Very early Saturday morning the pilot guide in a panga came out to meet us at a Lat. & Long. that were given to us by the marina. This was still before the entrance to the big Jiquilisco Bay. We needed a guide to enter as this was a very tricky entrance with shifting sandy shoals, some of them with breaking waves over them. Immediately within the bay however we were surrounded on both sides with low shorelines and beaches, a little village and most magnificently a towering volcano straight ahead. A little further up the bay, we entered a curving channel, which I call a river but is in fact just a tributary that loops northwards around a large mangrove island back to the bay. As soon as we entered this bay we could feel and see that we were somewhere else now, no more the dryness of Mexico.

At the north end of this channel is the marina, actually a private yacht club with only moorings, no docks except for the dinghy dock (by staying here we automatically become club members). It is quite strange to travel nearly 10 miles inland through the bay and channel to come to this marina. We are surrounded by mangroves on both sides, more swimming crocs (the locals call them alligators here), flocks of snow white birds (like little cranes) and lots of birds singing. It's very peaceful and quite. At the moment there are about 13 other boats on moorings, but only half of them are occupied. Some people have left their boats here over the summer season. We met one couple who arrived a year and half ago and still have not left. On land the property is very well kept and clean, with a restaurant, pool, small convenience store and lots of palapas that have internet. They also have customs and immigration stationed here. Within ten minutes of our arrival a whole panga full of officials came out to our boat to check our papers and inspect our boat.

The other unusual thing is that there is no town or village here, the yacht club is entirely on its own, on a former coconut plantation. There is also lots of security here. In fact yesterday Christina and I took the courtesy van into the nearest town with two other couples to buy groceries. As we left the property a guard with a double barrel shot gun and a pistol came into the van and drove to the town and back with us. It's too bad that such security is needed. It wasn't too long ago that this country was involved in one of the longest and bloodiest civil wars of the last century. All because of centuries of corruption, greed and exploitation leading to a large disparity between the rich and poor. Now we are in a country that isn't geared towards tourism to say the least and from my three hour trip to the nearby town I can see that, it is a nice change after Mexico.

The photo on the previous entry is of Stan raising the El Salvadorian flag and Christina holding the yellow "Q" flag. The above photo was taken on our way up the bay, of a small village.