Jiquilisco Bay, El Salvador
We left Acajutla port last night after dinner heading towards our second destination in El Salvador. The Bay of Jiquilisco, moving to the southeastern part of the country, has a rich ecosystem including mangrove forests, estuaries, and sandy beaches. As we anchored just inside the San Juan del Gozo Peninsula, a small dugout canoe came to greet us. We were faced with a lot of options: to walk through the small fishing village of Pirrala or Cacerio with their fishing dugouts or “cayucos” beached in front of their homes, or to kayak down a mangrove-covered canal, or to take a Zodiac cruise through the fragile mangrove habitat. Those of us who visited the village were delighted to interact with the inhabitants, for some of them a digital camera was a novelty, and were mesmerized at their own instant image.
Riding through the mangroves we wondered at the intricate root system. Mangroves are a group of unrelated woody plants that grow on protected tropical coasts. They occur in habitats that in temperate regions would be occupied by salt marshes. The word “mangrove” is not a precise taxonomic classification; generally, any tree that grows directly from a subtidal or intertidal substrate may be termed a mangrove. In Central America one commonly may find 6 species of mangroves: Red mangroves, ti mangrove, white mangroves, two species of black mangroves, and the buttonwood mangrove. Within this kind of environment one can find some very interesting species of bird life such as the spotted sandpiper, ringed kingfisher, green backed heron, and some species of terns.
Later during the morning we repositioned the ship and headed towards “the never-ending-beach” where we had a chance to practice amateur kayaking, swimming, or simply walking on the long white-sandy beach. Tired, sun bathed—or burned—we returned to the Sea Voyager to face the long “voyage” towards our next Central American country: Nicaragua.
