Celebrating Light and Kindness
Part two of El Salvador: Bar Crossing, Celebrating Light and the 69th Cistern
Each time we enter a new country by boat, we are required to file our entry and exit through Immigration, Customs and, in some cases, the Port Captain. This can be a time-consuming process that often requires inland travel and up to four hours of answering questions, presenting documentation, filling out forms and watching authorities aggressively test the durability of their ink stamps.
Consequently, when we planned our 500-mile route from Mexico to Costa Rica, we decided to offshore travel past Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, with our only stop being El Salvador. We chose to make a stop in El Salvador for two reasons. One, it is nearly an exact mid point between the southern border of Mexico and the northern border of Costa Rica. Secondly, we were told by many cruisers whom we had met along our way that "Bill and Jean" make an El Salvador stop at Bahia del Sol smooth and enjoyable.
As sailors themselves, Bill and Jean sailed S/V Mitä for 13 years, traveling the coastline from Mexico to Columbia while logging three trips to Hawaii and back. With plans to retire and live aboard in Hawaii, they discovered that Hawaii was less accommodating, so they pursued their second choice - Isla Cordoncillo, El Salvador, where they dropped permanent anchor in 2009. Bill and Jean eventually bought a piece of property on Isla Cordoncillo and moved from their boat to a home on the island.
Bill was our first contact in El Salvador, as he assisted the pilot boat that guided us over the sand bar and into the estuary. We arrived a day too late to partake in Bill and Jean's annual Christmas dinner, but were invited to dine on Christmas dinner leftovers, which Bill claimed would be even better than they were the day before.
At dinner, we quickly learned that Bill and Jean were anything but retired! Since arriving 13 years ago, they have clearly planted one foot on shore and one in the water. Bill and Jean still own Mitä and are incredibly generous and helpful to cruisers but, more importantly, they have fully embraced the residents of the Isla Cordoncillo community.
Isla Cordoncillo, which is two miles long and 200 meters wide, lies within the Bahia del Sol estuary. Isla Cordoncillo is home to 270 people, 160 of whom are young children. Bill and Jean, originally from Michigan, and a woman from Ontario, Canada are the only non-El Salvadorans on the island.
Many of the men on the island are primarily artisan fishermen who fish to feed their families and sell any extra for income. The island is completely without services such as clean water distribution, sewage management, garbage disposal and health care.
Recognizing that clean water is one of the most basic needs for all humans, and discovering that the water on the island was not safe to drink due to the lack of proper sewage disposal, salt water intrusion and other pollution sources, Bill and Jean launched the Just Water initiative in 2013. The initial goal of the Just Water project was to provide safe drinking water by building 500-gallon concrete and steel rain water catchment cisterns and providing ceramic water filters. Just Water donations have also been used for mosquito abatement, ECO stoves and a variety of quality-of-life improvements for the residents, ranging from minor infrastructure projects to health care.
During our day-after-Christmas dinner, Jean also mentioned that there was a church on the island that would be holding a special, "Celebrate the Light” service, scheduled for the next day. This sparked a memory. The church my family belonged to when I was growing up held a "Candlelight Service" every Christmas Eve. Near the end of the service, individual candles were distributed to the entire congregation. As flames were passed from one person to another, the overhead lights were extinguished and within minutes the entire church glowed in candlelight. The congregation would then stand and sing, "Silent Night." As a child, this was always a great moment for me; it meant that the service was coming to a close and that Santa Claus was already in flight somewhere.
As it turned out, the Isla Cordoncillo church was not celebrating Christmas or any other biblical moment or metaphor. Rather, the two-hour church service, filled with music and oration, while adhering to the expected service protocol in which women sit on one side of the church and men on the other, was to celebrate the arrival of electricity to the island. Three days earlier, the power had been switched on and the recently installed street lights, which required the removal of eight coconut trees, came to life. Isla Cordoncillo now has street lights, although technically they are shore lights, as there are no streets.
Following the church service, Jean provided a tour of the island. We passed the elementary school, a small store, residents' homes and many of the 68 cisterns Just Water has provided for drinking water. Jean mentioned that a new family had recently requested a cistern, and we felt fortunate for the opportunity to donate the cost of materials for the 69th cistern on behalf of the Traveler crew.
On 12/28, we met with Bill and Jean one last time to schedule our pilot boat departure, which was to take place the next morning at high tide. During our final visit, locals stopped by to pick up electronic devices that were being charged among a nest of charging cords that spread across the kitchen counter - another service Bill and Jean had been providing through the use of solar panels. Jose, a tenth grade student who has become the water taxi driver of Bill and Jean’s panga for visiting cruisers, stopped by to see when we may next need his assistance.
And we didn't leave empty handed. Having heard about artesian women who create beaded and woven artwork on the next island over, Jean pulled out items for us to see and shop. Jean offers to sell artwork to interested cruisers in order to help local women of all ages establish a business and source of revenue. Jean explained that this is also helping to soften the patriarchal attitude against women earning income.
As we walked to the door, Bill and Jean mentioned their current challenge - to find an "offroad" wheelchair that can be pushed through sand by a mother who must carry her 7 year-old child due to complications of the Zika virus.
On the morning of 12/29 we were led by Bill and another pilot as we made our way out of the estuary and across the sandbar in clam seas. Bill wished us well over the radio and waved goodbye as his boat curled back toward the estuary and on toward Isla Cordoncillo, where Jean and he would likely be enjoying another day of "retirement."
There are good people in this world.
This is so cool! Another place on my bucket list!