The Simple Life in El Salvador

Trinity and Daddy lived in an isolated Rancho by the ocean for a couple of months until it became apparent that they really needed to move on.  

Douglas found a new place to move into in July right on the ocean where all the little bohemian beach villages are located.  The social networks are all you have in these little villages - so we enjoyed meeting travellers from all around the globe - in particular some really nice guys from Israel and a fiesty Swede.  It's a very cute little place where everybody knows every one in town.  There are cobble stones  - where you have to be careful not to break your ankle while walking and a main "pedestrian street" covered in sand where all the surfers walk with bare feet down to the ocean waves.  The ten foot cable was apparently stolen not once, but twice, and thus we had no cell or internet service for a good part of a month.  I will have to remember to pack a cable in November.

Our little Casa/Rancho is very cute, but has some challenges in the "kitchen" area, namely that it is an open area where insects and animals can forage.

We love the pool!!!!!!  Avalon has become a Mermaid!

The view of the coconut tree from our living room. There are deers, turtles that Tequila loves to dig his paws into, geckos and parrots and a little baby possum that forages in the garbage every night!

The salon looks great - I brought up suitcases filled with products to sell in the salon.  Some images of the Salon:

Some images from the village Playa El Tunco:

The tides were very high, so unfortunately, there were only a couple of days that the girls were able to swim in the ocean.

Goofy Kissface!

We went to a very interesting little colonial town in Northern El Salvador - Ataco.  A bit dicey with the directions, but three hours later up in the cloudy mountainous region, we finally found it.  It was worth the drive:

My sister asked me why he was crying - I think because the milk gives him the runs and the butter tastes like crap - sorry El Salvador I just had to get that out of my system!

Unfortunately, we were traveling in the dark on the way home and had a flat tire.  It was a bit scary - we limped along the dark highway on the rims looking for help - there isn't exactly the CAA that we could call for help.  As we were arranging through our cell phone for a taxi to find us and bring us back home (we were about 2 hrs from home at that point), we happened to come upon the Policia.  As we pulled over to them on the curb, they then took off.  Douglas flashed his lights and honked his horn to no avail.  We limped back onto the highway again and pulled over to the curb when we came upon the Policia again.  Apparently they were chasing down some gang members when we had pulled over.  They dealt with their situation, told us it was a very dangerous area where gang members can form lines to stop traffic and pull innocent victims over.  So after that reassurance, we paid them to change our tire to the donut, as Douglas has only ever done that once, and then off we went back on the highway. We made it back home late that night in one piece.  Of course it was all my fault because I "love to gallavant around" - well true.  So, the next daytrip will be better planned and we will find a hotel to stay in overnight!

We ventured to the Muelle - fish market down by the pier of La Libertad.  The "major" town about 6 minutes down the road is stuck in a 1960's time warp, dirty and run down, but quite interesting.  We especially loved the filleting of the sting rays by the ocean.

The girls and I just made it back in Canada to the balmy temperatures of 10 degrees!  Just in time to run around getting their uniforms and "back to school" paraphernalia in order.  Trinity was with her Daddy for over three months and was ready to come back to Canada. Unfortunately, besides swimming, surfing, and watching movies on TV(no cable), there wasn't much else to do.  She was always wanting to go to the malls of San Salvador - but this became an expensive past time. Avalon was there for the month of August and thoroughly enjoyed all the swimming - we had to beg her to get out of the pool in order to go to the mall or grocery store.

I am now counting the days until November 31st, when we will be back with Douglas in El Tunco.