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

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.

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.....