Life in an estuary

Bahia del Sol, El Salvador

Our current location at Bahia del Sol resort is in the Estero Jaltepeque.  Most of the rally activities take place in and around this interesting body of water.  The estuary is made up of over a dozen islands and has many miles of twisting, turning waterways among the mangroves.  On the east end, the estuary joins the Rio Lempa, El Salvador's longest river, which we visited last week.

Since we have been back at the resort, there have been several planned activities, usually about one a day, which keeps us pretty busy...

We had lunch a couple of days ago at one of the nearby estuary restaurants.  They only open on the weekends and are popular with the locals.  The fair is basically fish and shrimp.  All of the cooking is done on wood fires inside a metal shed attached to one end of the restaurant, all suspended in mid-air on stilts.  At low tide, which ranges from 5 to 7 feet, these places are high and dry on a bed of mud.  At high tide, they are in the middle of a saltwater lake.  Eating, drinking and swimming are the order of the day.  We all took a local panga to the restaurant so nobody had to drive their dinghy home afterward.

 

 

We spotted some pretty cool looking little jellyfish washed in on the rising tide...

Yesterday afternoon, a few of us took our dinghies on a bit of an estuary tour, braving the shallow water on the mud-flats on a rising tide and then cruising through some tight passages through the mangroves.  At times we just rafted up the dinghies and floated along with the current, solving most of the worlds problems as we went.

Today was a day of learning.  First, we were given some lessons in "net" throwing by a local expert (who also happens to be the pilot who led us over the entrance bar a few weeks ago).  This is a lot trickier than you might think.

This afternoon, Susanne has taken the dinghy over to Jan's house on a nearby island to help her with teaching English to some children (and a couple of adults as well).  Jan Turner is a Canadian ex-sailor who also sponsors the wonderful chicken dinner benefits at her home every Wednesday.  This is the second Monday that Susanne has done this and she really seems to enjoy it, learning as much Spanish as she is teaching English.  I am particularly proud of her as this has finally motivated her to learn to drive the dinghy by herself.

Tomorrow I believe there is to be another dinghy raft up, and another chicken dinner at Jan's house on Wednesday, etc., etc.  The rally is officially over on the 20th of the month and Sue is busily browsing the web to figure out what we are going to do once all of these daily activities are over.  I think I hear Guatemala calling!

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