Newsletter May 2002

"Trials and Tribulations of our Cruising Life "

I’m sitting here, anchored at Bahia del Sol, in El Salvador, and contemplating life. I am a very shallow person and don’t usually think about things that might give me a headache. As we all reach that certain age and begin to start enjoying life, some of us worry about the sort of a set back which could ruin all our dreams of retirement. I just about had that type of setback last week. It seems I was coming down with a cold and it settled in my chest. Jutta, being worried about me, encouraged me to go the clinic down the road.
I acquiesced, while coughing my head off, and headed off to the clinic early the next morning. Naturally, it was crowded and I patiently waited my turn in the hot stifling clinic, while my chest seemed to close down. Finally, my name was called and I went through the usual blood pressure, weight, temperature, heart check and the doctor listened to my chest and back with a hot stethoscope. Nothing is cold in this part of the world!!! The doctor asked me many questions, translated by Jutta, and he formed a diagnosis. I did not understand the medical words he used because they were not in my usual Splanguish. I did understand enough to know I was not going to die. He gave me three prescriptions, which were filled at the clinic. The total cost for all three prescriptions and the check up was $1.15. Yes, you didn’t read it wrong, that is one dollar and fifteen cents. I should have felt guilty, considering El Salvador is such a poor country, until I saw a plaque on the wall saying this clinic was funded by the Dukedom of Luxemberg. I’m sure they are rich enough to contribute to my medical bills, me being retired. Unfortunately, the doctor was very young and good looking and Jutta salivated all over herself before we could vacate the clinic. She was a pathetic sight. I guess, all women think about is sex!! Thank god I am not like that. What I am getting at, since I am faced with all these exorbitant medical bills, could each one of you send as much money as possible to the “Help Ferdy Cruising Fund”? You will receive a authentic Ferdy Cruising Doll and a income tax certificate to use me as a dependent. Remember, the more you send, the longer Ferdy will stay away.
We are at latitude 13, which puts us about 780 miles from the Equator. The rainy season is starting which the Salvadorians call their winter. April is their hottest month. Let me tell you, it is not sweater weather down here Jutta and I have spent the last two weeks in El Salvador and had a ball. Last year, I told Jutta I was 10 years too late for Mexico, a country which has really progressed. We are right on time for Guatemala and El Salvador. It is really exciting to experience the true flavor of these countries without tourists everywhere you look. The people are friendly and very inquisitive, the villages are unchanged by progress, the food is shitty and there is litter everywhere you look.
In Mexico there are tacos, in El Salvador they have a thing called pupusas. It is a very, very, thick corn tortilla fried on a griddle, slit in the middle, and they stuff it with beans, or cheese, or beans and cheese. We have eaten them at the open markets, in open pupusa stands, restaurants, and in Pupuserias. They really suck out loud. If I decide to go back to work, I’m opening a taco stand in El Salvador. I am also selling stock in “Ferdy’s Tacos” (IPO), it could be your pot of gold. The food here in El Salvador is black beans, rice, chicken, and corn tortillas or pupusas. I’m really glad Jutta and I love to cook or we would starve to death.
We traveled to San Salvador, the Capital city, several times. San Salvador, like other big cities, has many diverse areas. In the Zona Rosa you would think you were in the United States. There is every restaurant or hotel chain you can think of. The Metro Centro is the largest shopping mall I have ever visited in my life. Designer clothing and American prices are the norm. Downtown or Central is old El Salvador with its sprawling open market and lots of very poor Salvadorians. Jutta and I spent lots of time there shopping and really getting the flavor of El Salvador.
For side trips, we took a chicken bus to several cities in El Salvador. We went to Suchitoto, a quaint colonial town located on a picturesque large reservoir. The people are very friendly and we spent a memorable evening in one of the sidewalk cafes across from the park. The next afternoon we traveled to La Palma in the pine covered mountains, 12 kilometers from the Honduran boarder, where it was nice and cool for a change. El Salvador’s renowned artist Fernando Lllort lived here and taught the people how to duplicate his art (similar to Grandma Moses paintings). The whole town is busy painting all kinds of trinkets. Its nice to find the origin of some of the junk found in Tijuana. Jutta doesn’t agree with me but it’s my newsletter!!
The attack of the Killer Bees
Friday morning, Jutta and I got up and were having a nice of cup of coffee and planning the day. For the past few days, we noticed an odd number of bees buzzing around our cabin. This particular morning, the number had increased and we were getting slightly concerned. Jutta went out on deck, looked up to the top of the mast and noticed a large black ball hanging there. We couldn’t remember anything large and black on top of the mast. Last time we looked, our mast light didn’t seem that color nor that size. But then, we tend to forget a lot of minor details! Then we remembered that we owned a pair of binoculars and thought that a closer look was in order. To our horror, a look through the binoculars revealed a crawling, buzzing mass of bees the size of a soccer ball. We couldn’t believe it! What were we going to do? Hoisting up to the mast to spray that mess was out of the question since there is no fast retreat on a bosun chair! We came up with the bright idea to hoist up a bucket loaded with smoking mosquito coils. We watched from the safe distance of the deck below – nothing happened – the bees probably just got a little stoned and decided to hang around for more. In our desperation, we called on our friend Murray on the S/V Tarazed, who had become a bee expert during his bee infestation in Ixtapa. We tied a can of Raid, roach spray, to one of the halyards (ropes leading to the top of the mast) and attached a trip line made of 80 lb. fishing line to the button on the can and raised it 50 feet to the top of the mast. We secured the line to the bow of the boat (front) and gave the line a good yank. As you can probably guess, all hell broke loose. Millions of bees began vacating the inside of the mast, started to swarm, and were looking for someone to kill. We left the boat like a bolt of lighting and went to shore. Every 40 to 60 minutes, I would row out to the boat in my kayak, grab the fishing line with my oar on the bow of the boat and give it another yank and hold it open for about a minute. I would then row back to the bar and have another beer. By 4 PM the bees were gone and so was I. The decks of Pipe Dream looked like the killing fields, full of dead bees. We lived, the bees are gone, no one was stung, and we now have another story for the adventures of Pipe Dream. We will be stuck here in Bahia del Sol for another week due to weather so I will sign off and send the newsletter.
From the Decks of Pipe Dream
Jutta and Ferdy