SV/SOMF

After the volcano we went up farther in the mountains to a little hotel in the middle of trees and of any beaten path. It was awesome to feel the crisp cool (amost cold) air, we all even put on long sleeve and I even put on my longer capri pants to go to dinner. We all had dinner down in the hotel dinning room, it was just our group in there, I think we kind of overwhelmed the wait staff. The food was not bad, they did not have any shrimp, most of us had beef or chicken and that was pretty good. But like the rest of the trip we all had a great time chatting, then went up to our rooms and had a great night sleep.

The next morning after having breakfast at the hotel we got back in the van, but this time it was Ceser who was going to be our tour guide, and went up to the El Carmen Estate where there was a coffe plant. This is a forth generation family owned buisness, and I can't even to decribe how awesome it was.

After the coffee Jerry, myself, Tom and Carlyn went on the canapy zip lines, while the rest went and toured a small village. There were 14 different zips, some of which were short and some of which were very long. I have to say that it was one of the funnest things I have ever done.

After the exciting zip lines, Ceser and the rest of the group picked us up and we went and toured around Sonsonate.

map of El Salvador

our route is highlighted in yellow

Jerry, myself, Cheri (Jerry's sister) and Dar, who came down from Colorado, SV Whiteshell II, and SV Sunny Side Up, took a two day tour up through the mountains with our tour Guide Jorge. We left around 7am on Wednesday and started going through San Salvador which is the Capital of El Salvador to a town called Colon where we had great Papusas, which is the country's local meal. We got to see how they were made, by making a rice dough and then stuffing it with cheese, meats, veggies almost anything, then "slapping" them onto a hot hot griddle to cook both sides. We had the two favorites, the chicken and the veggie, the veggie was the best it was filled with cheese and spinach, along with a cup of coffee, some fresh squeezed oj and a chocolate drink that tasted like straight baking cocoa.

making the papusas

ya gotta know how to "slap" it

There were eight of us, so I think we bombarded the wait staff

Jerry, Lou and Clause from SV Whiteshell

After breakfast we head up to Joya de Ceren in La Libertad, El Salvador to go check out the ruins, but on our way we got delayed due to President Obama being in El Salvador.

There was an parade of black SUV's, not sure if Obama was in any of them, but I think he was!

Joya de Ceren in La Libertad is an archaeological site of the pre- columbian Maya farming village preserved under layers of volcanic ash. The story goes the community was as early as 900BC, and Ceren evacuated in 250 AD due to the eruption of Llopango volcano, and was repopulated no earlier than the year 400 and was a tributary to nearby San Andres. Around the year 590 Loma Caleral, another nearby volcano erupted and buried the village under 14 layers of ash, the thought is where did the people go, no bodies have been found. They left behind utensils, ceramics, furniture. The site was discovered in 1976 by Payson Sheets a professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. They have stopped the excavation of more sites, due to having issues with trying to preserve the sites, so the clay buildings do not get to dry and crumble.

Coco

El Salvador National Bird

After the ruins we went farther up into the mountains to the Cerro volcano, we did not get to walk up the volcano due to not having enough time to get all the activities in the two days, but we did get to to do the nature walk around the base of the volcano. There are at least 12 major volcanos in El Salvador.