November 25, 2007

Anchored....


OK, this is going to sound weird - We are far from pulling up the anchor.
Michel has begun to install some of the big stuff we brought down ie: the watermaker et al.
This involved tearing up the boat floorboards, beds, and all. This was no smooth exersize. I have found out the a "Cruisers wife" sole occupation is packing and repacking boat lockers. Perhaps this is why we seem to be the only ones capable of finding things on the boat.
We were getting in the way and getting on each others nerves. Michel was getting totally frustrated trying to install the watermaker. ( I was told it would take a couple of days - it took 2 weeks) We had a little family chat as I began to want to bail. The resolve was to rent a house nearby for a couple months while the boat gets worked on. Then I rented a truck to haul boat parts around. We have a really nice house with a pool and a beautiful garden. We are getting spoiled. If anyone cares to visit plane fares run around 650 bucks from Seattle and we have lots of room for company. We are landlocked our property is across from the beach.
Here's the girls enjoying the pool....are we going to get any work done?

Josee plays with fish

Beaching it


Returning to our boat after a hard day of surfing. Our boat is parked on Costa del Sol along peninsula. The marina spans both the Pacific side and the River "estaro"
where we keep our boat it is about a 10 minute walk.

Window shopping


Michel starts to enjoy shopping through the window buying eggs and Cantaloupes.
I can't believe that he is comfortable driving through the maze of vendors.
Holding the eggs here is Giovani.

voodoo section


Dave and I purchased enough fruit and veggies to last well over a week for just under 5 bucks we literally could not carry anymore. Everything is sold in units of quarters or dollars. A bag of limes 12 for a quarter 3 cantaloupes for 1 dollar.
Here is the voodoo section offering dried animals for all you ailments

El Salvadorian drive through shopping


We are in San Salvador trying to get access to our "crates" the container ship arrived last night and they should be unloaded today. To kill time, the girls went to the mall which is like any mall in America with extravagant prices that go with it. At these malls you can get your car "detailed" and washed while you shop.
I chose to shop where the locals shop "down town". Our translator thought I was nuts. I had a blast wandering through the labyrinth of amazing shops filled with fresh produce. It's really an odd experience I would not stretching the truth to say that I believe that there were over a hundred booths selling the same thing. Thousands of booths that extended for miles. Michel waited in the car with our El Salvadorian friend "Giovani" and I explored a corner of the market with a tall Canadian friend "Dave" who towered over all the vendors. We got a little lost- I was beginning to get a little freaked out - thinking we will never get out - lucky enough we had our cheap cell phones. Michel called us and we were literally a half a block away...it was strange.
Cell phones here are easier to buy than propane we drove for hours trying to find the one propane shop that will fill a barbeque tank.
You can purchase a phone for 16 dollars it comes with 10 dollars worth of minutes and a 10 dollar coupon for "Super Selecto" the equivalent to Super Store.

November 15, 2007

Trieste at anchor

Camerones


We drank a lot of liquid following Debora's meal of shredded fish and shrimp

November 14, 2007

a home cooked meal


We did a little side trip last weekend to the Bay of Fonseca. The drive was about 3 hours from our anchorage involving a trip over the mountains and volcanoes that separate the East from the West. These mountains provided a natural boarder for the insurgent gorilla (left) movement and the Military Gov't right. Our journey took us into the "bad lands" of the left. It is in the east where we saw a noticeable change of landscape of rural farms with impoverished farmers working small plots of land with corn and a few cattle. The land reform act enacted with the peace agreement in the 1990's moved the working poor from the servitude of working on large ranches to landownership of small plots of land and co-operative farm arrangements that failed. I am told they failed because the indigenous farmers lacked the management skills and resources to run the businesses. ( sound familiar?) I am not explaining this well but what I see is that the poor believed that owning land made them rich, however unless you do something with the land, it has no value. Pictured here is Deborah who's father was a ranch hand who received a plot of land on the estuary considered prime land. She lives in a humble house with a cook stove and a couple of hammocks. Our friend called her to ask if she would cook us a meal. She was extremely excited to have guests and used all her resources to get us the best seafood available. The result were the largest prawns or "camerones"
that I have ever seen. We sat in broken plastic chairs in her yard to enjoy the salt laden seafood dinner. My tongue singed with the salt and I started to worry about my blood pressure. I killed the salt with lots of limes that were growing over my head.

November 13, 2007

the land


El Salvador is boarded by 5 Volcanoes, this one San Miguel is still active

November 12, 2007

More fishing pics


The trophies, Ford Explorer, and outboard engines.

the big dorado

All the "Bill fish" under 600 pounds had to be released. There was one fish brought in at 578 pounds. The boat was disqualified because they were under the required amount. Talk about a bummer....
The Dorado were brought in and these 2 were the winners. There was no "weight" restrictions given on dorado fish, these are known as Dolphin fish, or Mahi Mahi, they are like Halibut in taste and texture.
I enjoyed eating our catch.
( we got 3)

Fishing tourney


Billfishing or game fishing is a huge sport in Central America. Each season there are tournaments hosted by several Central American countries offering prizes of cars and Rolex watches. From my observations of both this years and last tourney it is really an exercise of fun and comradery as well as bravado for the wealthy elite minority of Central America rather than the reward of receiving prizes.
It is obvious there "old money" and "new money" colliding- and I couldn't help but be amused in observing the behaviour involved in the tournament. (Michel says I analyze too much.) Women are virtually non existent at this event ( other than the prize girls) I felt a little awkward . A female judge is considered bad luck, however my boat received me well. I had the best food, and laughs so far in my stay in Central America. It was fun to be invited to participate as a judge and observer I am considering an invitation to Nicaragua for another tournament in December.
My job was to video tape each catch to make sure one individual landed the fish and to record that the fish was indeed caught on the day of the tournament. It was a catch and release tourney. My boat.."Show Time" was a boat of wealthy Nicaraguans who loved to party...the music was cranked, and the rum flowed. We were leading the pack with an early catch of Marlin but fell behind on day two with only Dorado and a couple of Sailfish. Shown here is our Sailfish.
Lynda

November 9, 2007

Market

it's too hot in there


Genevieve refuses to enter the Bakery because of the bees and heat.

cakes


I suppose they call these "honey cakes" given the fact that they were covered in Bee's

Cookies

shopping


Shopping in El Salvador is an all day experience. First you have to take the "chicken bus" to town. These buses are usually adorned with either religious or Hollywood icons and almost always have stereos cranked up to the maximum level, often to distortion. If you are really unlucky, you may catch a bus with a boom box as well as the usual large box speakers hung from rusty wires.
I am told that there is one phrase that English people don't have to learn - that is: "can you turn up the volume?"
Here we hope to share some of of shopping images:
This is our trip to La Herradura. We get there by dingy up the estuary it is a rough and tumble town most tourists never visit. I was told that there are a whole bunch of El Salvadorian gangsters who were kicked out of the US for being bad dudes living there. It's a little intimidating walking around this village, as we recieve a lot of stares and comments. Most are willing to help and want to sell something. Long gone are my Superstore one stop shops. We actually have to hunt for stuff around here. Today we are off for produce. Banana's avacados, tomatoes, cukes, cabbage, onions, garlic, potatoes, papaya, peppers limes and smelly cheese is usually what you can find in the Saturday central market. The local stores have little to sell beyond beer, candy and cell phone minute cards.

November 6, 2007

Kids just wanna have fun


Kids can certainly be resourceful when they want to be. Chantal had scrounged up a surf board from a cruiser here and we rigged up a wake board off of our dingy.
By using a bridal tied to a life jacket for floating line and a chunk of rubber hose for a handle, we constructed a wake board set up. The girls call this land locking. The locals got quite a chuckle watching the girls surf around the estuary. Apparently they started something. Yesterday we saw someone else try the same set up. It is a bit of a chore starting up but one the pressure is off the board its easy. Josee was the first to get up and surf around. These girls had this set up the first week we were here.

Chantal is a good boat operator and is enjoying her time here..its fun to have her here.
Genevieve enjoys meeting all the other cruisers and hearing about the cruising areas around here.
When the swell is good the kids are at the beach...when the tide is high slack they are "landlocking" and then there is school.....

The Rainy Season


I am told there are 2 seasons in El Salvador; the Dry and the Wet. Upon our arrival, we really began to understand wet. We spent the first couple of days in a hotel at the Marina hoping to make the transition from land to boat a little easier. On our first day our toilet flooded the entire room, soaking all our luggage while we were enjoying our selves at the beach. We had not unpacked yet, did I mention we had 500 pounds of luggage? It contained mostly marine electronics so we were pretty freaked out about possible damage. Lucky we fared well, the only damage was a microphone and school text book that some how disappeared in the clean up process.
At first the rain came in fits and starts, mainly in the evening accompanied by thunder and lots of lightning. Then it really got wet just as if someone turned on a shower. This down pour lasted lasted for 6 days...my job was now is mold control.
Here I am wiping off the mildew...vinegar and bleach are my weapons of choice
I purchased an airconditioner in San Salvador - Which changed our lives. Josee and I had been suffering from strange looking rashes due to the moisture. All of our clothing and bedding was damp dispite repeated efforts of drying. The air conditioner sucked out most of the moisture and we dried up the rest using drying crystals and fans. By clearing out all wet material off the boat and ventalation we are dryer. The trick is not to let any wet stuff stay in the boat.