El Salvador 

  September and October 2002

Monday September 2, 2002

Friday and Saturday night we had big thunder storms that produced lots of rain.  Our tanks were already full so we just collected a few buckets of water each evening for washing.  Amanda and Roberto showed up at their rancho just before Saturday night's rain.  We were at the hotel eating hamburgers, but made a beeline for the boat after we finished and arrived just in time to close up before the wind and rain hit.  Then it continued to rain all day Sunday, so Amanda and Roberto left for home in the late morning before we got a chance to visit with them.  So - if no plans get changed again - we will go next Saturday to see them in San Salvador.  Bill spent the entire rainy day at his computer and well into the wee hours of the morning.  I read a book and a half during the rainy time.

Friday and Saturday I finally removed the last of the old varnish from the main hatch doors, sanded them up good and applied the first coats of oil.  Right now they look great and, hopefully, they will weather better as well.

Friday September 6, 2002

Another week and not much new to report.  Bill’s photo album CDs have reached some of their destinations in the US.  My dad reported that it did not work on his old Windows 95 system.  Bill borrowed a Win95 computer from another cruiser and spent several days fixing the problem.

We made another trip into Zacatecoluca.  Bill spent 3 hours at the internet café surfing the web and downloading goodies for his projects.  Another chicken lunch at Camperos and again getting the bus back was interesting.  It seems that the bus left early and we missed it, but no one was really sure.  They had us wait on a corner for it as it was not expected to enter the terminal.  We waited and were hailed by a man in a pick up who offered to drive us to Arco where we could catch a Costa del Sol bus.  We had an interesting ride with him and the trip that takes almost an hour on the bus took only 15 minutes by car!

It continues to rain hard every night so there is plenty of fresh water for washing and cleaning.  Our tanks remain full too!

Monday September 9, 2002

Another week and a very interesting and busy one.  Saturday we went into San Salvador to spend the weekend with Roberto and Amanda.  We met them at their office in the early afternoon.  Roberto took Bill and I out to a little restaurant for beer and a visit.  Then it was off to their home for lunch and a relaxing afternoon.  Since Bill was still getting over his cold and Roberto was tired after a busy week we opted to do nothing that evening and all went to bed early.  We did take a late afternoon trip with Roberto to the market where he purchased a car-full of fruit and vegetables.

Sunday we were all up early and soon off to the beach near La Libertad.  Roberto and Amanda have some friends who own land at a private resort-club there.  We met up with the friends just before leaving San Salvador and followed them to the wonderful resort.  There was a fresh water swimming pool but best of all, there were three sea water pools that were constructed close enough to the high tide line that the waves crashing on nearby rocks dump water into them at high tide.  I enjoyed swimming in them immensely although much of my time in the water was spent watching the waves crashing onto the rocks and the crabs crawling on them.  The grounds were well manicured with flowers and trees and small cabañas for each group of visitors.  We did not return to San Salvador until dark and stopped for dinner at a "pupuseria" along the way.

This morning Bill helped Amanda with the office computers - which are quite old and slow but serviceable - before we were driven the short distance to Metro Sur shopping center.  There Bill tried valiantly to get our Libretto laptop computer hooked up to the net at an internet café but with no success.  We therefore went to Zacatecoluca where it is known that he can connect to the net. Three busses and an hour later were in Zacatecaluca at the internet cafe.  Bill sent off his repaired program and information to those people who are using his photo album program to fix the first reported problems.

After a chicken dinner we returned to Lanikai.  The kitty greeted us upon our arrival at the boat and the mosquitoes were so ferocious that we had to hide below with the screens up.  Sometime during this time and before the nightly thunder storm at 8:00 the cat must have fallen overboard.  She always came to be near us during thunder showers and failed to arrive this time.  Checking her usual hidey holes, we found no cat.  Wednesday morning she had still not eaten any food nor used her box so we realized that she was really not here.  She fell over during a very strong outgoing current and we still have seen no sign of her onshore so fear her to be gone.

Friday September 13, 2002 - Mira Flores Abajo

Tuesday morning Manuel, one of the Navy crew stationed here, arrived from his village to take us there to visit with his family.  He had made arrangements to borrow a pickup truck from his dad.  Although Manuel has no license to drive, Bill has one.  So off to San Salvador and the little town of Santa Tecla (at the western extremity of the city) to meet up with his dad and get the truck (dad doesn’t live with the family).  From Santa Tecla we had to cross through San Salvador to Cuscatlan (the eastern extremity!) to the road leading off toward Manuel’s home.  His dad was kind enough to ride with us as a guide until we were out of San Salvador on the east.  Bill then drove the rest of the way with Manuel as a guide.   It was after 3:00 PM by the time we arrived in the farming community of Mira Flores Abajo. (South of Cojutepeque, on the road to Candalaria.)  The family has homes in a group along a dirt road in the midst of banana, coconut, orange and avocado trees.  The area had been completely destroyed in the earthquake 20 months before and most of the homes were still corrugated metal shacks, including Manuel’s.  Shack is really not the right word here; they are steel framed and well constructed, and fairly large and with high ceilings.  Some of the homes have been rebuilt in concrete but few have any windows and only one door for light and ventilation.  It was much cooler up there in the mountains than at the coast so we were not uncomfortable.  Upon arrival we were greeted by his extended family and his wonderful wife, Edith, only 16 years old.  She had fixed us a lunch of rice, beans and chicken with tortillas that she had made herself.  The tortillas are cooked over a wood fire in an old oil drum on a special large flat round terracotta pan.  She does the rest of her cooking over a modern gas stove in the house.   For cleaning she uses a cement sink with deep water-filled basins on either side of a central shallow one that slopes to a drain.  The washing is done by scooping water into the dirty pans or clothing in the central one, washing with soap and then more water to rinse.  They are quite proficient at it.  The water is piped in from a waterfall on a small stream and Edith had several containers of water directly from the outlet in the house for drinking.  All the homes have electricity and theirs is lit quite well by one light bulb hanging in the center of the ceiling.  The one room is divided into two by a mostly-sheet-plastic wall separating out the sleeping area.  They had a pile of cement bags in one corner that Edith said were for future improvement to her floor, which currently is hard packed dirt.

I took lots of pictures of the family and they all enjoyed the picture-taking especially since they could view the photo as it was being processed by the digital camera.  The family had great fun showing us the orchards and climbing a coconut tree to drop coconuts for us.  We also were gifted with oranges and yucca root.  Two coconuts were cut open so that we could drink the lovely drink and oranges peeled for us.

Late in the afternoon we all piled back into the pickup and drove further up the dirt road and off onto the paved one leading to Candalaria proper to visit the mother of Edith and her numerous brothers and sisters.  By then it was too dark for photos so we promised to return the next day, but we did enjoy a nice visit with them.  We had a great rainstorm that lasted most of the night.

Wednesday after a breakfast of rice and beans we were off by pickup again to return to the estero here and Lanikai so that Edith could visit the area where her husband works and see where we live.  A 2 ½ hour drive, this time around the volcano on the east side through Zacatecoluca and through pretty country, brought us home.  Manuel introduced Edith to other of his friends and then about noon we decided to go out to Lanikai so that they could see our home and I could make some lunch.  Our outboard started fine but we were not more than a few feet out from the dock when something broke and although the motor ran the prop did not spin.  Diane from Windbird towed us home and while Manuel and Edith explored the boat, Bill removed the dead motor.  It was not the sheer pin that had broken but probably the main shaft!  I fixed spaghetti as I had frozen sauce for it in the freezer and Bill finished showing off the boat.  After eating, slack current had arrived.  Bill and Manuel rowed our dinghy over to Pipe Dream (Ferdy and Jutta are visiting the US and Germany this summer) so that we could borrow their motor for a few weeks.  Manuel wanted to visit with Lisa and Doug on Mamona.  Lisa and Doug were onshore but when they returned to their boat they first stopped by Lanikai to pick up Edith and me.  I was left at Pipe Dream with Bill, Manuel and Edith continued on to Mamona for a visit.  Bill then spent much time trying to get their motor started with no luck so we rowed back to Lanikai and hung the dinghy with motor off the side to work on later and got a ride to Mamona.  Lisa then returned us all to shore.  The long drive back to Mira Flores Abajo had us arriving in time to get some photos of Edith’s family.  Her mother fixed us nice cups of coffee with some "pan dulce" (a sweet bread) before we continued on to Manuel’s home.  Bill and I were totally exhausted after the long day so another early to bed night.

Thursday morning was another early one with a long drive to take a group of the children –  Manuel’s nieces and nephews, one of his sisters and two of Edith’s brothers – swimming at lake Ilopango.  It’s a huge lake and a major (local) tourist area.  The swimming was great and most enjoyable but an awfully long dusty drive to get there.  Immediately after returning from swimming it was off again to return us to Bahía and the car to Manuel's father.  This time we were accompanied by a sister, two of her children, a brother and two of his children and another nephew.  The sister was returning to her home in San Salvador, the brother (a policeman in San Salvador) would be driving the pickup after we got out and the nephew was “just for company”.  After Bill and I got out of the truck, Manuel’s  brother drove the car from Bahía to Manuel’s father’s place of work in San Salvador taking all the relatives to their desired locations along the way.

Three busy days and Bill and I were asleep by 7:30 in the evening.

Monday September 16, 2002

Friday Bill spent the morning getting Pipe Dream’s out board motor working.  The biggest problem was that the fuel tank contained much water and Bill spent a long time on the foredeck siphoning off fuel from it until he had fairly clean fuel in the tank.  Saturday Bill got our battery charger functioning again.  It’s problem turned out to be a slightly loose belt after things warmed up.  To tighten it further he had to replace the bracket with a longer one which we just happened to have on board as we had to do the same with the alternator on the main engine some years back.  Nothing is easy to work on, on a boat!!  These two chores occupied most of a day and Bill was tired and sore upon completion.  Yesterday Bill did some more grinding on the auxiliary rudder hinge but the batteries in the drill were used up fast.  Our friends from San Salvador did not show up at their Rancho this weekend so we walked down the beach to Puntilla at the Boca to enjoy a few beers at a palapa there overlooking the mouth to the estuary.

Thursday September 19, 2002

Yesterday we took off to San Salvador early to purchase tickets to leave tomorrow for another visit to Antigua, Guatemala.  That and a stop at a bank were our only "must dos" in town.  Being still very early when we finished we took a bus to the big shopping center of Metro Centro and, besides just wandering thru the mall, we ate at the sub shop there.  We were back at Terminal Sur shortly after noon to catch the bus to the coast but then had almost an hour wait for it to leave.  We did not arrive back at Bahía until almost 3:30 pm.  A swim cooled us off nicely from the long ride.  At last evening’s cruiser get-together we had a cake to celebrate Kenny's (from Linda Lea)  40^th birthday and then spent the rest of the evening with another country-western line dancing lesson.  John  of Honu Kai had been a line dancing instructor and he and Marcy decided that all the local cruisers needed to know how to do the "Tush Push".  At tonight's lesson we got some of the waiters and waitresses dancing as well!

Pipe Dream’s out board engine has a second problem that we soon discovered, it seems to only pump water when it wants too.  If the water flow is good soon after starting it runs fine until it is idled back then the flow usually stops, however if the flow is no good upon startup only stopping and re-starting may change things.  We have ignored the problem, leaving the engine on our dinghy but tied up on Lanikai and have been getting rides to shore with other kind cruisers.  Bill plans to communicate with Ferdy while we are in Antigua and do something about the motor after we return.  Our new motor is in transet and if all goes well will arrive in San Salvador before we return from Antigua as well.

Friday September 20, 2002 - Antigua, Guatemala

Off on another trip to Antigua !! We left Bahía by taxi at 4:00 AM to be at the Tica bus station in San Salvador in time for the 6:00 AM bus to Guatemala City.  John and Marcy of Honu Kai and Jean Luc of Shanti joined us on this venture, all of us desiring to take Spanish classes for one week.  The Tica Bus and then another taxi had us into Antigua before lunch.  Our first stop was at the language school where John and Marcy discovered that a family home would be available for them later in the afternoon.  Katy, the directress, told Bill and I that there would be an opening on Saturday with the wonderful family that we had lived with during our week of classes in June.  Jean Luc opted for staying in a hotel.

After checking into our favorite hotel for the night, we all joined up again for lunch at the Mexican restaurant.  Marcy and I browsed in the native crafts market, connected to the restaurant, while we waited for the food.  We then all went our own way, planning to meet up again at 6:00 PM.  Bill and I walked to the central square where we found our vendor friend from the last day of our last visit.

John and Marcy had discovered a great looking Italian restaurant that they wanted to check out for dinner, so we all wandered off to it and enjoyed a great dinner.

Saturday September 21, 2002

After a great nights sleep we walked to our home for the week and ate breakfast with the family while catching up on tales.  Then it was off to the school, our meeting place with the rest of the group.  We purchased our tickets for Sunday’s tour of Chichicastenango and Panajachel on Lake Atitlan.  Bill and I then returned home for lunch and an afternoon of relaxing and reading.

Sunday September 22, 2002

Today was such an early start that we could find no open eateries for breakfast.  Instead we purchased coffee from a vendor in the park near La Merced and Bill got a hot dog from another vendor.  Chichicastenango is a long drive away so we stopped at about the half way point for breakfast as we were not the only ones that had not eaten.  In "ChiChi", the market was as colorful as on our previous visit, but today the rains came.  Thankfully they did not start until after we had finished doing most of our looking.  The trip to Panajachel was another hour drive through rich farmland mostly on steep hill sides.  The lake was not spectacular due to the rain and dense cloud cover.  We did have a great seafood meal at one of the near-lake restaurants.  Then a rainy walk through the main street of the town lined with vendor stalls brought us to our waiting van.  The drive home was interesting because we passed through a town that was celebrating some saint’s day.  We arrived just as the15k run was ending in the town, so we got held up in the traffic jam as the runners entered the town along the same route as we were trying to follow out to the next town.   It was actually very slow going until we passed the town of Patzicia where the race started.

Friday September 27,2002

We continued to have rain much of the week due to Hurricane Isadora in the Caribbean.  It was also quite cool!  On Wednesday, we finally got a little sunshine between more spin-off storms.  Marcy and I took advantage of the clearing to walk thru the town while Bill downloaded much mail at the internet café.

It even drizzled for Thursday night fiesta at the school but the food was great even though the party was poorly attended.

Saturday September 28,2002

We moved out of our family home this morning with plans to catch the minivan to the cultural museum in the next town.  Along with Marcy, we waited for over an hour but the van never showed up so we walked.  It was a pleasant walk, perhaps 3 kilometers, and we passed through a park with a lion statue that Bill had wanted a photo of for some time so we got its picture with Bill standing next to it.  Another gingerbread church fronted on the plaza and it got photoed too.  The museum was not far from the plaza and it was quite interesting.  There were actually three museums, one displaying music instruments from the Mayan times to present, another displayed the native dress of some of the local villages and a third was a coffee plantation.  We walked back to the plaza to catch one of the local busses back to Antigua.

Dinner was another group activity at an Irish Pub that Jon Luc had discovered.  Great food and great friends finished up an interesting week together.

Sunday September 30,2002 - back to Bahía

We had a pleasant drive back to Bahía.  The five of us got one of the minivans to drive us all the way home from Antigua for $150, or $30 each.  It was finally a sunny day and we drove the coastal route, passing south of Volcan Pacaya with its plume of escaping gas.  The border crossing was fast and easy as this route is little used by commercial traffic and busses.  The drive was only 5 hours long and we arrived at the hotel in time to transport the baggage including the solar panels and new computer that Jean Luc had purchased back to the boats, (John and Mary had also made similar purchases), and enjoy a late lunch of hamburgers at the hotel.  Still being without a working outboard, we were traveling with Jean Luc.

Wednesday October 2, 2002

First thing Monday morning Bill dismantled the pump on the borrowed outboard, finding nothing wrong he reassembled it and now it seems to be working fine.  Yesterday, after grinding some on his auxiliary rudder (and it still does not fit),  Bill burned some CDs of interesting programs and information for Honu Kai's and Shanti’s new computers.

I have spent the last two days doing laundry with water brought from shore.  Then last night we got rain and lots of it.  The new hurricane Lilia is doing to us here what Isadora had done last week and dragging clouds and rain over us.

Today Bill spent the entire day getting software loaded on Jean Luc’s new computer.  Since it lacks a PCMCIA slot and no floppy, it all had to be done by burning CDs.

There were only about 7 of us for the usual Wednesday night party, but the hotel still provided a nice plate of nibblies.

Monday October 7, 2002

Friday Bill and I went into San Salvador to check on the new outboard that we ordered last June and to look at 12-volt batteries for the boat.  The outboard is "in shipping" in Florida, scheduled to leave next Tuesday (tomorrow) and expected to be here in customs by Friday.  We found deep cycle batteries to our liking at Price Smart.  We were walking over to the Metro Centro shopping mall for lunch while we figured out a plan.  As we arrived outside the mall, we were flagged down by a taxi.  Diane of Windbird , Linda Lea and Leanne of Linda Lea had traveled into town by taxi.  Linda and Leanne were leaving to Antigua by bus and Diane had a little more shopping to do before returning to Bahía.  We decided to join Diane on the return trip with our 4 batteries.  Bill and I continued into the mall, found a hamburger joint for a quick lunch and then I continued on to Metro Sur shopping mall to meet up with our friends, while Bill returned to Price Smart to purchase the batteries.  We eventually got the two girls off to the bus station and picked up Bill with batteries, finished up Diane’s shopping and returned to Bahía.  After a cooling swim we transported the batteries to the boat and hid them under the table for the night.  Saturday morning Bill was at it early removing the 4 old batteries under the stairs and replacing them with the new.  He also disconnected our other three old ones, but since their space was not needed for the time being they are being left in place.

Sunday Bill spent many hours tracking down “why the engine starts with the engine battery switched off?”  It turned out to be a bad switch but twisting one of its input bolts seemed to fix it for at least now.  Another item to eventually replace.

Yesterday we also discovered that the new belt on the alternator of the genset is bad, so today Bill replaced it.  This morning a 15 minute job turned into a 3 hour one when one of the nuts dropped into the alternator.  Removal of the alternator was required to get the nut out.

Saturday October 12, 2002

We finally seemed to make progress yesterday.  The battery project was completed with the disposal - properly on shore - of the last of the old batteries.  At high slack on Friday Bill finally succeeded in getting the wind vane rudder to latch closed!  The completion of two of our bigger projects made both of us feel good, so we celebrated with breakfast at the hotel after the batteries were delivered to the proper disposal site at the hotel.

Today I climbed the mast with the new wind feather and got it properly installed, but one of the bolts holding the bracket did not tighten properly; so it needs replacement with the next size larger but that requires tapping the hole first with the proper thread size. 

Still no new outboard, but when Bill called today he was asked to call again Monday.

Thursday October 17, 2002

Colette and Murray from Tarazed returned from the states Sunday afternoon and we all had dinner at the hotel.  Murray is sure that their cat is still alive, so after dark he took off in his dinghy to try to find Shadow.  Monday Bill and I made some "lost animal" posters for him to post around the area.  After the posting, there were even some calls from locals that thought they had seen the cat.

Tuesday we went into San Salvador for a few minor mechanical repairs and also stopped by Marinsa to check on our new outboard.  It still has not left the US as the factory is not making the 8 hp engines right now, but a 9.9 hp one was reported to be leaving the US by air for arrival here Wednesday.  Maybe we will see it at our boat on Saturday?

We had Mexican food for lunch at Metro Sur before visiting our friends Roberto and Amanda.  Bill helped Roberto with the purchase of a new computer for their office as the old Widows 95 accounting machine had died.  A nice relaxing evening was enjoyed at their home and we returned to Bahía Wednesday morning.