Las Barillas Marina Club
Jiquilisco, El Salvador
(last up-dated March 28, 2004)
Email Heriberto Pineda at HPINEDA@BARILLASMARINA.COM
Gerente de Operaciones
Mailing Address:
79 Av. Norte y 9A, Calle Pte. #4050, Colomia Escalon
San Salvador, El Salvador, Centro America
DO NOT MISS THIS PLACE IF YOU ARE ANYWHERE NEARBY!!!! GO SEE THEIR WEB SITE. TRULY MAGICAL!
I will write more later. Just trying to up-date the web site. Look for more information in a couple of weeks!
The trip here was harrowing during March. Not unusual during the Spring Equinox, but because of the Tehuantepec and the Papagallo winds, no one talks about it in the books! Plus, this place opened February 2000, so it is not properly annotated in all books.
YOU MUST arrive at the specified high slack tide to make it up the river the 9 miles. If you arrive at any other time, the panga that is to come and direct you through the breakers, reefs and shoals and up the 9 miles, will make you wait. They will not risk your boat, and during times of high winds and seas, they will not risk theirs. PROPERLY estimate this. There is also a problem with Bahia del Sol. Word has it that those that traveled from Huatulco right after us put in at Bahia del Sol, 30 miles north of here, and got swamped and had to undergo the same enormous winds as did we. And, that entrance is apparently more hazardous than Barillas entrance. Anyway, make sure you see this place.
President Flores: the president of El Salvador, a young, 43-year-old who is only in office until May 31, 2004, and whose party just elected his hand-picked successor, Mr. Saca, spends his weekends here. My children got to meet him and have their picture taken with him. This is a small place but large for yachts! It is a private club and is about 40 hectares. They do not have local grocery stores and if you need provisions, included in your mooring is the two trips per week into the nearest town that has everything you can possibly want, including filters, oil, belts, etc. They serve 3 meals per day, and they have a total of 4 bungalows with air conditioning that you can rent. They have messages on the weekends available, Mayan ruin trips, walking trips to see the wild monkeys that you can feed, and a great number of native plants. Heriberto loves to teach you all about the fact that cashews are a fruit, and the trees are cocoa and many other native vegetables. It is peaceful, breezy, and the service is the best we have seen in our 6 months. The staff are unbelievable and happy. Most speak English. The pools are fabulous also. The internet cafe is both inside and outside and you can use theirs (very slow due to low memory, but they are going to fix that), or your own laptops in an air conditioned room, or outside under a palapa! They have thought of everything!
The entrance. Note Panga guiding us in front, very small!
Again, the entrance. Note the location of the Volcano when coming in. Can't do
it without a guide. See the panga?!
The radar showing the way point we had to meet the panga at around dusk, as we
were running out of fuel, and the circuitous route that the panga took us on to
avoid the shoals, breakers, etc. However, as is usual with Central American
maps, we landed on land as we entered the chart.......! But then we went to
radar as night fell and we went up the 9 miles to the end of the river and
Barillas Marina Club!
President Flores and Kelvin and Meagan, at dinner at Barillas Marina Club
Airstrip and small boat storage bins
The baby is 3 weeks old!
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