First day in El Salvador

I've not posted anything about our trip to Oaxaca yet, I've got to put some time into it first but for now here's some pics, then read about my first day in El Salvador.

The sun gets an early start at heating up the day here; it was 6 AM when I opened my eyes to a bright sun gleaming down onto the V-berth thru the hatch. It’s my first night of not having to stand watch during the night so I figured I can be lazy and stay in bed to finish off my current read. That done I got ready to go out to have a look see. The dock I

walked up is a wooden floating dock with signs of age but in much better shape that the docks back in the Nuevo Vallarta Marina in Puerto Vallarta. At the end of the dock is the bar and restaurant, passing that, I crossed over a wide wooden boardwalk, it reminds me of the board walks in Coney Island, and that’s going back a good many years. The pool was being cleaned, a couple of cruisers were setting up their sewing machine in a big empty room, a nice place to be out of the sun to get some work done. I walked along a drive that is the entrance and exit to the Bahia del Sol Resort, Casino and Marina. As I walked I saw pheasant, big colorful parrots and even a few sheep and other birds that I would like to say that I can identify but I can’t, sorry. The drive is lined with tall palms; mango trees as well as colorful flowering trees fill in the landscaping gaps. Across from the entrance to the resort there’s a military base, we’ve already been told that’s where we have to go when we check out of the country. Once on the main road it’s less picturesque, a two lane road with not very much traffic but the traffic that does go by goes by at lightning speed. The bus that went by me had me scrambling for as far off to the side as I could manage. This must be the bus route; I

think, when a bus approaches a bus stop it starts honking its horn for about a quarter mile to give a heads up to any prospective passengers and/or victims. On the rest of my walk I saw the entry to another hotel or two, a few lots for sale, a dive shop, a few restaurants, the smoldering remains to a few rubbish fires, and a couple of tiendas. I stopped into one tienda, inside there was plenty of cold beers and cokes, knock off crocs, a few sundries, and taking up an entire corner of the store was a big floor to ceiling cage with parakeets. Next door to the tienda there was a cinder block house with a tin roof and Eminem blaring objections about his mother’s parenting skills. After about a mile or so I headed back. On my way I spotted a station wagon parked in front of a restaurant, the wagon was equipped with a hanging scale near the tailgate; a woman was weighing a few yellow skinned dead chickens, no doubt tonight’s special. Here as well as in Mexico the skin on chickens is more yellow than those I’ve seen in the markets in the states, engineering miracles at work, I guess. Those yellow chickens remind me of the poultry place that I used to go to with my Mom when I was only about 6 years old. I can remember how the place smelled, and the noise of the place; the chickens in wooden crates complaining loudly their fate.

Puerto Escondido and Puerto Angel.

The trip down to Puerto Escondido was a relatively easy overnight jaunt. We liked the combination of Mexican town with tourist area, surfing, great beach and of course an easy dinghy landing is always a plus in my book. The central market was teaming with people, produce and colors; I took lots of pictures, sometimes I get strange looks when I zero in on big baskets of chilies or the head of a pig (most butchers have a good sense of humor). Reviewing my photos, I notice I’ve taken several pig head pics, I guess the look on their faces may say something about their fate. The central markets is one of my favorite places to watch people and take pictures. We stayed a few days, long enough to play on the beach and find a favorite taco stand then say good-bye.

Our next anchorage is Puerto Angel. The guide books say you can tuck in close in behind the rocks but we just couldn’t find the sweet spot for good holding. We put the anchor down once but brought it up again when we saw a group of kids swimming out to the boat. Once they get to the boat, they usually want to get aboard to dive off and that can go on for a while. So we just moved out of their reach and spent the night, leaving early the next day heading for Huatulco.