March 15, 2007, Antigua, Guatemala
Were you wondering if I got home from San Salvador safe? Thanks for worrying :) I did make it back safe and sound after taking two wild city buses and then one long distance bus from the Terminal Del Sur in San Salvador back to Bahia Del Sol. By the way, now I know where all the old school buses go. No kidding, it is true. There are thousands of buses here and they are all old school buses. Some are repainted in wild colors and some still have the name of some small town in Wyoming painted on the side.
This morning, we left Bahia Del Sol, El Salvador and headed to the small quaint town of Antigua, Guatemala. It's a very historic and well preserved town. While I saw only four other caucasians the whole time in San Salvador I have seen a ton of them here. We just arrived so haven't checked out the town yet but I can tell you that it is full of colonial buildings, some ruined, and is a beautiful valley near Guatamela city. Itīll be great.
To get here we had a couple of options. Choice one was to take a long list of chicken buses and worse, arriving here after about 12 hours of travel. When I say arriving, I mean if we were lucky.
The distance we had to travel today was about 400km and that is HUGE on Central American roads, if you can call them that. If you think that Mexico backroads are dangerous then Guatemalan roads make them look like a freeway. Dodging cows, trucks, open manholes, and people just walking along is normal. One minute you are doing 100k the next second you have slow to 5k.
Instead of trying this huge trip on a bus we hired the cook from the little hotel where the boat is moored to drive us. It cost us $200 US for the 7 hour trip for the three of us. He has a very nice clean van! I feel bad for him as he now has to turn around and drive all the way back!!
There are many more stories from this trip but they will have to wait until some other time!
March 13, 2007, San Salvador, El Salvador
We have a day or two to kill before we head inland to Guatemala so on the spur of the moment this morning I decided on a solo side trip to the big city of San Salvador. The Lonely Planet didn't recommend it as a tourist destination but it would be a shame to miss it since I am so close.
As it turns out there is a direct bus right from the Marina to San Salvador, about 2 hours away - how convenient. A bunch of us all boarded the bus. Everyone but me was going to a small town nearby to hit a bank machine and look around. The bus was not too bad, like an old beat up transit bus but it had padded seats (sort of.)
We were off and screaming down the road. All seemed fine on this 'direct' bus until it pulled over in the middle of nowhere and the bus helper guy picked up my stuff, mumbed something in spanish, and ushered me very quickly out the door. How dare him! I even showered. As it turns out this bus does NOT go to San Salvador. From what I gathered I had to change busses. The other cruisers chuckled, wished me luck, and waved as the bus drove off leaving me on the side of a dusty road. The only thing around was a piece of sheet metal shading some very sad looking fruit for sale. I scratched my head, wished I was home in front of the TV and crossed the road...
I figured that there must be some other bus around. Luckily I spied a couple of red toyota vans nearby. I asked if they went to San Salvador and he nodded and then spoke so fast I couldn't understand him. I was very skeptical if he was really going to where I wanted to go but I figured than anywhere was better than were I currently was.
I climbed into the van with about 8 other people and wished everyone good morning as is the custom. It was full but not too crowded... or so I thought.
Very soon we headed off down the highway, actually in the direction of San Salvador! Then, it got interesting! Every mile or so he would stop and pick up MORE people. I was chuckling to myself, while chewing on my kneecap, when the van suddently had 17 passengers. It was unbelivable. As we drove on he kept honking at people inviting more on board. Just when I thought there was no way that more could fit in he load up again. Now, we're at 26 people but lucking 4 of them are very small childern. No problem, yeah sure. But, can we fit more???? As I found out, the the answer is always yes. The four tiny childen got off and 5 (count em, five) huge samoan mama's climbed in. I'm sure the suspension would have compressed if it wasn't bottomed out already! Unless you have been there you can't imagine how crowded the bus was! People were on top of people, on top of people. It was so crowded that the sliding door couldn't close. This is how we careened down the freeway passing trucks left and right. Since I am writing this I guess my time has not yet come to leave this world. Oh yeah, the total cost for a ride about about 60km.... a grand total of 68c.
Now I'm here in the big city. It is big indeed and very, very poor. It looks like an extremely huge and beat up version of a Mexican city. The centro square and market are packed with people selling all kinds of stuff, most of it very used. Many of the shirts for sale were hand offs from other countries. Everything is very cheap.
But I have found another side to the city. Over in the University District there is a ton of money. It's clean, nice, and every american fast food chain is here. The exact opposite to centro. It's quite head spinning.
Tomorrow I repeat my adventure getting here and try to find a way back to Bahia Del Sol. Wish me luck on finding a bus that actually goes where they say...
March 12, 2007, Bahia Del Sol, El Salvador
We arrived off the dreaded sandbar guarding the entrance to Bahia Del Sol about 3am last night. I dodged a few fishboats and then turned the helm over to the Skipper, John, as we dropped the anchor to await high tide. The only time you can get over the bar is at high tide and even then it is touch and go. The bar is open to the full force of the pacific swells and the break mightily.
At high tide you call Murray and he comes out in his Panga to guide you in. The trick is to hit the wait just a few yards off the bar and then follow a breaking wave right over the bar. If your timing is right a wave breaks in front of you and then another breaks behind you. This is the same technique I used to surf land my dinghy! Doing it onboard a 50' trawler is another story. As soon as Murray said "go" John floored it and we made it across smooth as silk! Other boats have been pooped and suffered significant damange. Click the link to our videoas to see a video of us crossing the bar.
We tied up to a little hotel with a little 10 slip marina. They also have a bar on stilts over the calm waters of the bay and a great big pool. It is definitely not fancy, but it is very calm and relaxing. Because there are not many places to anchor down here it is also cruiser central. I'm in the bar right now, surrounded by cruisers all on their laptops. Soon we'll move to the pool...
Within a couple of days I'll leave the boat and head over to Guatemala to explore for a week or two with John and Gay from "Maestra," the boat I am on. Then, back home to Victoria to catch a couple of hockey games!
March 11, 2007, Off The Coast of Guatemala
It's about 0117 local time and I've got the midnight to 4am shift. It's not so bad. I sit in the pilothouse or on the bow and watch the world go by. The wind is light to non-existent and I'm steering directly into a rising half moon. The swells are less than two feet and the trawler is just gliding along with only a soft rumble to let you know the engine is there. In fact, the water passing by the hull is louder than the powerplant beneath me. I'm about nine miles off the coast right now and can see faint lights in the distance. Not the lights of large cities like further North, but the small lights of isolated settlements. Now that we're into Central America the cities are smaller, and fewer.
The change in boat traffic as we crossed the border was immediate. While still in Mexico there were many fishing boats of all sizes. As soon as we crossed the border the traffic disappeared. We're all alone out here except one faint blip on the radar ten miles outside of us.
For now, all is peaceful on my night shift. I'll check the gauges, monitor the radar, maybe read a bit. At 4am John will relieve me and I can get some welcome sleep.
March 10, 2007, Nearing The Guatemala Border
After all that planning and waiting, crossing the Tehuantepec was a snap. We must have picked a great window! We had hardly more than a ripple with light & variable winds most of the way across. The most wind we had was 24 knots NW about 0200 last night during my shift on watch. Even that was too light and didn't stay up long enough to build much sea. Any sea we did have was mitigated by the active stabilizers on this trawler - pretty fancy!
So far we've had quite a few dolphins, a small tern that caught a ride, and lots of shrimp boats. Other than "At Last," who we are traveling with, we've only seen one other cruiser "Little Wing" who was heading North. All in all, a very pleasant passage. Of course, no passage would be complete on Maestra without great meals. Last night we had barbecued chicken and this morning it was homemade waffles with bacon for breakfast. The parade of good food continues.
Right now we are about 53 miles from the border between Mexico and Guatemala. We'll continue right past Guatemala and stop in Bahia Del Sol in El Salvador. There is a very nasty bar to cross to get into the estuary and then the Marina is up the river a bit. They have a pool! We budgetted our time to be at the bar (sandbar!) a couple of hours in advance of high tide but we are not making as good progress as expected. It looks like we're fighting nearly a knot of tide. We may also get boarded at the border by the Mexican Navy as we hear happens often. Hopefully none of this slows us down too much or we have to sit outside the bar and wait for the next high tide.
Other than that, not much more to report. All systems are operating well and we're just cruising along...
