A Stop in Nicaragua

We left El Salvador headed for Costa Rica but after 2 days and 1 night we decided to duck into Puesta del Sol in Nicaragua. Al's figured out, once again, what was ailing the refrigeration system. I'm glad we resealed the toe-rail, we had lots of rain on the way and it looks like we cured most of our leaks. A few pics of area and local kids

The Engagement Party

We flew up to California to help Karlene and Thaddeus celebrate their engagement. We had a great time, Jean and Mike (groom's parents) put on a great party. They served Chinese food, hence my outfit.

Macaw Mountain

While in the town of Copan Ruinas we visited the bird reserve, "Macaw Mountain" with Daniel, Mario and Jorge. It was an extra special treat for Daniel, being an avid bird watcher, he was able to go bird watching early the nest morning with a like minded employee of the reserve.

Here are some pics of us with the birds...Yikes!!!
We also enjoyed dinner at some local restaurants where the waitresses carry the beverages atop their heads. I enjoyed the museums and the friendly local folks as well.

Copan Photos

Pics of Tikal

some of the areas in Tikal


Temples of Tikal
I don't know what I was thinking...zipline no thank you next time. My question should have been "What exactly is a canopy tour?"
At Tikal site

Visiting with the Maya

Sailfisher spent 7 weeks in the Bahia del Sol Marina and Resort in El Salvador. During the time at the dock we took advantage and did some inland trips. We first went into Guatemala, to see the sights of Antigua and to the Mayan Ruins of Tikal. Once we returned from that trip we went back to the boat for just enough time to do some laundry and pack to fly out to California for 2 weeks, which turned into 3 weeks instead. Upon our return from Los Angeles we took another trip into Honduras to visit the ruins of Copan.

The Maya settled in the Tikal area as early as 700 BC, by 250 AD ,by the beginning of the Classic period Tikal had become an important city, by the mid 6^th century, Tikal sprawled over 30 sq. km and had a population of over 100,000. The classic period ended in about 900 with the Maya beginning to suffer a mysterious collapse of their civilization. The Spanish missionaries who later came to the area are said to have destroyed much of what the Mayans had left behind. My guess is that they didn't like what they read; could be something to do with December 21, 2012. By about 1200 the site was all but abandoned; the jungle took over the site, burying the temples with a green lush foliage. Tikal was not rediscovered until 1848.

Copan is not as big a site, there are older and bigger Mayan cities but Copan was the most advanced in many arts, graced with stone carvings created by skilled artisans. The common phrase about TIkal and Copan is that, "Tikal, with it's tall temples is like New York and Copan with it's cultural riches is like Paris".

Last of Our Mexico Daze

We're winding up our time in Mexico, let's see it's been about 2 years that we have been enjoying the sites, sounds, tastes and smells of Mexico.





We have been doing plenty of traveling since February. We arrived in Huatulco early February to Marina Chaque, having sailed down from Zihuatenejo and some other small anchorages. Marina Chaque is a nice place where we were able to meet or reacquaint

ourselves with other cruisers. We took an inland trip to Oaxaca. Oaxaca was great, it has it all, night life, art, archeology, politics, Monte Alban ruins, restaurants, cobble stone streets, street artists,crafts (many from Guatemala) and musicians. We took a room close to the central plaza so we were never too far from the festivities that took place around Valentine's Day. There were balloon vendors who had so many balloons that I couldn't figure out how they stayed grounded.

We went to our first Mayan ruins of our trip, Monte Alban, a strategic site high above the neighboring towns. It gave me a taste to see more which we will as we head south. We took a tour to see where and how the black clay pots are made and also a place where they make those wildly painted phantasmagorical mystical wooden figurines. We're now familiar with the different foods of this region; tlayudas are huge tortillas that are spread with black beans and cheese or just about anything else that is handy. As I already said Oaxaca had it all, I loved it, the high altitude makes for cool wonderful weather, a change from the heat of Huatulco. I recommend Oaxaca for the next time you think you'd like to venture into Mexico.

We did take another side trip, one I've been dreaming of for so very long but I'll tell you about that sometime soon when I have adsorbed it all myself.

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.