(To view Album scroll to end)
13º06’77N/88º27’65W. The Jiquilisco river is quite big and wide and a major port for shrimping. We followed the panga, which brought us safely through the breakers, into the river and lead us to the MARINA BARILLAS. We followed the Jiquilisco river, with palm beaches, then into the Barilla river, overgrown with mangroves. We headed into the middle of nowhere, to one of the nicest and most modern marinas we’ve ever seen. The Portcaptain and Customs came out to the boat on arrival and did our paper work in our cockpit. This was the best check-in yet. The marina offers a Club house with cafeteria service, television, very clean bathrooms and shower facilities. Fuel and two lunch ramps into the canal which provide full access and water to wash the boats off. There also is a small convenience store, an airstrip and a park area with playground facility for children. The marina has 10 modern mooring balls, waiting to be picked up. (Over the last few years, it has expanded, there are a lot more moorings now and the marina was upgraded with a swimming pool, laundry facility, email access and a BBQ area. Juan Wright is the owner and one of the richest or THE richest man in El Salvador and a great host. He also is a very generous man, he has flown cruisers to San Salvador and does just about anything to please his guests. We were almost shocked, when we heard that he doesn’t even charge for the mooring balls. On our second day in the marina, he took all of us cruisers (6 boats) on a panga trip through the river to his private island. What a neat little Paradise. Here we learned of some new plants and fruits, icaco, pepeto, camainitos, marignon and semilla de paterna. Did you ever wonder how cashews grow? We did and we found out. The Marignon fruit, looks like a very large yellow to reddish habanero pepper, with a nut growing from the top. The fruit is very juicy and a bit tart tasting, but very refreshing. Traditionally the fruit is frozen, then cut into slices and sprinkled with salt, very delicious. We learned too that the fruit can leave some terrible stains on your cloths which will not come out, I ruined one of my T-shirts. The oil between the cashew and the shell is the poorest oil and is used in space crafts since it doesn’t freeze or burn or freeze in space, but it also is very toxic and can give you a nasty rash.
Alberto and Alexandra, friends of Juan, showed us some brochures of places to travel. We couldn’t resist two of the trips. The first one to all the historical sights around San Salvador. The second one a helicopter flight over the country and the volcanoes. We had no idea, what was in store for us. The two picked us up at 7 am and drove us almost two hours to San Salvador and this is what we learned:
El Salvador, the smallest country in Central America, it consists of highlands, valleys, volcanoes, a coastal plain, the Sierra Madre mountain chain and a 200- mile Pacific coastline. El Salvador, a country of spectacular landscapes, national parks, beautiful beaches, striking volcanoes and of course the friendly Salvadoran people. The country is divided in three regions.
The Western Region which landscape is broken by the craggy Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range. This range hosts a wealth of pine forests inhabited by a wide variety of native and migratory bird species. Roads wind their way through quiet mountain villages and spectacular landscapes. There are a lot of tucked away treasures in this area, from shining lagoons covered with hyacinths blooms to black sand beaches.
The Central Region with a dramatically changing scenery and the picturesque white-washed villages. The Capital San Salvador is home in this region. The landscape is lush and boasts amazingly fertile soil. Sugar cane, indigo, corn and beans are grown in this region. San Salvador, the capital, lies in a green valley that slopes forth from the folds of the still active San Salvador Volcano.
The Eastern Region, with the high mountains carpeted with pine trees and low-lying mangrove estuaries are a true natural beauty and unspoiled surroundings.
Volcanoes dominate the skyline virtually everywhere in the country. Vulcan Izalco is perhaps the most famous in the country and also the youngest Volcano in the world (2000 years). Izalco is known as the “Lighthouse of the Pacific”, because its glowing top could be seen far out at sea. In constant activity from 1770 until 1957, the volcano grew to a height of 1910 meters above sea level from its base to its top before eruptions ceased. The funny part about this is, they built a hotel on the foot of the volcano for tourist attraction and the day the hotel opened, the volcano stopped blowing! Vulcan Santa Ana is right next to Izalco and is the tallest of El Salvador’s volcanoes, towers 2365 meters above sea level.
Out of the 17 volcanoes, 7 are still active. What amazed me, was that where ever you see a volcano, houses are built way up the steep sides.
Alexander took us to the following sights: Natural water pools. It is also an amusement park for the local kids. The pools are natural springs in a very tropical looking valley, a real Paradise.
Lava Sea, of the San Salvador Volcano, is a very rugged and huge lava stream. Alberto told us an old ancient Mayan believe, that the first lava rock you pick, will give you aphrodisiac powers. I’m sure you can imagine all the guys reaction to that!
San Andres ruins, one of the largest Pre-Columbian sits in El Salvador. It was a regional capital city during the years of 600 to 900 AD. The site was occupied by Maya and, later Pipil groups. Now visitors can climb the partially restored pyramid.
Joya de Ceren, a small Maya village buried in volcanic ash 1400 years ago. The sight was accidentally discovered in 1976, when a bulldozer uncovered part of the village. An international team of archaeologists began excavations in 1989, uncovering several adobe houses, a steam bath, the remnants of corn fields and much more. This archaeological site was perfectly preserved in volcanic ash after the massive eruption of the Laguna Caldera volcano.
Lago de Coatepeque, is volcanic in origin and spans 26 square kilometers and is 120 meters deep. It is found on the slopes of the tallest volcano in the country. Santa Ana Volcano.
Juayua, Coffee Plantation Village and the weekend escape for Alberto. He has a beautiful house on a mountain, overlooking the rolling hills and café plantations of the Western Region. What a beautiful little house. As we arrived, a police car with 4 officers was waiting for us. We had a great time with them and exchanged many insights of the country and of course comparing LAPD as well. Five years ago, the whole El Salvador police department was declared invalid and all the officers were fired. Then they started a new department, which consists of 20 % army guys, 20% guerrillas and 60% civilians, which makes it quite an interesting group of people. Women are being hired as well. To each police car you’ll see four officers, which one of them is a women and one is always just the driver. It was a real pleasure talking to these guys.
Second day helicopter flight. About 10 years, after the end of the terrible guerrilla wars, the country had to start all over. This is a very young country and still struggling. They still don’t have the tourism back and I guess we were a great opportunity for them to publicize tourism. We were known as the “Turistas”. As we left the hotel for the great helicopter flight, we had the local news channel 6 following us all day long. We expected to be flown by an old retired pilot, in a retired helicopter, which worried us immensely about the inspections and safety. Surprise! Alberto drove us to the air force base of El Salvador and we were flown in a Huey with air force pilots. What a thrill! Later I asked him, how he had managed that. He had to talk to the Ministry of Defends and explain to them, why it was a good idea to take us “Tourists” around by helicopter. This in deed was a thrill to be flown in a military helicopter, by real combat pilots. First we circled the City of San Salvador and over the San Salvador Volcano, which is the smallest volcano in the world, which is in a big crater. The flight lasted some two hours and we were flown over all the sights we’ve seen the previous day. Sid and I sat in the gunner’s seat, which was very exciting, especially when he did his turns, we were facing down to earth, no doors of course. What a great way to explore El Salvador and what a very beautiful country this is. Then we approached Izalco Volcano, what a sight, a perfectly shaped volcano, with very steep sides. Then the Volcano Santa Ana, with the sulfur smelling steam coming out of a huge crater. Before landing at the foot of the volcano, we circled the area several time, I guess to find the perfect spot to land. While we did that, we attracted a lot of attention from down below and all these little tiny people waved to us. Of course we waved back at them. Sid and I started waving to everybody in sight and pointing out to them, when we saw new people. I saw a person, which looked like he or she was bent over, working in the fields. I started waving to that person, until Sid started laughing and laughing, then I realized I was waving to a cow. Well, I’m just a very friendly person. Then we landed at the foot of this giant volcano. It was really neat, as we landed, out of all kind of directions people came running towards us to great us. We took a great group photo with all of them and of course the helicopter in the background. Then we started the long and strenuous hike up the volcano, and strenuous it was. It really wasn’t easy and some of us stayed behind with total exhaustion. It was a very steep and straight up hill path. Climbing up a volcano, was a childhood dream of mine and I was finally doing it. If it wasn’t for that, I don’t think I would have made it either. We all were huffing and puffing up that steep hill. But as we reached the top, it was such a great feeling of accomplishment and pride and oh, my God that view, looking into the steaming volcano crater. We all where overwhelmed with the beauty of it. The sulfur smell was very strong and now and then it took our breath. You could actually see the steam vents and the yellow sulfur covered side walls and the crater-lake and all the bees flying in this kind of air. They must like this, because they were every where. We were the first Tourists, other then Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras, to conquer Vulcan Santa Ana. Two days later, it was aired on the El Salvador national TV and I was interviewed since I was the only one of us cruisers speaking some Spanish. It was about a 5 minute documentary about us on the local news. We’re celebrities!!! And we’re in the proud possession of the video tapes too.
At the marina which is surrounded by jungle with monkeys, parrots, crocodiles, turtles and all kind of other exotic animals, it was so inviting for early morning walks. Whenever we left the premises, we were accompanied by an armed guard. They did not let us leave without one. Kind of makes you feel weird but also very important. We hiked around a turtle pond to another one with crocodiles, with green parrots flying over us, to a thick jungle and into it. About 30 minutes later we arrived at a shack with a family living in this very beautiful and tranquil forest. With bananas/papayas and mangoes trees growing under the jungles canopy, they live of their own, catching their own meet, fishing in the near pond and the kids don’t know anything about school and never will see a school. A spider monkey family lives above the family in the canopy top. When they saw us arrive, they came a bit closer to check us out, the monkeys I’m talking about. I did this walk about every other day and after a while, it seemed that the monkeys recognized me, because they followed me over many trees to the families house and came right down to the tree trunk, where I gave them bananas.
The family is the poorest family I’ve ever seen. The guard told me that all they have is salt and corn, and then of course the fish they catch, but nothing else. The next time I went, I got the other cruisers together and all of us found some items in our galleys, such as rice, beans, canned goods, sugar, milk, cookies, candies, soap, cloths, toys etc. and we brought all to the family. I also brought some apple sauce, which she fed to the baby and kids immediately. You should have seen the babies face, her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, she smiled and sucked happily on the yummy stuff. You also should have seen all the six little kids (1-6 years old), they are so filthy, but so cute. There is grandma and grandpa with two sons and their wives and kids. Their laundry area was a big cut down tree trunk. 1/3 of a cut open truck tire was the wash basin and a home made wooden board, was the wash board. They had a well with plenty of fresh and clean water. The father and two sons, have some jobs at Juan’s, and earn 350 Colones together, for each two weeks, which is less then 35 dollars, not much to feed a big family. No wonder Juan is the richest man in the country with as little as he pays to his employees.
As I mentioned earlier Juan Wright took some of the cruisers on flights around the country in his private plain. Chuck on Sea Fury is a licensed pilot and so Juan just let him have one of his plains to tour the country. Blondie had a generator problem and so Juan took it into San Salvador to his mechanic and returned it a few days later, fixed. Bell Mouette’s refrigeration broke down and had to have some parts flown into San Salvador. No problem, Juan has a friend who’s in the import/export business, they had their part within four days. Then their son was flying home to the States, Juan organized the ticket, flew the family to his house to spend the night, his chauffeur drove them and the kid to the airport and then the parents were flown back to the marina. Which reminds me of our trip into San Salvador with Alberto. He ran into so many people, which all turned out to be his cousins. I tell you if somebody has cousins, he’s got em all. As we were parked in front of the American Express Offices, waiting for a few of us to get money exchanged, a car pulled in, which was Alberto’s cousin and a doctor and jokingly asked me, if we needed a doctor. Peter had an ear infection and was planning to see a doctor, so I told him yes, that we needed one. That was so funny, there was Peter standing in the parking lot, the doctor checking him out, asking a couple of questions and then writing a prescription out over the car hood and voila, Peter was cured! Every body’s got a cousin in Miami!!! How did Jimmy Buffet know.
Every morning coming up on deck, we noticed all the horrible, black soot of burned what ever it was on everything. We were told that they burn the left over of the harvested sugar cane. They do that only once a year,- - - - - - FOR 8 MONTHS!!! I guess that stuff doesn’t burn during rainy season. It sure left a filthy mess and we hoped that the first rain we’ll get, will be a good one, otherwise it will make an even bigger mess.
Two days before leaving, the employee van drove us in to Usulutan to do some provisioning. I’ve never seen a more fun local market then here. It was much more primitive then anywhere in Mexico. Some of the produce looked really good, some not so good and at some places we had to walk over some rotten stuff. But they had so many unique fruits and veggies, I’ve never seen before. Karin and I were in absolute heaven. We tried them all and bought most of them too and had a wonderful time. I just love shopping!!! Then in the super market, which is equal to an American one, we found all the other goodies. As I was standing at the register, waiting for my turn, I noticed all these people standing behind and around me and starring at me, giggling and pointing. Then some would disappear, come back with more people. It came out that they recognized me from TV!
Checking out of the country is a whole other story. This time we had to drive in to the little village which is called Port of Entry, wonder why. The Capitania de Puerto office is out doors and custom’s across the street. I don’t know what they did, but it took two hours for them to sign and put the official stamps on the paperwork and then we had to go to customs for the same thing. That only took 15 minutes. Then when Carl and I and of course the pangadero who brought us here got back to the panga, we found it now high and dry on top of a sunken wreck and would have been stuck for hours to wait for the tide to come back if it wasn’t for the other panga form the marina that rescued us. Never a dull moment, I tell you.
We had a wonderful experience in El Salvador. What a beautiful and friendly country it is, we could have spend a much longer time here.
April 12th, we left beautiful El Salvador. First we had to pound through that surf again, which seemed to be never ending. We left a slack high tide, which wasn’t to bad. But from there on the water is so shallow, that any bit of wind causes choppy seas. We had to go about 3 miles off shore to get into deeper water to get away from the choppy area. Even 3 miles out, the depth was still only 80 feet. Three miles out we headed toward Corinto in Nicaragua. At this point we didn’t know where our next destination was, that was depending on the weather. From here on we were in the papagayo area, which means, the wind can appear at any time, out of nowhere without any notice up to 50 knots or even more off shore. They also say that a 20 knot forecast is a good weather window. The smart thing here is to hug the coast. We were most of the way just about 1 mile off shore in 40 to 60 feet of water, which kept us out of the heavy weather chop, but kept us on the lookout for fishing traps, which are scattered all along the coast. We did have some 15 knots wind for the first day. Around 2 in the afternoon, the boat started moving kind of sluggish and as Sid went down below to check on things, he stepped into a wet carpet. The bilge was filled to the top! What happened was, the bilge bump through hull was under water and siphoned all the water right back in. This was a scary moment. At first we didn’t know what had happened, while Sid was looking for the leak, the bilge pump was on full power and Manuela in the cockpit on the manual pump on full power as well, pumping away a 100 miles an hour. I pumped so much that after the bilge was empty again, I felt sick the rest of the day. The night went without any problems and the bilge remained dry. The wind still was blowing at 15 to 20 knots, but it came out of the wrong angle and we had to motor sail most of the 207 miles to be able to stay close to shore. The first sunrise was spectacular, the sun came up between two volcanoes and the Vulcan Viejo in Corinto, Nicaragua, greeted us with a puff of smoke. The whole Nicaraguan coast is covered with volcanoes, a real neat site. Reliance was about 2 miles behind us, and she told us, that Willie’s net had predicted 25 knots of wind in one hour, in our area. At this point we were 2 miles of shore, but headed straight into 1 mile. We told Reliance to do the same, but they decided to stay 4 miles of shore. Sure enough, about one hour later the wind gusted up to 25 knots. We had just a little chop to deal with and an occasional water spray over the deck, but otherwise a smooth motor sail. Reliance had 30 plus knots of wind and a lot more of a chop to deal with. The following night was very calm again and we motored pretty much all of it. Can you imagine to be in the tropics as we were, wearing a sweater and sweat pants and be freezing at 72 degrees? Yep, that happened to us. The next morning as we were approaching our destination Bahia Santa Elena, Costa Rica, the wind started up again, and gusted up to 35 knots. It hit us without any warning and blew like a fury off shore. Luckily we only had 3 more miles to go, before entering the very beautiful and calm bay of Santa Elena. We did the 207 miles in 48 hours.
To view photo album click on arrow in photo:
