We made it through
the big, bad Gulf of Tehauntepec (Who´s afraid of the big bad Gulf? Not I,not I, not I). We must have picked the right window, because we had a lovely sail, followed by dead calm and flat seas for the evening. We heard from other cruisers that they were not so lucky; they had to wrestle 40 knot winds and 14 foot seas for the 200 mile crossing. We blew right by Guatemala, and are now in EL Salvador, at a place called Barillas.
Barillas Marina is an interesting place, about 7 years old. You wait at a designated spot on the ocean, and call the marina on Channel 16. Then you wait about an hour, and a panga shows up to guide you to the marina, which is 10 miles up an estuary. I felt like Katherin Hepburn in The African Queen, without the bonnet. We meandered up this river, past mangrove forests, expecting to see hippos opening their mouths and elephants trumpeting. It was so very Amazon-ish. We finally arrived at a spot where there are about 25 mooring buoys, a fuel dock, a lovely swimming pool and a nice restaurant. We have taken advantage of all of them.
This morning we got up early and took a couple mile hike into the jungle - there is a family living there who takes care of 25 spider monkeys. The head monkey is named Poncho, and his lovely bride, who is very pregnant, is named Maria. When the man who lives there called Poncho`s name, all the monkeys came swinging out of the trees and fought over a few bananas the man doled out. I was intrigued by the family who lived in the jungle; there were 3 or 4 kids about Molly and Jessie`s age, a young girl with a new baby, a mother and father, and a grandmother who was making tortillas over an open fire. They lived on mangoes, bananas, and had chickens for eggs. They seemed very happy out there.
We are leaving at high tide tomorrow (Thursday) morning, and won`t stop until we get to Costa Rica, about 250 miles down the coast. We are healthy and happy, and are hoping for more wind. We tried to download some new pictures, but it just wouldn´t happen - we`ll try again in Costa Rica. Jeanna