Dinghy Trip to La Herradura!!

On Tuesday Jerry, myself, Cheri and Dar took a dinghy ride 4 miles up the Estero de Jaltepeque to a little village called La Herradura.  It took us about 1 hour to get there, and we went at low tide so there were some tricky spots go get the dinghy through without running aground.  We had a great day walking the streets, eating Papusa's the El Salvadorian local dish made with rice flour stuffed with cheese and sometimes a meet or veggies, and of course having a couple cold Pilsner beers.

La Herradera

Smile!

Cheri and her nice cold Pilsner

The Mercado

not a great picture, but this is the church in the town of La Herradura

father and son watch the dinghy all day for $1

That evening Bill and Jean on SV Mita Kuuluu set up a wine tasting for the cruisers to participate in.  Cheri brought down a couple of bottles to enter.  All the bottles were covered and we all tasted them and scored them from 1-5, none of us picked our own bottles as the best, but we had a great time.  Dar did not drink wine so she did a cervesa tasting....I wonder what she thought was her favorite beer.

Jean on SV Mita Kuuluu setting up for the wine tasting

Leo ( the best server) and Jerry

Lisa from SV Lisa Kay and her winning bottle of wine

Still having fun in El Salvador!!

Well we have been here 11 days now and are still having a great time.  On Friday we had casino night, not too many of us went, I think due to the fact that it was a high buy in and cruisers as a whole do not have a lot of extra money to spend on games with really bad odds.  But never the less Jerry, myself, and about 6 others went and had a great time. The hotel itself has a casino built in with slots, blackjack tables and even roulette, and even free drinks when playing.  Unfortunately none of us walked away as the big winner, but we had fun all the same. 

We won a big 10 dollars!!

Saturday we went over to the Island across the estuary to Jan's, Jerry went to work on some of the donated computers that she has acquired for the kids on the island.  While myself, Erin from SV Rio Nimpkish, and Ben and Lisa from SV Lisa Kay went and played soccor with the kids on the Island.

Have to have ice cream while working on the computers

Jan's youngest dog Wolfie (except for the puppies, but I am not able to take pictures of them yet)

Banana plants!

smile!!

Oh it was so hot at 12pm, but the kids were awesome!

OH yeah we even pet cows!

Around 4pm Jerry's sister Cheri and her best friend Dar flew into San Salvador airport, Jerry and I took a taxi up to meet them and bring them back to the resort.  When we got here, the front desk did not have their room for them, they had guest that wanted to stay another night, but it all worked out with them staying on the boat for the first night, then the next morning we got their 3 room suite for the next 7 nights.

There was a dance party, but I could not get anyone to dance with them!

What else could you want, Yummy Yummy shrimp and lobster dinner and then swimming and drinking in the pool while we wait!

Smile Cheri...Jerry is a good driver..I swear!

Dinner at Mar Y Sol, another great dinner.  Cheri, Dar and myself had garlic shrimp, while Jerry had cream of shrimp and we all shared shrimp ceviche and a hot garlic shrimp dish!!  OH Yeah

Jerry's cream of shrimp soup, wow...can't eat this everyday!

I am still taking my Spanish class, could not get Cheri or Dar to go with me on Monday, but maybe Friday.  Hopefully by next week I can give you all an update in Espanol!!  Today we are going to take a dinghy ride up the estuary to Herradura to check out a real little Salvadorian village and to have some Papusas, the local dish.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Even in El Salvador we all have to wear our green and celebrate with a party!!  Jerry and I brought Jageermeister bead all the way from Bradleys of Stockton California for almost 2 years now.  What a perfect time to give them out.  Everyone has to wear beads on St. Patty's Day!!

Another Happy Hour!!!

Well Jerry and I still are enjoying the cruisers rally and all the Happy Hours!!!  On Tuesday the 15th we had happy hour and appetizers at restaurant Acajulta.  Earlier that day we pulled our dinghy out onto the dock to do some patch repairs and clean all the sand out from the last couple of dinghy landings in Chiapas.  So we were excited to take our dinghy up the estuary to the restaurant Acajulta, Clause and Lou from SV Whiteshell went with us.  So around 4 we all piled into our red dinghy and started heading up to the restaurant.  No one was quite sure how far up it was, so there were 3 dinghy's just cruising along keeping an eye out for the place.  Once we saw 5 other dinghy's all rafted up, we knew we were there. 

Tom from SV Sunny Side Up enjoying a raw clam, well I don't know about enjoying, but we did all try them...even Jerry and I!

Tom (SV Rio Nimpkish), Bill (SV Mita Kuuluu), Jerry, and Clause (SV Whiteshell).....What ya all talking about boys?

How you enjoying El Salvador?

Yummy dinner Jerry!!

Lobster...yeah mine looks better!!

On Wednesday Jerry and I attempted again to go to San Salvador to get Jerry's back molar pulled.  This time we had Jean on Mita Kuuluu arrange Jose, the taxi driver, to pick us up and take us to the appointment.  For $80 us dollars Jose took us all over, first the dentist. The first dentist did not extract teeth, but for only $25 he did a consult and 2 x-rays.  The dentist himself took Jerry to the other oral surgeon, where Jerry got local anaesthetics, the tooth pulled and stitches all for only $65.  I am now thinking of getting my teeth cleaned while we are here.  After the dentist Jose took us to the mall, a couple of marine stores, ACE hardware, grocery shopping, a solar store (unfortunately they did not have the panel that we are looking for), and even gave us a tour of the historical part of San Salvador.  We got back to the marina around 4pm, just in time for chicken BBQ at Jan's.  Jan came here 7 years ago on her boat, wanted to stay 5 days, and now she lives on the island across the estuary and teaches english in the local school for an hour everyday.

dinner line

Are you hungry?

Ben from SV Lisa Kay played for us after dinner

Jerry and I started to take spanish lessons through Claudia, one of the hotel managers.  After the first time Jerry decided he was going to pass on the lessons, but I am still trying.  So in a couple of weeks hopefully I will be able to communicate better.

Larry and Lisa from SV Lisa Kay, Claudia the teacher, and Lou from SV Whiteshell....What a group

Playing in El Savador!!

Since we had a great trip down, and across the bar we have really been enjoying just lounging around going to the beach and of coarse happy hour by the pool.  The second day we were here was the actual opening party for the rally, there are probably 20 or so boats here now and throughout the next 6 weeks more will come and go.  We are going to stay here the whole 6 weeks, because at the end of the rally there are some really good prizes that they are giving away and we want to win one. 

After the last month of traveling pretty fast trying to get down to El Salvador, SOMF is happy to be tied up with our sun screens up for a couple of weeks to enjoy the relaxing part of cruising.

Jerry and Erin from SV Rio Nimpkish at the pool

In the front courtyard at the hotel there are two parrots that hang out all day

You should hear them squack when Skeeter and I go by

Our table at the opening party for the rally, we met the owner of the hotel, and the managers.  They gave all the cruisers a gift bag with shirts, a hat and an El Salvador flag

Jerry's back molor has been aching and pretty loose for about a month or so now, so we decided it needed to be pulled out.  Jean on SV Mita Kuuluu new of a dentist in San Salvador which is about 2 hours, by bus, away so on Monday morning we decieded to go.  Unfortuently we did not listen to directions of the bus ruete to well and got on the wrong bus and went 2 hours in the wrong direction.  By the time we got back to the starting point we had been on buses for about 5 hours and were pretty tiered of sitting so we decieded to try again another day.  But we did enjoy all the entertainment on the bus, we had a surmen, lot and lots of people get on selling food, drinks, candy and chips throughout every stop the bus made.  The national dish here is Palpusa,which is like a flat bread then they fill them, the most common is queso (cheese).

Very colorful buses

they were all decorated inside

Monday evening we had a tour of the estuary on the hotels cateraman

Clause and Lue from SV Whiteshell

The scenerary during the tuor was great

What a group!!

Even Ben from SV Lisa Kay got to drive for awhile

We got to see a beautiful sunset

We have been haveing a great time and can't wait for the rest of the activities and to do some of our own inland traveling ourselves.  Jerry's sister and friend Dar are comming down on Saturday so we are going to try to take a trip up into the mountains for acouple of days.