Year: 2010

Bienvenido a El Salvador.  This trip took our friends by suprise.

El Salvador won’t be found on the well worn American tourist path.   We would doubtless have never gone there without having made the acquaintance of Lawrence R., whom we met on the GRABAAWR bicycle tour of 2007.  Lawrence and wife Cathy have lived in country for over five years, speak fluent Spanish, and work at the American Embassy.  Without them, and with very little Spanish between us, we doubtless would have been lost.  They have since been reassigned to D.C., so we knew we had to take this opportunity before it was lost.

Those two kept us tourists busy and happy. We toured sites in and around San Salvador for several days, then lit out for the family beach house on the Pacific for some quality beach time.  The weather was hot and dry – we were just coming to the end of the dry season – and was just perfect for Midwesterners in need of a break from a long winter.

Lawrence found two extra mountain bike for Eileen and Tim. We pedaled back dirt roads through small hamlets and sugar cane fields and thus got an early jump on the cycling season.

(Click thumbnail for photos of Lawrence’s home)

Coffee processing plant tour:

(Click thumbnail to see tour pictures)

Coatepeque volcano

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Click the thumbnail below for photos from a visit to a small Mayan ruin

Click the thumbnail below for photos of our Ziplin tour.  (This was wild.)

Another volcano tour, this time – Boqueron !

The best part of the trip was hanging out on the Pacific Ocean at Lawrence and Cathy’s beach house.  The water was warm, really warm.  The riptides were stronger than Americans are used to on any USA beach, so we only went in at low tide.  We mountain biked out of this area.

(click to see pictures)

Day two at the beach house

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On our last day, we shopped around, visited some tourista places, a modern mall, and finally a fruit and vegetable market

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