| Sunday, June 22, we returned back to our boat in El Salvador. We left Antigua at 5 a.m. and arrived back at Barillas Marina about 2:30 p.m., having used one van, two buses, and two taxis during the day. All in all, during our ten-day trip, we spent 30 hours riding on all types of buses. Unfortunately, we think we must have drank some bad water at the hotel we stayed at in Honduras as we ended up being sick for a couple of days upon returning. Later in the week, I visited a small school nearby (first through second grade). First, I taught them a little English, and then, they taught me some Spanish. Upon leaving the classroom, they all gave me a big hug. Most of June ended up being quite a rainy month. Often at night we would be hit by torrential downpours, complete with lightning and thunder, and at times with rain totals of five inches in just one hour. A few days after our return to the boat, it was as if Mother Nature decided to turn off the water switch. The weather seemed to change, and although we still have some rain at times, it has not been in the quantity as before. This pattern will definitely change, especially as we head further south, but we are enjoying the lull. One of the highlights of our stay here at Barillas has been the socializing and exchanging of ideas with other cruisers. When we arrived at Barillas there were 26 other cruising boats but only 8 were �active� with crew aboard. The rest were vacant as owners had returned home. Since then, those eight boats have left and headed south. In their place, cruisers from three previously vacant boats have returned, and one boat just came in from the south. So, we are presently back up to five �active� cruising boats. Quite often we�ll have a movie night at the club restaurant. On the 4th of July we all celebrated with a barbecue and some fireworks and invited the entire Barillas� staff to our party. What a fun day! As soon as our boat parts arrive, we will be heading south, hopefully by the end of this coming week. Our present plan is to cruise Costa Rica in July, cruise the Pacific side of Panama in August, transit the canal either the end of August or beginning of September, and then cruise the San Blas Islands on the Caribbean side of Panama before arriving in Cartagena, Columbia, the first part of October. Cartagena comes highly recommended by many cruisers as an excellent place to leave our boat upon our return to the states for the holidays. |