The Golfo de Fonseca borders El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. In 1992 the International Court of Justice resolved a land dispute between the three countries and drew new boundaries.
Our first stop was Punta Amapala because it's an easy day sail from Barillas. We anchored for the night in the calm bay. On the way there we put out our fishing poles and caught two fish we did not recognize. The first one I caught and it looked a little small. After Tom threw the second one back, he spoke with Don on Passion (our buddy boat for Barillas) and found out they are Sierra Mackerel or King Mackerel - and damn good eating! Oops! When we caught a much larger third one we were sure to fillet it and its taste lived up to what Don had said.
On New Year's Eve Day we sailed from Punta Amapala to Isla Meanguera (El Salvador). We initially anchored off the town, but there was no dinghy landing. A young man approached as we were pulling up the dinghy on the beach and said that there was a better anchorage just south, with a nice hotel where you can land the dinks.
We hopped back in the dinghy, pulled anchor and went around the corner to the scenic anchorage. We went to the hotel for a drink and met Richard, the owner, who greeted us warmly and provided local knowledge. That night they had the most amazing fireworks show - just above the little cove where we were anchored. We went to bed after the show - about 10 pm.
The next day we walked to into town and over to the pier. Tom wasn't feeling very well for the past few days, and we assumed he got a touch of Montezuma's Revenge. We had an amazing dinner at Bahia de Hotel de la Joya - I had the stuffed lobster and Tom had a steak. It was just the two of us on the ramada overlooking the bay. We couldn't remember the last nice, romantic dinner we had but decided it had been in San Diego before we'd left. It was magical.