April 28, 2010. Marina Papagayo, Costa Rica. About noon. A small thunderstorm began grumbling to the NE and made its way over the E side of Bahia Culebra. Marina Papagayo is located on the W side of Bahia Culebra so nothing much was happening over our way but in an abundance of caution we unplugged…
…and I mean that literally. GB and I have often discussed that we are sailing long distances on what is now an 8 year old boat, and we have lived aboard continuously for over 7 years. Meaning, all The Fox's systems have been put to continuous long term use in a marine environment, so it…
It's not difficult or expensive to travel by public transportation around Nicaragua, just logistically demanding. It happens that there is no single bus taking a direct route inland from Chinandega (the town nearest to Marina Puesta del Sol on the NW coast where we stopped in April) to León or Granada, two popular tourist destinations.…
One reason for visiting Marina Puesta del Sol in Nicaragua is that it's a secure place to keep your boat while traveling inland for a bit of turismo. Nicaragua's about the size of New York state, so travel from the coast to the big city takes only a few hours, even via public transportation. We…
17.-18. April 2010 Said goodbye to an excellent shell beach at Puesta del Sol, Nicaragua. Hoped for a dawn departure on 17.April but port & immigration officials did not arrive from Corinto to clear us out of Nicaragua until 1130, coincidentally at low tide. Day was hot & windless, left after lunch, no problems exiting…
April 1, 2010. April Fool's day. We had a spot of bother while traveling SE along the El Salvador coast toward the Gulf of Fonseca, attempting to raise the mail sail. User error. Details are unimportant. However, if any of you dear readers are ever performing some task on a boat and you encounter an…
It was time to say farewell to El Salvador. What better day than April 1, for cruising fools like us? On Marina Barillas manager Heriberto Pineda's advice, we planned our departure for an outgoing tide, intending to reach the estuary's entrance and long sand bar about midway between high and low tide. It was fine…
During our whirlwind road trip around El Salvador in March, we saw lots of cool things. Things like volcanoes, Mayan ruins…and fresh pupusas like these, made with your choice of either corn or rice flour (my advice: try both). The best deal we found for pupusas was at one roadside stand we stopped at for…
We visited 5 sites of Mayan ruins while touring El Salvador, all of which were located in the central to northwest half of the country. We started with Cihuatan, the most extensive site with an estimated 25,000+ inhabitants; some believe it was the largest prehispanic Mayan city between Guatemala and Peru. It is the first…
[By the time you see this post, Dear Reader, The Fox will have left Marina Barillas on April 1 and will have (hopefully) visited anchorages in the El Salvador portion of the Gulf of Fonseca, then moved on to explore a bit of Nicaragua. However, for the past 2 months as we've traveled ever-southward, we've…