EL Salvador

We enjoyed our trip to El Salvador. We had great tour guides, our friend Laura Molina-Zedan and her awesome family! They are from San Salvador and Laura's son, Victor, was in my class this past year...as well as two years ago when he was in pre-K. I had told Victor all year that I was going to come visit him, and I think he was quite surprised when I actually showed up! Victor is the kiddo in the middle of the photo wearing the Hollister t-shirt. We had the best hosts ever! It was very interesting to hear the history of the 80's during the Civil War from the point of view of someone who experienced it first hand! The entire experience was incredible!

Each day we went to a new location. We spent the first day in San Salvador and we climbed the volcano in the city the second day (in a car :) and the third day we went to Suchitoto, a great artsy town with a great big lake. Excellent views from La Posada Restaurant. Above we are in the main square of Suchitoto. There were many cute shops around the square and a nice church. We ate delicious coconut ice cream while we were there....a great treat as it was the first really warm day we had experienced in El Salvador.






I think my favorite town that we went to was called Ataco. It had a very small paragraph in the Rough Guide and I think it deserved much more! While Suchitoto was neat and interesting, Ataco was hopping and really full of life and amazing art! As seen in the photo, the town was covered in these beautiful murals. I was standing next to the artist while I was looking at the mural on this building and I said, "I wonder who painted this, it is beautiful!" and she said, " I am the painter". She had many large colorful paintings and sculptures for sale, but alas, a 3x5 painting or a 30 pound sculpture is not very fun to backpack with! I will just have to live with the memory!

Lastly, we went to Costa del Sol. We had gone out the dinner in the coastal area of La Libertad a few days prior....with the perfect weather. Laura's family has a beach house in the Costa del Sol area. We had the pleasure of spending the evening there. Lying on the beach, swimming in the warmest Pacific Ocean water I have experienced to date and just relaxing was what the doctor ordered...especially since we were going to spend the next 3 days traveling on bus and/or plane. This is the dress I bought when I was there! So many stories, but my head just isn't in it to type it all.

We are home now and we are already planning our next trip. Where to go? I am really missing SE Asia as I just looked at my friend, Krista's pics. Perhaps back to Thailand to visit the western beaches (which I did not see the first time) and Vietnam (my dream for almost 30 years!) Thanks for reading. Back to the classroom in under a week! Summer is almost over :(