On the 26th, we walked over to the rest of the Bahia DelSol resort that faces the Pacific Ocean. A short walk across the main road and down the entrance road to another big complex with another pool and bar and restaurant. It was only slightly crowded with lots of people in the pool. We walked down a bit farther to a huge expanse of beach with tables set up for people to sit at and vender to sell them food and ice cream as well as shaved ice. Not a lot of people on the beach and no sun worshipers at all, just some walking the beach and playing in the surf and a few ATVs zipping along the sandy beach. As it was quite hot in the sun, we didn't stay long but got a drink on the way back at the bar. Nice to see the ocean again. Lots of breaking surf all along the shore line with reef just off shore. The beach is open 0700 to 1200 then closed till 1400 to 1700 and the gates are closed for the day! Who "closes" a beach? There was a life guard but he was so far removed from the shoreline, there was little chance of him saving anyone by the time he would have gotten to them. As for the beaches, they are a composite of natural color sand and black sand from the volcanos.
It's now Thursday and we went to San Salvador yesterday to do some shopping and see more of El Salvador. There really are few stores of any kind any where near this marina so it required us to do one of three things: Take a bus( but how much can you bring back on a bus), rent a car and try and find your way around a very busy city, and third, hire a taxi. We went with hiring a taxi. We got the number for Jose, a licensed cab driver(always important to make sure they are licensed)and called him yesterday in the early morning arranging a time of 0900 pick up here at the marina. After experiencing the driving we had to go through, we are glad we didn't rent a car. Traffic was fast and furious to say the least. We are so glad we hired Jose as it would have been a nerve wracking drive. Tracy would have been yelling at me and I would have been yelling right back. Jose spoke enough English that we could communicate to a certain degree and he seemed to want to learn more English as the day progressed.
As we headed north toward San Salvador, we came across a wreck. Two cars seemed to have gotten into a battle and sandwiched a motorcyclist in between them. We first saw a car off the road with it's rear left corner crushed, then a dead body laying facedown off the side of the road(by this time, some police had shown up and there were lots of on lookers). A short distance farther down the road was the second car with a burnt, crushed motorcycle sitting in front of it, still smoking. It couldn't have been but a few minutes since accident. It was strange to see this dead body just lying beside the road, face down with no one watching the body but life appears to be cheap here(personal opinion). We continued on our way.
First stop was to get some oil for changing out the oil we have in our engine. Jose knew just the right place to go where it would be at a cheap price. It was great having an interpreter with us as few people speak English here. Once we picked out the oil we wanted( the clerk had to get it for us as nothing is out on display), we then had to go to a cashiers booth where the credit card was taken BUT, we needed a copy of our passport for them to take it(same every where we went). I'd put a copy of my in my wallet and once produced, no problem. Once paid for, then we had to go to another counter where after we showed our receipt, they gave us our oil and out we went.
Off to Sherwin Williams for some varnish. We'd been told by Bill(one of the expats that has lived here for years) that they carry a great marine varnish that all the boaters swear by as being extremely long lasting. The last stuff we applied,Interlux Perfection Plus, (at $105 a quart) was a dismal failure as it last only a few months before peeling and flaking off. Our teak looks bad and it will get attention once we get to Puerto Vallarta. Cost for this varnish--just $9.50 per quart! We could have bought it in gallons for even cheaper but with varnish, if you don't use all that is in a can, it will go bad so quarts made more sense. We walked out with 8 quarts. That should do the job once we get the old Interlux off the teak.
Next stop was Price Smart(like a small Costco or Sam's). We'd gotten a membership when we were in Trinidad and have used it in the US Virgin Islands. As our membership had lapsed, I went to the counter to get it renewed. They told me I could do that when we checked out. I tried to tell them that I was not set up with a membership for El Salvador as each country had it's own membership. I was again told no problem, just show them the card and all would be fine. Ten minutes later, I was approached by the Customer Service man that had told me that and he retracted his statement that I did indeed need to fill out a form and rejoin. Jose was with us and stepped in that he had a card and could we use it. The answer was sure so Jose went with the rep to get that taken care. He now has a card that can be used by any cruiser. I could use his card and pay with my own credit card.
With the trunk of his car just about filled, we took off for lunch as it was now close to noon. It takes over 90 minutes to get from the marina to San Salvador at the best of times. We'd left just after 0900 and didn't get there till 1040. We were off to Subway with each of us ordering a sandwich. The guide book says not to buy the driver's lunch but he'd been so much help, there was no way we wouldn't.
Once lunch was over, we headed for Super Selectos, one of the bigger grocery stores in town. We'd been told it was the place to go for things we couldn't find at Price Smart. It was a nice store but nothing out of the ordinary. One thing we didn't find at either store(Price Smart and Super Selectos) was canned chicken, and canned tuna in any form other than tuna packed in oil. We know from past experience, they are available in Mexico so no big deal but our supplies are running low on both. No frozen chicken but you could buy a 25 pound of "fresh" chicken. We did get a smaller package of 12 for $20.00 but not frozen. Glad we have a good freezer. The other thing we saw little of was "Mexican" food. A few tortillas in corn and flour but no jars of salsa. We did see lots of bottles of "hot" sauces of different types. From what we have learned, El Salvadorans like few seasoning in their food. Maybe a bit of salt but pepper is not on the tables of the restaurants(we carry our own salt and pepper)and no pepper corns unless it's in a small McCormick jar(bought two as we were out). Back to the land of Hellmans mayonnaise in squeeze pouches instead of jars. No red wine vinegar on the shelves either and only diet Coke for those watching their weight(not me). Super Selectos had really good fresh fruits and veggies. Little cabbage, if any. Very few "American" products in any of the stores we've been to. Beer is cheaper than soda(keeps the natives happy). Eggs are packed in 8 or 15 to a carton instead of 6/12 and those are brown colored eggs(from brown chickens?), not white. No sour cream any where. Jugs of Coke and Pepsi come in 1.5, 2.5 and 3 liter sizes. Small "half" size cans are everywhere for those who want just a bit to drink. 353milliliter size cans instead 355 that's available in the US. Cost is .50 cents per can. The trunk was just about full.
On to a Pharmacia to try and get more of my blood pressure meds. I've been running low and wanted to make sure I had a good supply before we left here. I took my old prescription bottles with me(makes it more legal I guess) and walked up to the counter. The girl that was helping me looked at each bottle and asked me questions about each(Jose had to translate). She had most of what we needed so we did the deal(again, back to the payment counter with me pulling out the credit card and copy of my passport). Once done, she handed me my pills. The clerk also had a "gift" card for us. No clue as to why other than we had spent a good bit of money on what I needed. Since we will be leaving shortly and there is no chance we would use it, I handed it over the Jose so he could. Again, I have no idea why but they had him stand with the girl that helped me and had their picture taken. I think the card was good for $15.00 on future purchases. There was one med I still needed and Jose asked one of the clerks where we might find it. With that knowledge, we moved on to another pharmacia of which there are thousands around the country. No luck there either. These places, of which there are hundred around San Salvador, are not like the pharmacies back home with tons of meds ready to fill any prescription. In these, it's a limited supply and more of a "first come, first filled". Then more are ordered and they could be out for several days. It's why we hit several, just trying to find what we needed. I did get all the really important ones so all is good. It was time to head back to Bahia Del Sol.
We left shortly after 1500 and got back to the marina about 1640. As we passed through one of the small towns, we passed a funeral procession with a man leading the mourners carrying an "Icon" of some sort. The casket was inside a glass sided case on a cart in full view for everyone to see it. People were wandering around with a good sized group following the cart with flowers.
As we drove further south, we came across an equipment transport truck that was moving a huge earth mover on a trailer. Well, he had gotten the earth mover wedged under a low hanging tree that went over the road. He was stuck and stuck well. As we passed, we saw a man standing on top of the earth mover hacking away at the huge limb with a machete slowly trying to cut it off the tree. From what we saw, he had a long way to go as it looked like he was going to have to cut the limb(about a 18 inches in diameter) in a couple places to get it off the top of the trailer. Once back at the marina, we unloaded as close to the dock as we could. The marina has no carts for taking supplies down to the boats. I took a load down while Tracy watched what we had left and slowly moved everything from one place getting closer to the dock to the next, always within eye shot. I took the first load down and came back with a two wheeled dolly. Several loads later(each load was taken aboard as we don't like to leave anything on the docks)we had it all at the boat and safely on board. Tracy repackaged the chicken into zip lock bags and into the Engel freezer along with two pounds of hamburger(no frozen available either). It took a while but we got most stowed and we will finish up today and continue on with other jobs.
There are volcanos all over the landscape, thankfully dormant unlike Guatemala that has several active ones.