2013 Review 7a

The trip to the volcano was breath taking, with vistas from the restaurant of the entire city of San Salvador! Almost to the top was a new restaurant called Le Pampa. The food was exquisite both in looks and taste. Carlos had a discount coupon from the news paper so we could afford to eat there.

 

 

 

 

 

 We preferred to eat on the deck and enjoy the gorgeous view!!!

 But the interior is quite elegant as well.

 This little soup was scrumptious!! Would have love more than the little cup, but the rest of the meal more than filled us up!

 

 We could see the San Salvador Temple for the deck!!! How special!!!

 This volcano is HUGE!!!

 It is a national park with rangers who keep up the walks and plants.

 Flowers in February what a treat!!!

 

 

 

 There were several paths which could be taken. Not sure if any are better or easier, just a different view.

 Good thing my knees held up!!

 

 What a STEEP hole!!!! Don't know how people get to the bottom, but there are trails on the bottom.

 There are the trails. Maybe a helicopter lands down there....

 Wouldn't want to fall down there..

 There is a walk path which circumferences the entire rim of the crater. We didn't do that.

 I did not know that there were so many varieties of Poinsettias.

 

 Dr. Seuss would have loved these!!

 It was a slow trip down.

Many of the signs were in both Spanish and English.

The public buses are old school buses from the US.

Whenever we went shopping in a large complex, there was a guard to watch over the cars

It was warm enough in February, what must it be like to stand out in the heat in the Summer all uniformed up like that...
San  Salvador is a great mix of modern style buildings and traditional building styles.

 

 

 US fast food is everywhere in El Salvador too!

 Even between the US Embassy and the El Salvador Embassy

 The US Dollar is the money system in El Salvador, but they are paid on a much lower standard than we are in the US. We complain about paying $4.09, but to them it is more like $25.00 to them. Yet they drove us all around and would not take a penny for gas. We could learn from them to be more giving.

While we were shopping at a mall one day, a young man offered to wash and polish Carlos' car while we shopped. When we got back, the scratch in the bumper was hardly noticeable!

Walmart in Central America is sometimes called Maxi-Despensia, because the people don't like large US corporate companies undermining their small Mom and Pop market profits.

 A cell phone tower inside the mall!!!! How do you say high energy radiation effects!!! And we worry about the effect of the phone near our heads....

 Just like home with so many registers!!!

This was the bank...and we complain about the length of wait in a line.... At least there are chairs at the end for those who have been waiting the longest.

 I made dinner for Karla one day while she was at work, spiced carrots, mashed potatoes, and chicken. She was so thrilled! Better than Wendy's delivery, hehe!!

Before going onward in our journey, we took one more trip to La Pampa with everyone this time.

  The city was even more beautiful all light up!
Can you see the temple all lighted up near the trees?