El Salvador, pictures

El Salvador pictures

Click on the above link to see the pictures.

Mom and I spent the first week of my leave in El Salvador. It was great. The weather was hot, 35 degrees C during the day and around 18 or 20 at night.

Well I had to laugh when no sooner had we arrived in the airport do I heard my name being called. Anne that I golf with was in the airport waiting to take our plane home. So we chatted a bit and then I hear another “hello Sarah” and Kenny that trained me a Quaker was also there. Small world. Got to love when you can randomly run into people you know in foreign countries.

We stayed at the only all inclusive resort in El Salvador. It was 650 rooms and spans a huge area. The people were lovely and they must have had at least four staff to each guest. From the airport it was a two hour drive and our flight was delayed two hours going so we got in a midnight and then had a police escort to the resort. Nothing like letting the locals know the tourists are here. The lights were flashing all the way, enough to give you a seizure, safely first. On each excursion there are police that travel with the group. Basically for traffic control, when you are crossing the street they stop all traffic and let the tourists by.

I had a hot stone massage with their volcanic stones on the beach one day, lovely.

The hotel was hosting a conference and was over booked for a night. They were looking for 10 rooms. Mom and I gave up our room for the night and were given a tour of the capital and a night at the five star Radisson hotel in return. It was great. A cool tour of the town, saw some churches, Arch Bishop Romero’s monument, the Botanical Garden’s, got a history lesson, had lunch in the crater of the volcano and saw a museum. It was a nice little side trip. Our meals alone at this place cost a $180 US for the day, at their expense.

Oh the tremor. While we were at the Radisson we were about a kilometer from a volcano and there was a tremor in the middle of the night. It lasted for about 15 seconds and the room was a rocking. No it wasn’t the people next door it was more of a vertical displacement. About ½ of the people in our group felt it.

We went to a local church for mass on Sunday. It was two hours long, in Spanish and an hour sermon, an experience to say the least. We took a cab there and it was interesting. We went with an older couple from Winnipeg. We had to fill out papers to leave the resort and walk out to the main gate and wait for the cab as outsiders are not allowed in. The cabbie was great, spoke English and took us on a tour of the little town and the port.

Got lots of sun had a great time with my mom and I was saying my accommodation will only go down from here.