Time to do some boat projects!!

Well it is the start of our 5th week here in Bahia Del Sol El Salvador, my mom has gone back home.  We had such a great time with her, but no more visitors for a while so time to do some work. 

To start we had to wash the outside of the boat and work on the bow anchor roller, which got loose last time we had the anchor down in Puerto Chiapas when we had to pull up a piece of an old boat.  So we have been working every morning before it gets really hot, which is about 10am.  This week we will be working on the dinghy (again), finishing the bow roller, and one of our water tanks that is leaking a little when it is full.  We are going to be going out to anchor on Sunday, so we need to get our work done.  We are till having a great time, enjoying the pool in the afternoons.  We don't have any inland trips planned right now, we are waiting to see if Jerry goes home to visit his family.  But we will keep you all updated on the excitement and adventures going on with us.

San Salvador!!!

While my mom was here this past week, Jerry and I took here to San Salvador the capital of El Salvador which is up about 2000 miles from the ocean and about 1 hour and 15 minute away.  We had Jose a taxi driver tour us around all day.  We first went to the Military Museum of El Salvador. It was set up in a series of interconnected barrack-like rooms.  Throughout on the walls and in floor mounted displays is an incredible array of rifles, machine guns, grandade launchers..ect.. all which was fabricated in U.S, Isreal, El Salvador, and a few other places.  There were some of the original copies of the 1992 peace accords (no pictures of theses sorry).  There were a couple of school groups there so we were not able to have a proper tour guide, but with Jose speaking spanish and pretty good Enlish the tour was well worth it. 

After the museum we went down to the centro marcado to do some shopping and touring though the cathedral and all the streets of vendor of gifts and food.

inside the cathedral

looking up inside

one of the side wings of the cathedral

Monsenor Romero's tomb



Happy Birthday Lauren!!

Well, Jerry and my mom surprised me with my mom coming to El Salvador to visit for my birthday week.  I haven't seen her in over a year and a half, I have missed here so much.  We went to the airport to pick up a "package" that I thought his dad was sending Jerry, but to my surprise I saw my mom...oh yeah I cried a little.  But I kind of knew what was going on, since Jerry told me that the package would arrive on the 12pm flight, which meant it left Sacramento around midnight the night before.  I know his dad loves him, but I don't even think Jerry Sr. would drive to Sacramento at midnight to put a package on the plane. 

Jorge from the Tour In company that we took a trip with before was busy, so we decided not to go on a trip, but we had a great time together anyways.  Monday was my birthday and after Spanish class and taking Skeeter to the beach, I came back and Jerry and mom had the boat decorated.  Later that afternoon we had a dinghy raft up with 3 cases of free beer.  We went up the estuary around 4:30pm all tied up and floated back down to the marina.  After the trip we went to dinner at Mar Y Sol with some of the other cruisers to celebrate mine and Jane from SV Comfort Zone 2 birthdays.

reptile farm?

Well, last Friday a van took 13 of us to a reptile farm about 30 minutes up the road.  It was really interesting, in the sense that all the iguanas and turtles were raised and then sold out to the U.S and throughout parts of El Salvador for pets, and sometimes for food.  Even more interesting they had barbwire, and electric fences so people did steal the reptiles.  When driving in they sprayed the tires of the van to make sure not contaminants came into the facility.

These are the blue iguanas, there are about 2 thousand

The Green Iguanas

about 10 thousand green iguanas

They had geckos and Camillians

When we got back that evening we had happy hour by the pool and then a Paella feed, oh and it was some good stuff. 

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Well we have been just hanging out, after Cherri (Jerry's sister) left we were supposed to start working on the boat again, but there are just so much other fun things we have been doing. 

Vidri- a hardware store that sells more than just motors....

Jane from SV Comfort Zone 2 has been holding some art classes a couple of days a week....I am painting a flower

Jerry and I took Ben from SV Lisa Kay out fishing

4:00 pm...pool time

the hotel had a BB@ your own meat one night, while they supplied rice, veggies and baked potatoes.  Jerry and I brought pork chops...they were so good

the worlds smallest baked potato

I went with Sam and Nancy from SV Windfall to La Herradarra to get our hair cut by Leo who learned to cut hair in Boston

He even made us frozen strawberry drinks

not your normal hair salon

Sam and Nancy from SV Windall on a three wheeled taxi...

This is not OSHA approved...here they are fixing some security camera wires, will the ladder is leaning on the wires, with on in the back with a rope holding up the ladder, and someone in the front stabilizing it.

Ruta de Las Flores Part 2

After the volcano we went up farther in the mountains to a little hotel in the middle of trees and of any beaten path.  It was awesome to feel the crisp cool (amost cold) air, we all even put on long sleeve and I even put on my longer capri pants to go to dinner.  We all had dinner down in the hotel dinning room, it was just our group in there, I think we kind of overwhelmed the wait staff.  The food was not bad, they did not have any shrimp, most of us had beef or chicken and that was pretty good.  But like the rest of the trip we all had a great time chatting, then went up to our rooms and had a great night sleep. 

The next morning after having breakfast at the hotel we got back in the van, but this time it was Ceser who was going to be our tour guide, and went up to the El Carmen Estate where there was a coffe plant. This is a forth generation family owned buisness, and I can't even to decribe how awesome it was.

After the coffee Jerry, myself, Tom and Carlyn went on the canapy zip lines, while the rest went and toured a small village.  There were 14 different zips, some of which were short and some of which were very long.  I have to say that it was one of the funnest things I have ever done.

After the exciting zip lines, Ceser and the rest of the group picked us up and we went and toured around Sonsonate.