaten since dinner the night before, so we were very hungry and were amazed at the taste. A mall surrounded pizza Hut and a huge wall surrounded the mall with of course guns guns guns. While we were in the mall a lightening storm occurred sending us volumes of rain and many ground hits. The four of us were standing in the grocery store when the lights went out for about 3 minutes that was black. I ran back to the card while Meg and Liz waited for the power to return to the cash registrars. We went back to Hotel Agape and watched the lightening. May 16, 2002 We headed out to Lake (Lago) Coatepeque that is a volcanic crater lake about 350 feet deep. In route we drove up to Cerro Verde National Park. It was closed since the huge El Salvadorian earthquakes in 2001. The view was spectacular from looking at the volcano Izalco. We are at the same elevation as this very new volcano. We are also looking down in to Lake Coatepeque. We eventually arrive at the lake through the coffee and sugar cane fields. We had a good lunch on a platform that was 30-40 feet in the air. The lake is severely down due to a drought. When the waiter brought lunch the whole structure moved. The waiter suggested a hotel in Santa Ana and boy were we glad he did. The other hotel that the Lonely Planet suggested was terrible, no water, bed bugs and made us shiver. We walked around Santa Ana looking at the church and noticed that there were very few people with guns. In the past three weeks we have gotten used to either shotguns or pistols on belts. We ended our day with happy hours and a nice dinner. May 17, 2002 We headed back to Bahia del Sol and in route we past Santa Tecla the epicenter for the recent earthquake occurring January 13, 2001 that had a magnitude of 7.6. We retracted our steps back to the coast and missed the hectic traffic of San Salvador. I was great to arrive back to the quieter location of Costa del Sol. May 18, 2002 Liz and I head to San Salvador to Price Mart. This is a Costco under another name. We of course buy too much and are surprise by the bill. Thanks to Jan on Quantum Leap we have her card and perfect driving instructions. The only items we couldn’t find were sauerkraut and canned chicken. We are provisioned and now plan to leave around May 22nd – 24th. We said goodbye to Elskan, Mariah II and Baggy Wrinkles as they are leaving in the morning. We will see Elskan and Baggy Wrinkles down the way, but Mariah II will be leaving their boat in Barillas and head back to Canada for two or three months. James and Steph are super folks and we have known them since traveling down the Baja about November 20, 2001. May 19, 2002 Several of our friends have left and traveled down the coast 30 miles to Barillas Marina. This is a marina about 10 miles up a river/estuary that has been recently built. Since we have one more day on the car rental we decide to say hi to our friends on Question, Good Medicine, Jacinda Rose, Chewbacca, Trilogy and 401K. So we head out and after about an hour we realize we don’t know where we are going. Greg did a great job dodging pigs, horses, dogs and cattle, and I REALLY mean dodging. A car nearly killed a colt and had to lock up its brakes to miss the young spooked horse. We found a supermarket and just by chance an ex-employ of Barillas overheard us asking for directions and drew us a map. Thank you Carlos. If it had been by water we would of gotten right their, but Barillas Marina is not marked. This marina as we found out was build only for the VERY wealthy. Juan Wright the owner is one of the top 14 families that control the country. He was very personable and asked one of his panga drivers to give Meg, Greg, Liz and I a tour. In the process of getting ready we asked if it was OK to include some of our anchored friends and so there were 12 of us speeding out to the bar. Back at the pool all of us refreshed with real freshwater. Greg and I kept kidding ourselves that all of our friends sounded way too happy and maybe they were on happy Barillas drugs. This is sort of like Hotel California were you could check in but never leave. We think the euphoria is a result of the phenomenal security force and the safety feeling that it gives them. We arrive back, get settled, have toasted cheese sandwiches and settle to bed, when the lighting began to strike and the rain pelted the boat. This is the first real rain we have had since Barra de Navidad back in January. There were a couple of strikes close to us, so we turned off the batteries and all electronics on the boat just in case. After about 2 and half hours the rain and lightening the weather subsided and we were able to open the boat back up. The boat got a good wash down. This is great, as salt water is very corrosive and the fresh water makes things look so much fresher. We also captured water for the shower and laundry tomorrow. May 20, 2002 We got up to overcast skies, very unusual and a little cooler than normal. Hooray. Allan is off to help Greg return the car. He and I updated the log before during breakfast. I spent the next 4 hours doing laundry on board, vacuuming, wiping down the interior of the boat’s surfaces to get rid of salt water and airing out all of our linens. I also spend this time charging the batteries and making water. Greg and I had an interesting time returning the car. First the car stopped and we looked under the hood. We were emulating dumb gringos. We check out our options, hitch a ride back to the boat were there was gas, hitch a ride 5 miles ahead of us where there is a gas station or knock on these heavily boarded walls/gates. A lady emerged from one of the gates and we asked about gas, or at least we thought we were doing that. After about 3 minutes she talked to her father? Boyfriend? Husband? Or? And then the whole family came out to check on us including a very elderly woman that held my hands and then kissed Greg’s hands. Well we paid for 1.5 gallons of fuel and the fellow put the gas in our tank. When he unscrewed the cap a strong sucking sound occurred. Greg and I think it wasn’t the lack of gas but a vapor lock. Off the way we go and we slip another gallon in just in case. At the airport where the rental agency is we waited. The attendant was not there and we tried to call the emergence number and it could not be reach. After about 10 minutes another lady called another number and Greg spoke to Gracie, the attendant, and she said she’d catch a bus and be there in 15 minutes. We waited and she took care of us. Gracie even took us to the main road; the buses don’t go to the airport. So Greg and I waited and waited and waited. The roadside stands sold coconuts, papusa’s, coke and beer. The coconuts were $2 dollars or you could get two beers for $1.60. Hummmmmmm? We got tired waiting for the 495-bus and caught the 133 bus to an intersection called Los Arcos. We then caught the 495-bus home and met Sandra a Guatemalan and two other ladies that made room for me since I was plugging up the isle. It was an interesting day. We could of spend $22 for a taxi for the 30 minute ride home, but instead we took 6 hours and spend $6.40 on beer and another $2 on cashews and while waiting for the bus Greg and I solved world problems. We also concluded that most of our friends would of thought we were crazy just sitting along a road in El Salvador just waiting for a bus. Maybe you’d have joined us for a beer? May 21, 2002 Today we will be preparing the boat for leaving and doing electronic stuff on Wet Bar. The weather is very good and a bar crossing should be benign. Greg and I spend 7 hours trying to burn several CD from his computer. NO luck. May 22, 2002 Liz and I finally found a landline for interneting and downloaded our messages and gathered our finances. We have been impressed with our Boeing Employee’s Credit Union. Back on the boat Liz work the banking stuff and I went after Snook, a local game fish that reaches 30 pounds and tastes excellent. At least that is what has been reported, as I haven’t caught one yet. During the evening we gathered with the other cruisers and watched part of “Captain Ron.” Cruisers are easily amused. May 23, 2002 Today we are going back in to email this log off to Tom Perham and download so more files. This morning we try our El Salvadoran coffee and it sucks. We are in the Mecca of coffee growing and we can’t find a great cup of coffee. The search continues. Tonight we’re having dinner on The Wet Bar and Greg and I will try to download these pesky files. Hopefully the next log update catches in Costa Rica and we hope all is well with you and fair winds. Hugs Allan and Liz on Slainte. May 24th 2002 We awoke to cooler temperatures after a huge storm last night that filled the dinghy. We learned a lesson that we should have captured the water in the dinghy for laundry or showers. We got a message from Tom Perham today that maybe could head down to Costa Rica after June 17th. We told him no pressure and we will wait to hear… but in the meantime will prepare to leave the estuary. We had planned to leave earlier, but were waiting to hear from him as to his plans. We also would like to leave with a buddy boat or two and Mantra and Volontis are leaving on Wednesday of next week. May 25th 2002 This morning we went to the beach early at low tide to look for shells and enjoy the surf. We found crabs, live and dead sand dollars and a multitude of other small sea creature. We came back and swam in the outer pool of the hotel before coming back to the boat for chores. Later that afternoon, Greg and Meg stopped by for a cool beer and stayed for dinner. During the evening, before dark, two young men from San Salvador who have a weekend home in the estuary dropped by to talk to us about their life and perspectives. It was very interesting. May 26th, 2002 We had quite the rainsquall last night with thunder and lightening and lots of rain. I buttoned up the hatches, as Allan was asleep. I did not get the v-berth portholes as I thought Allan had and we awoke this morning with a wet bed. No problem. We took the advantage of the fresh breeze to hang the linens in the wind from the halyards and the rigging. I cleaned the outside and inside cabin, while Allan copied charts from a fellow sailor for the Caribbean side of our trip. Later he and Greg (Wet Bar) took a bus to the mini mart for beer for the party that Meg and Greg were having later that evening. The party was lovely, even though it rained. I think every boat but two came to the party. We had buttoned up the hatches before going to the party, because we did not want to have to come back mid party to keep things dry, even though closing things makes the cabin hot and stuffy. We came home at 9:30 and read before retreating to bed.
May 27th 2002 Today, we are helping Meg and Greg fuel, gathering weather charts and reports in preparation for heading this week to Costa Rica. Greg and Meg are a lot of fun. Always cheering and Greg is only real serious when he is working “The Wet Bar,” which is an Off Shore 48 designed by Bill Crealock. Bill Crealock is extremely well known for his sailboat designs. The Wet Bar took 550 gallons of diesel. At the party last night, several talked about a tropical storm that is developing in the Pacific, name Alma. We downloaded several weather charts and looked at the 24, 48 and 72-hour forecasts. The tides for Wednesday will be high slack at 6 am and 5 pm. We believe that the afternoon tide will be best for an afternoon landing in the Bay of Fonseca at the island of Conchaquita.
May 28, 2002 Today is Tuesday and sometime I have a tough time remembering the day if I am not wearing my watch. Alma is now upgraded to a hurricane with winds constant at 75 knots and gusts into the 90’s. From the weather charts we see on the 48-hour forecast larger waves are expected to be hitting the coast. We believe they maybe from Alma that is over 1500 miles to the west of us. I have a concern that that may make the bar crossing touchy and lumpy. We finished off the evening with a swim in the pool and dinner with Meg and Greg. We all retired to our complimentary hotel room and watched TV. Liz kept complaining that the room was too cool. I have set the AC at 19 C.
May 29, 2002 Today we wake up in the motel and watch a little TV and head out to have a free breakfast complimentary of the hotel. Both of us have eggs benedict and orange juice. We eat with Mantra, Abraxas and Volantis joins us later. Mantra, Volantis and we will be trying to cross the bar and escape the clutches of Bahia del Sol. Our stay has been great and a challenge not to use our non-cruising attitudes in other countries. Other folks accomplish their needs many times differently than what we may have done. This applies to social (poverty, art and parks), construction, and other events that we have learned from and observed. Watching TV from the USA makes me wonder that some of our “home” practices shouldn’t be emulated in other countries.
After breakfast we headed to the hotel office do the Internet, down load the weather charts, pay our 40-day tab and get our zarpe (exit documents). We head to the boat and wait for information about Volantis’s mystery package that we may delay our leaving for. Eventually we decide to leave and down the bay we head. Of course we had just spent a frantic 45 minutes loading the dinghy/engine, cleaning the crap off of the top twenty feet of chain, hauling up the anchor and other chores. All of sudden Volantis’s engine is overheating and we may be staying after all. This is no problem since Liz and I believe we are a team when traveling with other boats. We are set to leave, their engine is ok and off to the bar we go. Wet Bar, Mamona, and several others in their dinghies watching our bar slam. Santana the fellow that the hotel employs is leading us over with Carl from Abraxas doing the “English” translation of how the waves are. We pound over with several waves threatening to break on us. We set our Jenny and off we head to the bay o Fonseca. The trip was uneventful and the winds light. There were many shrimp boats out on the water and the three of us stayed in constant contact throughout the night. We arrived at 6:30 a.m. and put the anchor down. Liz and I separately were woken be boys in their dugouts and gave them candy.
Here we sit at 13 degree 14.6 minutes North and 87 degrees 45 minutes West behind Isla Conchaquita off of the village that only 7 years ago met the first cruisers. El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaraga surround the bay of Fonseca. We are not expecting to check in here and will be setting out either tomorrow or the next day toward Costa Rica. Several of our friends have anchored at a place called Money Penny in Nicaragua where the Navy visits the boats but haven’t required the country’s check in as boats there are only transiting the country.
May 30, 2002 Liz and I were talking about the great folks that we miss and decided to write an email to them, those at home and those we have met along the way. As a recap we finally left del Sol, El Salvador Wednesday the 29th of May. We had arrived on April 20th and have explored Guatemala and El Salvador for the past 39 days. The bar at the mouth of del Sol was relatively easy. It is interesting when a wave lifted our 29,000 lbs sailboat so easily and then splashes us down on the next wave. It is just like the "fair rides," except this is our home, not just our stomachs. We had an easy trip down the coast traveling with Volantis (Laurance and Christian and their two children) and Mantra (Buss and Penny). We are in the Bahia Fonseca and will leave probably tomorrow towards Costa Rica. Fonseca is surrounded by El Salvador, Honduras and Nicagua and we can see (when it's not raining) at least four volcanos. There is a small community about 200 yards off with good music playing and yesterday we had three groups of kids in real dugout canoes visit us. We of course handed out candy, the universal language buster. Cruiser visited this community called Conchaquita for the first time only 6-7 years ago. This year about 6 boats have stopped here, including the three of us. Depending on weather and timing we may be stopping in No Name and then to Santa Elena, Costa Rica. We expect to stay in Santa Elena for a while and then to Cocos to registrar in the country. Last night after the rain thousands of flying ants or termite-looking insects descended on us. They would light, drop their wings and then scurry around. I killed 35+ in our v-berth. Liz decided to fall asleep in the salon. Liz and I hope all is well and life is fun and the winds (or traffic patterns) are fair and favorable and the refrig isn't smelly. Hugs Allan and Liz
May 31, 2002 This morning there are hundreds of wings in the cockpit. Hopefully we have killed all of those inside. The day is rainy with incredible down pours. We have a rain catching tarp and that will lessen our need to run the water maker. All of us, Volantis, Mantra and Slainte got together on Volantis and had crapes, smoked oysters, sardines and pasta. We compared recipes and watched each other digital pictures on my computer. The cabin is very sultry and damp. Hopefully we’ll have some sun. |