Huatalco to Barillas El Slavador

We crossed the Tehuantapec without any major traumas. We traveled with four other boats two of which had minor mechanical problems on the way—a 4 day 500 mile trip—and I am sure although they were able to resolve their issues themselves it was reassuring to them to have the support of the other boats. We maintained a six hourly radio schedule so was fun to chat on the way. We had our usual combination of wind calm and current. A surreal time was had in absolutely calm seas when we swam off the side of the boat in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight. We were joined by the usual school of dolphins and more turtles than we had ever seen—obviously these kind are not the endangered ones. Some have a bird perched on their shells taking a rest. The current was with us which was great until we had to drift along the last night to avoid getting in before dawn.
We arrived and then the panga came out to escort us over the sandbank—a little disconcerting as the surf is on both sides and you hope he knows where he is going. After the 8 miles up the estuary we arrived at Barillas Marina in El Salvador. It is in an isolated part of the coast—50 minutes along a dirt road to the main town of Uzulutan. The marina is very picturesque with a pool which although not cold enough given the air temperature is a lovely treat.
There are quite a few boats here as it a very secure anchorage and a great base to explore El Salvador or Guatemala.
After a well earned rest we went on a dingy ride back out to the coast with our buddy boater’s stopping at a small village for lunch. This consisted of papusas which is the local El Salvadorian dish, it is a corn based dough filled with a mixture of cheese, beans and pork fat which is flattened and put on a grill. It is very tasty even though I am not sure it would rate on the low cal diet.
We took the trip into Uzulutan to restock our food. It is a chaotic messy town which has noisy market stalls randomly over half of the town. It has nowhere near the order of the Mexican markets and there are hundreds of stalls all selling one type of fruit—I am not sure how the bananas are all sold before they go bad, I think it is a staple of their diet. Plantains are also plentiful as are tomatoes, mangos and watermelons. Everything seems to cost $1 and they just charge you that and give you as many as you get for $1—huge bags of limes and tomatoes so guess we will not suffer from scurvy. The “peasant Spanish” is very different from the more educated Spanish speakers and although I had thought I was doing well it is as though you are learning very correct English and go to Newfoundland.—humbled again!!!!
After a few days we went into San Salvador to take a trip to Guatemala. We got the bus, 5 hours to Guatemala City, a large not very attractive city and we were sure to be in our hotel room with the door locked by 9pm. The next morning we took a 8 hour bus ride up to the small town of Flores which is an island consisting of hotels and restaurants and craft shops which service Tikal—the Mayan ruins—1 ½ hours to the north. The bus trip was very pretty through a very hilly countryside which got greener as we got north, Rio Dulce on the Caribbean coast was very lush and made us hope we will do the full circle and end up going there with our boat at the end of our world voyage. We arrived at dusk and found a hotel easily, Guatemala is like New Zealand in as much as they have a system of mini vans which transport you to your hotel and help make all of your arrangements for any tours or onward travel. There are many young people backpacking through Guatemala and they continue to Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
We spent the next day exploring the town which is very quaint and picturesque and took a panga tour on the huge lake around the island with an old fellow by the name of Michel who reminded us of Ken’s dad.
The next morning we were picked up at 3.30am in the mini van to go to Tikal. At 5am we arrived and started walking in the pitch black through the jungle. It was very eerie as the howler monkeys would howl as we got near their territory sounding more like tigers than monkeys, a chilling feeling. As the sky started to lighten we arrived at the huge temple 4 of the ruins to watch the sun rise. We climbed the 65 metre tall temple and sat on a ledge high above the jungle beneath. As dawn approached the sounds of the jungle awakening was spine tingling. First the monkeys were howling and then the chorus of the hundreds of bird species began and the sun arose in the east lightening up the temples in front of us. It was heightened by glancing down and seeing a tarantula crawling on the stone beside us. It was truly an awesome experience.
Tikal was major centre of the Mayan people dating from 200BC to 500AD having 150,000 people living there at the peak. It covers 120 square kilometers and there are temple both uncovered and still covered by the jungle vegetation. It is incredible to walk through the jungle and find the buildings arising before you. We were fortunate to have a wonderful guide who not only was able to explain the various structures and their significance but he had an amazing sense of the environment and was able to find us many birds and animals on our walk. We climbed many of the temples and on top of “the pyramid” were able to sit with the treetops just below us and watch the parrots and toucans flying below us and the monkeys in the tree tops.
We found coatamundis, turkeys small foxes and many different birds and monkeys.
We were happy that we had made the effort to take the early morning trip as as the day got hotter the animals and birds disappeared and the number of tourists increased.
We returned to Flores to catch the night bus to Antigua arriving the next morning. Antigua was the original capital of Guatemala when the Spanish invaded but after a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions they decided to move it to Guatemala City. This meant that Antigua remained as it was and is very beautiful with old buildings and cobblestone streets. There are many Spanish language schools there and we would have loved to have taken the time to spend a week or more taking a course but our time is limited as the hurricane season is approaching and until we get to Ecuador we cannot spend too long anywhere. As in Mexico we arrived to a festival which appeared to be encouraging reading for children as there was a great parade of fairytale characters. Everywhere we went in Guatemala international restaurants abound, we never did find out what the typical food was but enjoyed tapas, pizza and kebobs.
Our next adventure was a day trip from Antigua to Chichicastenango (Chi Chi for short!!!) market. This is the largest market in Guatemala and the Mayan people come in from their surrounding villages selling their beautiful weavings and masks. We succumbed and bought a number of beautifully woven pieces, a tablecloth for our outside table and a wall hanging—pictured in the attached pictures. The bargaining was fun—similar to being back in Asia and seems as though if you get about half the asking price you are doing well.
We returned to Antigua and the next day made the trip back to San Salvador and then back to the marina. Our trip was very short and pretty intense and certainly did not make us feel we had really much more than a superficial understanding of Guatemala but was still well worth it.
We are at present hauled up on the land at the marina and are having the bottom of the boat repainted. They use a less environmentally paint than in Canada with a higher percentage of copper so we are hoping the barnacles respect this and attach themselves less rapidly than before.
When this is done we will continue our voyage, if we have time we will go to the Cocos Islands to do some diving otherwise straight to Costa Rica to meet up with Roz and Bob from Comox who will spend a week with us—bringing more needed things from Canada—be forewarned that although we would welcome a visit form all of you we expect you to come laden with what we can no longer buy here!!!!
Till next time
Wendy and Ken