El Salvador

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America and has the third largest economy, but growth has been minimal in the last few years. Over 6.9 million live in El Salvador and almost 1\3 rd of the population is younger than 15. Many of the people appear European due to the brutal repression of indigenous people many years ago and the lack of Afro-Caribbean influence. Despite their past and the wars, most travelers find Salvadorans are the best part of their visit. They are hard working and very proud of their country’s parks, volcanoes and beaches. El Salvador’s currency is in US dollars. El Salvador’s national food is the fresh pupusas. They are made of masa balls filled with beans, cheese, chicken, pork, or fish then carefully shaped into a tortilla and grilled then served with tomato sauce and cabbage. They were great and only cost about .30 cents each.

We stayed at Barillas Marina in a protected lagoon. Approaching the entrance we had to call ahead to let the Marina know that we were coming, because they have to send out a pilot to guide your boat safely through the 10 mile long channel. We took the marinas bus into San Salvador to go to the market and to a grocery store. The market was overwhelming at first very 3rd world, a little dirty and very crowded. The people were all very nice and appreciated our business. The grocery store was nicely equipped but inside they had 5ft speakers playing real loud music down every other isle.

The next day we had a guard walk us to these locals house that the man has about 50 monkeys living in the trees on his property. He calls out the friendly monkeys names and they come down to meet you, for a piece of banana of course. They were so cute. Most of the cruisers come to visit the monkeys and bring the family food or some clothing because they live so far away from town. It was a real nice experience.

At the marina we net up with two cruisers that we met before in Panama and were heading north also. In this part of Central America when heading north to Mexico we have to watch out for the Tehuantepec winds. People have to wait for a good weather window to pass the Tehuantepec. We now have a good window for the next week or so so we will be leaving for Mexico April 2nd 2009.