History
The Pipil Indians, descendants of the Aztecs, likely migrated to the region in the 11th century. In 1525, Pedro de Alvarado, a lieutenant of Cortés's, conquered El Salvador.
El Salvador, with the other countries of Central America, declared its independence from Spain on Sept. 15, 1821, and was part of a federation of Central American states until that union dissolved in 1838. For decades after its independence, El Salvador experienced numerous revolutions and wars against other Central American republics. From 1931 to 1979 El Salvador was ruled by a series of military dictatorships.
In 1969, El Salvador invaded Honduras after Honduran landowners deported several thousand Salvadorans. The four-day war became known as the “football war” because it broke out during a soccer game between the two countries.
In the 1970s discontent with societal inequalities, a poor economy, and the repressive measures of dictatorship led to civil war between the government, ruled since 1961 by the right-wing National Conciliation Party (PCN), and leftist antigovernment guerrilla units, whose leading group was the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). The U.S. intervened on the side of the military dictatorship, despite its scores of human rights violations. Between 1979 and 1981, about 30,000 people were killed by right-wing death squads backed by the military. José Napoleón Duarte—a moderate civilian who was president from 1984 to 1989—offered an alternative to the political extremes of right and left, but Duarte was unable to end the war. In 1989, Alfredo Cristiani of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) was elected. On Jan. 16, 1992, the government signed a peace treaty with the guerrilla forces, formally ending the 12-year civil war that had killed 75,000.
In 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated the country, leaving 200 dead and over 30,000 homeless. In Jan. and Feb. 2001, major earthquakes struck El Salvador, damaging about 20% of the nation's housing. An even worse disaster beset the country in the summer when a severe drought destroyed 80% of the country's crops, causing famine in the countryside.
In 2004, Antonio Saca of ARENA was elected president. The nation implemented a free-trade agreement (CAFTA) with the U.S. in March 2006, the first Central American country to do so.
September 16, 2007
The Containers
One of the most difficult things about buying a boat away from your home port is getting all the stuff you need or think you need to the boat.
Add on the difficulty of getting it through several customs and border hassles this makes for a lot of head scratching.
We tossed around the idea of getting our stuff down via motor home. The idea: we would disguise everying as RV equipment. We nuked this idea after hearing about many horror stories of border crossings involving several bond issues, not to mention getting a truck and trailer suitable for the trip...
I stopped mid stream and as we were purusing RV trailers.. Heck are we sailing or R'Ving!
Thanks to a lot of networking on Michel's part we were able to hook up with an El Salvador business man interested in starting a marina. He really was an asset in getting our ball rolling as far as shipping goes.
So we will give it a shot and wait for the 3 containers to arrive. $$$$$
We are shipping a huge generator, fridges, anchors, chain and lots of other boat paraphernalia...I keep asking about the water line...Michel assures me we have lots of room.
He certainly has a lot of projects in these crates. Being a cabinet worker he just could not resist building something for the boat. He has included a new drawer system, dining table and navigation station cabinet. ( and all the woodworking tools) oh, yeah, apparently I am starting a canvas business too. We could not get our Bimini built in Canada so I have do this myself. Along with all the crates is sunbrella and a whole wack of industrial sewing equipment. Every time I turn abound another thousand bucks falls out of my pocket.
Just to get the girls through the school year cost 1700.00 bucks and 5 boxes of School supplies! This should be interesting at the customs end in El Salvador.
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