We’re back!

Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada

It may have appeared that we fell off the end of the earth since last June.

In fact, we did not actually fall of the end, but we can see it from here.  Following is a quick summary of our summer...

Immediately upon arriving back in Canada, I got my IPad updated with all the latest updates, which effectively obsoleted all of the blogging tools I had been using up till then.  That is one of my excuses for not posting since.

Most of our summer was tied up with finding a place to live.

For the first few months, we lived by the kindness of friends.  In particular, our good friends, Barb and Jeff, provided us with a house sitting opportunity that we took great advantage of.  This gave us a base of operations for the ensuing house hunt.

We found and purchased a small apartment-style condominium in Sherwood Park, just on the outskirts of Edmonton.  This is an ideal low-maintenance solution for us at this time, giving us a comfortable place to call home, with the added benefit of being able to lock the door and leave it for the winter.

The condo did come with some furniture, so we were spared some of the pains of setting up a new home from scratch.

Much of the rest of the summer went by while we collected our meagrely possessions from storage and set about making the condo into an actual livable home.

Suddenly, in October, winter arrived with a vengeance and our attention turned to our escape plan for this year.

Like last year, we are heading for Puerto Vallarta in Mexico for a two week vacation with friends, following which we will fly to El Salvador, where we will find out just what havoc has been wreaked on our poor, abandoned boat over the summer.  This all begins in 2 days - we fly south this Friday, November 24th.  This is a little later than last year so we will not be in El Salvador until early December.

As a bonus, If this post works, it means I now have a new, working blogging solution again.  If so, more will follow.

{GMST}53|33.42366|N|113|17.85798|W|Sherwood Park, AB, Canada|Sherwood Park, AB, Canada{GEND}

Last Hurrah!

Estero Jaltepeque, El Salvador

 

Well, the tickets are booked and we are on our way back to Canada in about 10 days, June 2nd to be specific - back to basement living courtesy of the kindness of friends.

 

 

Meanwhile, we are trying to take full advantage of the facilities here at the resort, frequently taking the dinghy over to Bahia to use the WiFi and pool and partaking of the odd meal at the restaurant. As usual, there are a few guests around on the weekends but we mostly have the place to ourselves during the rest of the week. There are a handful of other cruisers still hanging around but most, like us, are planning to leave for the summer. The rainy season has definitely started, with rain, sometimes quite heavy, during the night. The days are mainly dry and mostly sunny. Generally it is hot and humid all of the time.

 

 

We have been slowly working on a few last-minute boat projects and trying to use up all of the perishable foods onboard. I found a nasty leak in yet another cockpit drain, which has only shown up now due to the arrival of rainy season - for now, I have just plugged it up so we don't have so much water accumulating in the bilge. We still have 3 other drains than can easily handle the rainwater in the cockpit. Just another item to put on the to-do list for if and when we return to the boat.

 

 

Yesterday, a few of us decided to go for lunch at one of the stilt restaurants in the estuary, which somehow turned into a full-on pub crawl to various other drinking establishments along the beaches. As far as I can remember, it was a lot of fun - just the sort of last memory of El Salvador that we needed before heading to the frozen north.

 

 

 

 

 

Just another typical day in the cruising life...

 

 

{GMST}13|18.4|N|88|54.1362|W|Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador|Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador{GEND}

 

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How long have we been here?

Estero Jaltepeque, El Salvador

 

OMG, we are still here!

Returning from Colombia, after getting settled back on the boat, we were just in time for most of this year's "Rally to El Salvador" activities. Although there were a lot less boats this year compared to what we saw back in 2013, we still had a great time, meeting new friends and reconnecting with some old ones as well.

 

In addition to the usual dinghy raft-ups and such, one of the highlights this year was a day-trip to the viewpoint at Puerta del Diablo (which we had seen a few years ago) and a fascinating visit to the town of Panchimalco, a bit of an artist's retreat, just a short distance outside of San Salvador.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a new "party boat" plying the waters of the estuary, so of course our group hired it for a sunset booze cruise - this became a sort of opening and closing party for the rally.

 

 

We survived the madness of another Samana Santa (Easter) week in April, taking the opportunity to have a picnic on the beach on one of the other islands, courtesy of our friends Bill and Jean. We have never seen the beaches so crowded!

 

 

 

 

 

Other than that, we have filled our time with various boat projects, a few trips to the towns of La Harradura and Zacatecaluca, as well as one trip for a couple of days into San Salvador, enjoying a bit of a break from the warm weather in the estuary (an air conditioned hotel room helped a lot).

 

This last couple of weeks have seen the start of rainy season, not every night but certainly more moisture than we have seen here for a long time. The bar, which we would have to cross to get out of here, is very treacherous right now and we have been watching a predicted tropical storm approaching from Costa Rica. At this time, it now appears that it may not actually get here at all - the forecasts change their minds almost hourly. Currently there are only 6 sailboats in the estuary with anyone onboard.

 

Regardless, we can see little point in heading for Mexico now. Hurricane season is not far off, and we have been able to address a lot of the concerns we had for the boat. The bottom is clean and all of the sacrificial zinc anodes have been replaced. For the last week, we have had a crew of 4 young men scrubbing every inch of the boat, de-oxidizing and waxing the hull, and getting all of the stainless steel gleaming like new. Labour is very inexpensive here.

 

We now plan to leave the boat on the mooring until at least next November. It will cost a lot less here than moving back to Paradise Marina or going to Chiapas and we are confident that Bill and his guys will look after it well. Susanne is pretty anxious to get back to Edmonton, so we will probably be out of here around the start of June.

 

{GMST}13|18.4|N|88|54.1362|W|Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador|Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador{GEND}

 

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We're Back!

Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador

 

Yes, we are safely back on Sine Timore. The boat looks none the worse for our absence. In fact, due to a big rainstorm while we were away (almost 5" in one day), the boat almost looks clean.

 

 

Now we just have to adjust to the slower pace of life, and the much warmer climate.

 

{GMST}13|18.4|N|88|54.1362|W|Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador|Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador{GEND}

 

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Ghost town

Bogota, Colombia

 

Yesterday was officially the last day of our tour of Colombia. An hour and a half bus ride to the airport just outside the city of Armenia, followed by a short flight, brought us back to the capital city of Bogota once more. It was Monday, the day of the actual Bank Holiday, which meant we were greeted by a mostly deserted city. Most businesses were closed, coupled with a cool, overcast day, which seems to have kept most people indoors, or at least not prowling the streets around our hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

After a short orientation walk, covering territory we had mostly seen before, and a full-on torrential rainstorm, what remained of our group made their way to a very cool restaurant for our last supper together. We had a great evening in what was arguably one of the nicest restaurants we have had the pleasure of visiting on this tour.

 

 

 

We said goodbye to many of our new friends, some of them last night and some this morning. A few of them are, like us, hanging around until tomorrow before leaving Colombia.

By tomorrow night, we will be back to our humdrum existence in El Salvador.

 

 

{GMST}4|36|N|74|4.128|W|Bogota, Colombia|Bogota, Colombia{GEND}

 

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