Usulutan March 2008

The small town nearby the marina is called Usulutan. We went there, by minivan, along with 20 or so other cruisers. The minivan has an armed guard. Dan, our cruising buddy, says “We’re just this big jack-pot rolling down the road”, and I think he’s right!

Here Lorraine and I are sampling some kind of fruit we’ve never seen before…tasted kind of like a fig??

Party dress anyone? Seems a bit incongruous with these surroundings, doesn’t it?

The tomato and green pepper seller.

Typical market scene. All the food and people look clean, but the streets are filthy and full of garbage.

Corn anyone??

I loved this lady with the eggs on her head. They do a lot of carrying on their heads,here.

This is a corn grinder. They dump the corn in the top, add water, and out the other side comes the masa for making the tortillas.

This is a great shot…good for a painting if I ever get the time to do one.

Another great building.

We are here in El Salvador for Semana Santa (or Easter Holy week). We went into town for Good Friday, to watchthe procession. Kids are doing street art here.

They colour salt and spread it out in the drawn designs.

Here they are getting ready for the procession.

This old lady kept peeking around the corner of the building to see if the parade had begun.

What an interesting shot!

The female vendors all have these fancy aprons. This one is a little hard to see, so I’ll try to get another shot. They are all lace and trim, and are worn by everyone no matter how dirty the job ther are doing. I bought 2 for $9 as souvenirs. This lady is waiting for the procession.

The procession begins with a very heavy cross being carried down the road.

It is followed by Christ carrying his cross. This float is carried by the people below. No wheeled floats here.

Following this, is a statue of a priest. Not sure who he is. After this, all the people fall in behind and the march lasts several hours, with periodic stops at shrines representing the twelve stations of the cross.

All the people buy these coloured eggs, filled with confetti. The kids crack them on their heads, but preferably on the heads of their siblings or parents.

What would Good Friday be without a trip to Wendy’s?? What a nice change…air conditioning and food you recognize!! Never thought I’d be happy to be in a Wendy’s!!!

We are off to Guatemala, in the next couple of days. We hope to visit Antigua, Lago Atitlan, and Tikal. More photos to follow upon our return. When we get back, hopefully our new oil cooler will be here and we can install it and move on to Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Barillas Monkey Visit March 2008

From Barillas Marina, we took a walking tour to visit a family caring for monkeys in the jungle. This was our guide sharing sugar cane with us…a little too sweet for me.

This is a cane cutter…couldn’t have met a friendlier, happier chap! What a dirty, filthy, horrible, hot job this would be…but his spirits couldn’t have been higher. He was happy to have his photo taken and didn’t want $...though everyone gave him something.

This is his wife, lest you think it’s just a man’s job. The cane is burnt first, so that is why they are so black.

I don’t know how they can stand the heat dressed like that. It is at least 32 in the shade. They both have bare feet too!

We finally arrived at the house in the jungle. What a hovel, and who knows how many people live there. Some brought gifts (I would have, but I originally thought we were just seeing jungle monkeys, not a family as well). We gave money. Nakia brought a soccer ball…what a hit that was!!

I can’t express the poverty here. The photos don't even come close.

Even the dogs and chickens are skinny!

This little guy is just all ears and bones.

I finally tore myself away from the house, and found the spider monkeys. What an interesting sight!

One was caged as he had been raised in captivity and the rest of the wild monkeys picked on him. The others swung back and forth from the trees and munched on bananas that we brought. See the baby under her arm?

The story is that during the civil war, the soldiers were killing and eating them. So, this family tried to protect some. This is the head of the family offering a banana.

This is their well and water system. They can haul water out of the well, pour in in at this end and it runs down to the barrel at the other end. There they do their food prep and laundry.

This is the little guy who got the soccer ball…now enjoying a candy treat.

Barillas Marina March 2008

The fun was not over! Once we reached El Salvador, we had to get into the Barillas Marina. It is in a mangrove swamp. To get inside, one has to motor along this breaking reef and try to remain calm.

Once again, the photos don’t do it justice. There is something pretty creepy about motoring along a reef when you’ve already had a transmission that won’t go into forward or reverse gear!!

A panga lead us in and we had to keep our noses and asses in line…and very close together!!

A little more rock’n and roll’n!!

Once inside, it was very calm…we may never leave.

We headed up the mangrove and it was obvious, from the get-go, that it was a different country. Brightly coloured pangas and poorer looking people.

This area looked much like Indonesia to us.

A fishermen’s meeting.

Oxcart on the beach…don’t see so much of that in Mexico any more.

Nakia being tied to her mooring.

And Fortuitous on hers…a big sigh of relief from her crew!!

This shot is looking out towards our mooring in the channel. Notice the smoke pots to keep away mosquitoes and no-see-ums.

Looking the other direction, you can see all the huge shrimpers. They have to come in along the same reef, but take another route up to this spot. I’m sure they hardly notice all that rocking and rolling outside.

Barillas is a lovely marina. These palapas all have plug-ins and Wifi. The pool is in behind them.

Another beautiful sunset shot.

Within a couple of days of arrival, so arrived the bees!! We’d had them in PV and we think that maybe the remnants of the hive attracted them again.

He spent 4 hours shaking halyards and swatting…this is his catch. We were supposed to be having our “thank you dinner” for our buddy boats…for standing by when the tranny broke. Needless to say, that didn’t happen.

At 6 the next morning (and 90 degrees) Ralph donned his Taiga, long pants (velcroed at the bottom), running shoes, rubber gloves, and a bee-keeper hat fashioned from his tilly with netting I sewed on the brim.

Up he went and plugged all the holes with netting and bits and pieces for a pool noodle. Of course, he also took one of our steak knives…rather than any other old crappy knife…guess where the steak knife is now??!! !!@@$%&***!! He came down, showered and rested for about 5 minutes…then had to go up the mizzen for the same thing as they looked to be moving in there!! At least he maintained his sense of humor!

We finally had our appie thank you night! These are, left to right, Ralph, Linda & John (Nakia), Dan & Lorraine (Zephyrus), and me (Cheryl).