05/10/2008, El Salvador
We left Bahia del Sol early on Friday in order to safely make it over the bar to exit Bahia and then over another bar to enter Bahia Jipuilisco where Barillas Marina is located. Exiting Bahia was a bit of a roller coaster ride with us taking a few waves over the bow and pounding down the back of other waves. There were a few times when I thought my stomach had left my body. I looked back a few times to see Moody Blues pounding through the same waves and wondered if their boat was making the same disturbing crashing sounds that ours was.
Five hours later we were at the entrance to Bahia Jipuilisco awaiting a pilot to guide us over the bar and safely up the 10 mile channel to Barillas Marina. The pilot, who is an employee of the marina guided us around the breakers and shoals but we spent an hour abeam to the choppy waves, which was a bit uncomfortable. Once secured to a mooring ball we checked in with immigration and set about exploring the marina property.
Barillas Marina is a cross between a marina and a resort. It is totally isolated so we are forced to relax here by enjoying the pool, wireless internet, bar, restaurant and beautifully manicured property that was once a coconut plantation. The downside is that it is HOT and HUMID here with very little breeze. We found Bahia del Sol to be much breezier which kept the bugs away and the boat a bit cooler. Here the temperature inside the boat bottoms out at 90F at night which of course makes sleeping difficult.The other option is to sleep in the cockpit but then you are devoured by mosquitoes who seem to thrive on insect repellent. Last night we experienced lightening thunder and rain .... ahh, we must be in Central America at the start of the rainy season!
Picture above is of the dolphins that we had playing in our bow wake part of the trip from Bahia del Sol to Barillas Marina.
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05/11/2008 | Ray (ray dott mccormack att comcast dott net)
Pretty cool dude. While I was freezing my toosh off on offshore was thinking about you guys.
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05/12/2008 | Shirlee Smith (sas dott solstice att gmail dott com)
Great photo of the dolphins. I just emailed you to look for Jovietal, a Canadian family we met at Puesta del Sol.
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Our Photo Album has been updated. Click on the Photo Album link, which is to the right of this post and above the Current Position map.
Once you select the Photo Album you want to view you can click on each picture to enlarge it and view the comments.
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05/06/2008, El Salvador
We are currently in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. San Salvador is a surprisingly large city and offers all the familiarity of home - chain restaurants and giant outdoor malls seem to be popping up all over the suburban area of the city.
It is here where we reconnected with our tour guide Jorge. He and his wife were kind enough to meet us for dinner last night and take us to the market for a bit of provisioning today.
To our fellow cruisers who find themselves in El Salvador we can not say enough good things about Jorge and the services he can provide. The country has a lot to offer and Jorge makes it easy to explore and learn all about it. We highly recommend contacting him, it is a shame to be in El Salvador and not travel inland. His contact information is listed here -
http://www.tourinelsalvador.com/
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