Estero Jaltepeque, El Salvador
Yes, it has been a busy week for us here in the Estuary. Some good, some bad - mostly good...
Last Thursday thru Saturday was the big fishing tournament at Bahia del Sol. We understand that the entries were down from last year, but there were still some 34 boats registered, with at least 4 or 5 people per vessel - we have never seen the marina looking so busy. There were some pretty big prizes as well (those cars parked around the pool were just some of them). The best part, for us cruisers, was the bottomless free Rum from the
Flor de Cana sponsor. There were separate competitions for Marlin, Sailfish and "Fun" fish. The fun fish were primarily Dorado (Mahi Mahi) with a few Tuna thrown in for good luck.
The fishing was good. The leading boat in the sailfish category landed some 45 fish over the 3 days (These are done on a catch and release basis). The fun fish are NOT thrown back but are certainly not wasted - some go to the local families in the estuary and others are just cooked up for supper.
A couple of days ago, we were treated to a bit of an adventure on the estuary. Our new-found friends Lou and Lynn, who have a lovely home along the estuary, took us and our other friends Bill and Jean on a cruise in their powerboat. We were able to experience the entrance bar in a boat that could actually go in and out at any time - it looked pretty rough out there to us, but Bill assures us that it is virtually flat. Oh boy, we can hardly wait until we have to tackle that to get out of here.
 |
| Restaurant prices - 6 beers for $5.95 |
We cruised up some of the little channels between the estuary and the Rio Lempa, just soaking in the sun and watching daily life along the shores. We stopped for lunch at a new palapa restaurant along the shore, then cruised back to Lou and Lynn's home for a relaxing swim in their pool in the afternoon. All in all, it was a great way to spend a day.
Susanne has suddenly decided that we need to get our upholstery recovered while we are here in El Salvador, while we have access to inexpensive material and labour. With this in mind, we took another trip into the city of San Salvador yesterday, courtesy of our taxi driver Jose, where we visited a big fabric shop and a few other places. We came back with our best-guess as to what we need to do this job and are going to try and get a local seamstress to do the actual work. What this really means is that we will have to hang around here for a bit longer yet if we want to see this project though to its completion. Ezabel, the lady we hope will do the work, is a friend of Bill and Jean, and lives on the same island - just down the block so to speak.
 |
| Testing the load handling ability of our dinghy |
Meanwhile, the latest boat issue is with our batteries. Everything seemed to be going fine until two days ago, when I noticed that our voltage is not holding up very well overnight, even though it appears that we are getting plenty of power from the solar panels during the day. I started up the trusty Honda generator for a few hours and monitored the battery levels while getting a thorough charge - it seems as if we have one dead cell in one of our batteries, and it is pulling everything else down with it. I have removed one of the three pairs of batteries, to eliminate the offending unit from the house bank altogether - it is much better now, but our capacity has gone down from 720Ahrs to 480Ahrs as a result. I fear we may have to look at replacing these batteries while we are here, as they are apparently available locally - something that might not be the case as we venture further south. I will attempt to rehabilitate the batteries first, but I am not sure I hold out much hope. But that will have to wait for a few days because...
Today, Bill and Jean have arranged for a rental car and we are all going to take a few days to see some more of El Salvador. Sounds like another adventure.
 |
| Bill, the proud land owner! |
 |
| Boats on moorings in the estuary |
Last Thursday thru Saturday was the big fishing tournament at Bahia del Sol. We understand that the entries were down from last year, but there were still some 34 boats registered, with at least 4 or 5 people per vessel - we have never seen the marina looking so busy. There were some pretty big prizes as well (those cars parked around the pool were just some of them). The best part, for us cruisers, was the bottomless free Rum from the Flor de Cana sponsor. There were separate competitions for Marlin, Sailfish and "Fun" fish. The fun fish were primarily Dorado (Mahi Mahi) with a few Tuna thrown in for good luck.
A couple of days ago, we were treated to a bit of an adventure on the estuary. Our new-found friends Lou and Lynn, who have a lovely home along the estuary, took us and our other friends Bill and Jean on a cruise in their powerboat. We were able to experience the entrance bar in a boat that could actually go in and out at any time - it looked pretty rough out there to us, but Bill assures us that it is virtually flat. Oh boy, we can hardly wait until we have to tackle that to get out of here.
Susanne has suddenly decided that we need to get our upholstery recovered while we are here in El Salvador, while we have access to inexpensive material and labour. With this in mind, we took another trip into the city of San Salvador yesterday, courtesy of our taxi driver Jose, where we visited a big fabric shop and a few other places. We came back with our best-guess as to what we need to do this job and are going to try and get a local seamstress to do the actual work. What this really means is that we will have to hang around here for a bit longer yet if we want to see this project though to its completion. Ezabel, the lady we hope will do the work, is a friend of Bill and Jean, and lives on the same island - just down the block so to speak.
No comments:
Post a Comment