We spent the rest of our days in El Salvador staying pretty close to the marina.
We have maxed out when it comes to shopping and site seeing and just wanted to enjoy where we were. The marina is just inside the estuary (Estero Jaltepeque) and is a very relaxing place to leave your boat. Moorage was reasonable and for an extra $14 per week per boat you get full use of two swimming pools, one ocean side, one estuary side, $1 beer, 30% off food in their restaurant, decent showers and 50% off laundry. The Annual Cruiser's Rally was beginning this week, hosted by Bill and Jean and sponsored by the Marina and Hotel.
While we were gone a few more boats had arrived. We were delighted to welcome our fellow Canadians, Wayne and Sheila (Away She Goes) whom we had met in Chiapas.
The Rally itself is a destination rally and begins in La Cruz. Bill and Jean have arranged many events for the upcoming month - no pressure - get involved or not. There is a weekly potluck at Lou and Lynn's,
happy hour and snacks at poolside, weekly BBQ chicken dinner at Jan's, guided tours, prizes. We had not signed up for the rally but were invited to take part in the initial get together. Bill and Jean are amazing people, friendly and generous to a fault. Bill takes the pictures of your boat as you come and go across the bar, helps you get parts (stainless steel threaded bar to fix our bow sprit), arrange water delivery to the boat and on and on.
I did mention the chicken BBQ. Jan has been on the island for 14 years teaching English to the local children. The families on this island are very isolated, mainly because they do not have the money to travel. One of her day excursions was to take the kids over to the ocean side of the estuary. Can you believe some of these kids had never seen the ocean - and we are talking a 10 minute panga ride and a 5 minute walk away. Jan is very proud of her kids and so she should be. But mostly she should be proud of herself. She has had a few kids make it through high school and has one girl ready for college. But this school costs money, mostly for the books, so Jan put's on this chicken dinner every week and proceeds goes towards buying books.
So if any of you are looking for a cause at Christmas time this is a worthy one. And I can guarantee that all the money she gets does go towards the books and pens and pencils and paper that she requires.
She told us the story of this one young girl who was getting ready to complete her studies for Grade 11. At Christmas she asked all of the kids to write a letter asking what they would like for Christmas. This girl wrote: "I would like a book". Jan instructed her to write a more detailed letter. She wrote: "I would like the Grade 11 book for Mathematics." Now what high school girl do you know who would ask for a Math book for Christmas. Anyway, Jan went to every bookstore she could find in San Salvador but could not find a copy of the book. It was not till February that she finally came across a copy in a small out of the way store. So she bought it and gave it to this girl. She immediately opened it up and started to read. This girl has now completed her high school and will be going on to future studies.
You can donate to Jan's school through penpal. Here e-mail address is joyadejaltepeque@yahoo.ca. You can also find her on Facebook under Janice Kurz Turner for pictures of Jan's English Beach School.
Now the repair job is done on the bowsprit. Two broken pins that support the bowsprit!
It was necessary to get this done as the bowsprit takes a lot of the weight from the anchor during heavy seas. Now it looks like new!
We had provisioned on our road trip so the cupboards were pretty full. I could use a few more fresh vegetables and fruit though. I heard that a local truck went down the road every afternoon around 4. I got Tina and her two kids to walk over to the ocean side and play in the waves for a while
and then we proceeded to wait for the vegetable truck. A few cows walked by.
Who owns this road?
4 o'clock means plus or minus and the kids were getting antsy so I waited by myself. It was worth it. I got 6 tomatoes, 2 red onions, 3 white onions, watermelon, bananas and 2 large green peppers for $3.50. I gave the girl $4.00.
So on 19-Mar at 1300 we cleared out with Customs and Immigration.
1405: away from the dock with a little help from our friends.
Now leaving the estuary follows the same criteria as entering. At high slack tide we were guided across the bar by Bill and Rogelio. It was fun! I think I got it on the Go Pro. If it looks like a wave was going to break, David backed off on the throttle so that it would break before us. Then he would power up so the wave would not carry us back. It was a bit of a roller coaster ride but never scary or unsafe.
1434: across the bar and on our way to Honduras
We be surfing again!
A big splash!
No, that is not a tornado behind us. It is smoke from the burning of the sugar cane fields.
Okay. We are over the bar!
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